Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart form the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 1 Timothy 4:1-2
This is often a scripture used when someone is giving a sermon on prophecy and the end times. It is often used in a manner as a warning to somewhat shock or evoke a fearful wonder at what is going to happen. I myself have never really dwelt much on this scripture as this particular end time happening seemed long in coming. I was wrong. I was wrong in the fact that end time events don't just happen suddenly. They kind of sneak up on you or at least that's what it may seem like. In reality the preparations and stage settings for prophetic events begin years, decades, and even centuries earlier.
I believe this particular prophetic event is one of the absolute oldest in it's beginnings. The enemy, Satan , began the campaign of this scripture with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
In the garden of Eden, nothing was withheld from Adam and Eve save for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis chapter 3 recounts the event of the fall of man, with the deception of Eve. The serpent beguiled or seduced Eve into questioning God's command concerning the tree. He did this by using two tactics that the enemy still uses today. He questioned her in such a way as to cause doubt (or confusion ) about what God had said. Did God really say not to eat of that tree? Was that what God really meant? Eve, speaking the Word of God back to him said yes, that is what God said. It would be the Word of God, because it is what God said and commanded, just not in written form as His Word the Bible.
This is possibly the first instance of the Word being used against the enemy's deceptions. Another would be when Jesus spoke the Word back to him in the desert wilderness when Jesus was to be tempted. When Eve spoke the Word back to him, the next tactic he used was to slander God and put the seeds of doubt and mistrust in Eve's mind about God's intentions. He, the serpent, said to her out rite that God did not want them to eat of the tree because He, God, knew that if they did, they would be like Him and He didn't want them to become as He was. Basically the serpent told her that God wanted to keep them dumb so he could rule over them.
Satan has been using these two and other tactics to deceive and seduce people away from God. Many "Christians" and church denominations have fallen prey to his deceptions over the past decade. There are ministers who preach an adulterated and heretical gospel. Denominations that accept lifestyles that are blatantly contrary to God's word and His commandments. What is troubling are the individual people who have been drawn away from God by either these same type deceptions or have left because of the effects of these and other things the church and church people have messed up.
I have friend whom I have know since I was little. My friend's family were of a denomination different than mine. During our mid to late teens, my mother had an accident which prevented us from attending our church regularly. My friend invited me to come to his church for a while. The difference between our respective denominations was easy to see. I believe that God was using this as part of His plan and destiny for me. A whole new world was open to me. I had a new desire and hunger for God. I will say that where my denomination was hard lined, my friend's was open and where mine was open, his was a bit more hard lined.
To make a long story short, my friend had some hurtful experiences from some church people and from things in his home and personal life. These things I believe were the seeds of doubt and confusion being planted by the enemy. My friend entered a local collage and was then subject to the secular humanistic teachings and beliefs of his professors. These things watered the already planted seeds. Today my friend, the one who God used to lead me to a higher place in Him and start me on His path for me, no longer believes in God. He believes there is a higher power, but it is not the God that we understand created the universe and all that is in it. It would take too long to explain exactly what he believes, but that is the sum of it.
People leave the church or Christianity for many various reasons. I believe some, like my friend, mostly from hurts and lack of understanding. People will either be mad at God, not fully understanding that God did not cause what happened or that what they have seen is not how God truly is or they are not mad at God but dis-associate themselves with all things christian, which actually leads to their dis-association to God. Still, there are others who want to believe, but make God in the image that fits how they want to believe and live. Some ministers and denominations have chosen to accept, believe, and promote, ideas and lifestyles that the bible is against because of greed, fame, and the approval of men. All of these scenarios equate to having given heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
I want to encourage you. Read, study, pray, and seek God for yourself. Build a personal relationship with Him. The Word of God admonishes us to get understanding. Seek understanding and wisdom. By these you will be able to stand when things are hurtful and not be led into error by false teachings. I say this to strengthen those who may be in such a place or have been and as lifeline To The Dearly Departed.
In Christ,
Kevin
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Finding Christmas
I like like the song " Where Are You Christmas" from the movie "How The Grinch Stole Christmas". It's one of those songs that you like but at the same time makes you sad. When I first heard the song, which was when I first saw the movie, it seemed to fit how I had been feeling. I love Christmas and Christmas time, but over the years something seems to have happened and Christmas wasn't the same.
