Woodbury Lutheran Church  

Devotion Archive

True Faith: Judgement #110
7th May 2010

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Good Morning Dear Ones,

In light of our study of MT 7: 1-19, we continue with examining the behavior of false prophets [teachers]. I've had some real first-hand experience with this and both times I almost gave in to it. The first thing they often do is 1) seek out emotionally needy people and surround them with affirmation and attention they did not get from healthier sources. In my own younger years, I grew up in an emotionally dysfunctional family. Everyone has emotional needs and especially the need of affirmation of one's personhood. In my family, no one had a balanced view of that. I grew up wondering if I was worth anything, so I always believed that others were more able and important than I ever was. At that time, I didn't know God, as I know Him now. Going through life without faith can be very painful indeed. But don't feel too sorry for me, because I believe now that God wanted me to have that experience, so that I could appreciate what I have now. PS 138: 3, "When I called, You answered me; You made me bold and stout-hearted." JON 2: 7, "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to Your holy temple." These things that happened to the Psalmist and to Jonah also happened to me. I wasn't in a shipwreck as Jonah was, but I may just as well have been in one for the effect God's call had on my life.

False prophets 2) heal brokenness superficially. At the beginning of my experience with the group I joined after leaving traditional Judaism [which hadn't offered me any solace], I was surrounded with all the attention I could want, and many promises of a bright future were made. I remember speaking about my baptism to a group of 15, 000 people in a huge auditorium. My speech must have been interesting, because there weren't many Jews being baptized at that time. People who were strangers to me kept coming up and congratulating me. It was odd, because their faces weren't familiar to me. Later as time went on, this group realized I had talent in teaching, speaking, and writing, so they offered me a very responsible job. I was to design programs for the adult Sunday school classes for 12 different churches in the denomination. At that time women didn't have much administrative or other opportunity to make a difference. In the course of this job, I attended meetings and gave speeches at the churches. Still, something was missing. While I was beginning to value my personhood, I wasn't learning to have strong faith in the Lord Jesus. Such words as are found in PS 95: 6-7 were not in my heart yet. "Come, let us bow down to worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Makers, for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care."

At the time, I was unaware that 3) the preaching going on contained elements of truth, but not the whole council of God. I didn't realize the full impact of Christ's words in JN 15: 14-15, "And you are My friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from My Father." Think about it. Our Lord and Savior doesn't hold back any secrets any longer. At first, it was necessary for Him to hold back certain teaching, because the people weren't ready for it. DT 29: 29, "There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret; but He has revealed His Law, and we and our descendants are to obey it forever." Over the span of human history, we can observe the gradual revelation of those secrets through the first advent. By then, God had revealed all that was necessary to further mankind's efforts to gain eternal life without destroying the element of faith necessary to bring that sanctification to complete fruition. Without my realizing it, God had planted in me the seed of hunger for His word, His true word from the OT and NT. That would serve as the beginning of the end of my belonging to a denomination that only believed some but not all of God's word.

4) As is commonly done in false teaching, God's word is taken out of context and is woven into a false and completely artificial substrate. As for me, I began comparing what I learned from this group with what God teaches us in the Scriptures, and the group's interpretation was found seriously wanting in my mind and heart. God's Spirit was afoot in me! As I studied the Bible, the interpretations that I had been taught by the group they began to make little sense. I have an interest in Biblical archeology. The findings in the digs in the Holy Land were backing up Biblical truth. Nothing has ever been found to back up the main writings of the group I was in. I needed to pay attention to this to see that I had been given things that were untrue to believe as truth. HE 4: 12, "The word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It cuts all the way through, to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desire of thoughts of man's heart." Here was a case where science was affirming what the Bible teaches. Such was not the case of these false writings. In assessing the situation, I had to ask myself: what about the good people who do believe what is taught by this group? They are still good people, still saved by their belief in the Lord Jesus, but they are being denied some basic truths which prepare them for heaven's highest rewards. My heart breaks for them, because they are not evil, just misguided. To this day, I pray