Christmas for me has always been wonderful. Everything about this time of year excited me. Doing Christmas crafts in school, Christmas decorations everywhere, Christmas movies and cartoons, the cold weather, church Christmas plays, Christmas music, the sites and sounds and smells of Christmas, and family get together'. All of these things and more were for me the magic of the season.
My family and my uncle and aunt on my mother's side, would always meet at my grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. My grandmother's house was unique. There was a fireplace in the kitchen where we liked to poke the burning wood with the poker and we even roasted marshmallows over the fire. In the kitchen was where we all would eat, even though it was kinda small. My cousins and I were of course resigned to the kiddie table. Out of the kitchen there was a short hallway that opened into a small bedroom and then through the bedroom was a large living room with several old couches and chairs. This is where we opened our presents.
After Christmas at my grandmothers, we would go home and for me, later on that night Santa Clause would come. It was always a little fun to sneak and look for my presents. It was fun because I knew when something was missing. Then there was that fateful Christmas when Santa Clause didn't come. His helpers thought I had gotten too old to get gifts from Santa Clause.
Some years later after my brother and sister had moved out of our house, my grandfather passed away and my grandmother was forced to move out of her house. After that, marriages and moving' and various passing' of other family members seemed to separate the family on both my mother and fathers side. We no longer met for Christmas as we used to.
Now, I still love Christmas, but it seemed to have lost some of that magic it used to have. It wasn't the same anymore, so when I heard the " Where Are You Christmas " song, I was deeply saddened. Over the years I did what I could to make Christmas wondrous again and after the birth of my children, I really wanted it to be something special to them as it was to me as a child. I love watching them experience Christmas. I began to realize that like the song, Christmas had not left me. It had grown and changed, but it was still Christmas.
This Christmas I have received two special gifts. One was that my family from my mother's side all came to visit at my parents house for Christmas with my grandmother. Some of the family wasn't able to be there, but I enjoyed getting to see them all after so long. The next gift I have gotten is an answer to the question about certain Christmas celebrations.
You see, for years now Christmas has not only been attacked from outside the church, but inside as well. Well meaning saints who believe we should shun all things that have any hint of pagan origin. Christmas trees, elves, and even Santa Clause himself. Some think that if we allow our children to believe in Santa Clause and they find out he isn't real then because they don't see Jesus physically they will believe he isn't real. I am not going to enter that debate ( though I could ). Like all things it is a heart issue and it is what you teach your children.
Proverbs 22:6 " Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
It's like this, have you ever had to untangle Christmas lights? When you first buy Christmas lights they aren't tangled up. They come in a nice package neatly wound or stranded on a piece of plastic or cardboard and you take them off and hang them. Then, after you take them down after Christmas, sometime in between that and taking them out to put hem up again the next Christmas, they somehow get into a tangled mess. Well, Christmas among other things have become like those tangled Christmas lights.
The manufacturer of the Christmas lights never intended for the lights to be tangled, and likewise God the creator of Christmas, never intended for the magic and miracle or meaning of Christmas to be twisted and tangled. Paganism, like any false religion is nothing more than a tangling or twisting of the truth. The enemy, Satan is a created being who's purpose and design was twisted by the sin of his heart. He, Satan, wants to be like God, but he cannot create like God, he can only tangle and twist what God has already created.
I believe that if you were to really search, you would find that most Christmas traditions and beliefs are rooted in pointing people to the miracle birth of Jesus Christ whom it is that we truly celebrate on Christmas. It was Gods love for his creation/His children/His family that Jesus was born and to be our savior. I believe that is why family being together especially at Christmas time means so much.
In most churches there is a table that usually a bible or communion set is placed on. On the front of the table is often inscribed the phrase " This Do In Remembrance of Me", meaning whenever you take communion do it in remembrance of the one who was the true flesh and blood sacrament. I believe that at Christmas, whatever we do, we do in remembrance of Him and in His celebration. The joy, the love, the excitement, the magic and wonder of Christmas will mean so much more and we won't have any trouble Finding Christmas.
In Christ,
Kevin
Christmas for me has always been wonderful. Everything about this time of year excited me. Doing Christmas crafts in school, Christmas decorations everywhere, Christmas movies and cartoons, the cold weather, church Christmas plays, Christmas music, the sites and sounds and smells of Christmas, and family get together'. All of these things and more were for me the magic of the season.
My family and my uncle and aunt on my mother's side, would always meet at my grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. My grandmother's house was unique. There was a fireplace in the kitchen where we liked to poke the burning wood with the poker and we even roasted marshmallows over the fire. In the kitchen was where we all would eat, even though it was kinda small. My cousins and I were of course resigned to the kiddie table. Out of the kitchen there was a short hallway that opened into a small bedroom and then through the bedroom was a large living room with several old couches and chairs. This is where we opened our presents.
After Christmas at my grandmothers, we would go home and for me, later on that night Santa Clause would come. It was always a little fun to sneak and look for my presents. It was fun because I knew when something was missing. Then there was that fateful Christmas when Santa Clause didn't come. His helpers thought I had gotten too old to get gifts from Santa Clause.
Some years later after my brother and sister had moved out of our house, my grandfather passed away and my grandmother was forced to move out of her house. After that, marriages and moving' and various passing' of other family members seemed to separate the family on both my mother and fathers side. We no longer met for Christmas as we used to.
Now, I still love Christmas, but it seemed to have lost some of that magic it used to have. It wasn't the same anymore, so when I heard the " Where Are You Christmas " song, I was deeply saddened. Over the years I did what I could to make Christmas wondrous again and after the birth of my children, I really wanted it to be something special to them as it was to me as a child. I love watching them experience Christmas. I began to realize that like the song, Christmas had not left me. It had grown and changed, but it was still Christmas.
This Christmas I have received two special gifts. One was that my family from my mother's side all came to visit at my parents house for Christmas with my grandmother. Some of the family wasn't able to be there, but I enjoyed getting to see them all after so long. The next gift I have gotten is an answer to the question about certain Christmas celebrations.
You see, for years now Christmas has not only been attacked from outside the church, but inside as well. Well meaning saints who believe we should shun all things that have any hint of pagan origin. Christmas trees, elves, and even Santa Clause himself. Some think that if we allow our children to believe in Santa Clause and they find out he isn't real then because they don't see Jesus physically they will believe he isn't real. I am not going to enter that debate ( though I could ). Like all things it is a heart issue and it is what you teach your children.
Proverbs 22:6 " Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
It's like this, have you ever had to untangle Christmas lights? When you first buy Christmas lights they aren't tangled up. They come in a nice package neatly wound or stranded on a piece of plastic or cardboard and you take them off and hang them. Then, after you take them down after Christmas, sometime in between that and taking them out to put hem up again the next Christmas, they somehow get into a tangled mess. Well, Christmas among other things have become like those tangled Christmas lights.
The manufacturer of the Christmas lights never intended for the lights to be tangled, and likewise God the creator of Christmas, never intended for the magic and miracle or meaning of Christmas to be twisted and tangled. Paganism, like any false religion is nothing more than a tangling or twisting of the truth. The enemy, Satan is a created being who's purpose and design was twisted by the sin of his heart. He, Satan, wants to be like God, but he cannot create like God, he can only tangle and twist what God has already created.
I believe that if you were to really search, you would find that most Christmas traditions and beliefs are rooted in pointing people to the miracle birth of Jesus Christ whom it is that we truly celebrate on Christmas. It was Gods love for his creation/His children/His family that Jesus was born and to be our savior. I believe that is why family being together especially at Christmas time means so much.
In most churches there is a table that usually a bible or communion set is placed on. On the front of the table is often inscribed the phrase " This Do In Remembrance of Me", meaning whenever you take communion do it in remembrance of the one who was the true flesh and blood sacrament. I believe that at Christmas, whatever we do, we do in remembrance of Him and in His celebration. The joy, the love, the excitement, the magic and wonder of Christmas will mean so much more and we won't have any trouble Finding Christmas.
In Christ,
Kevin
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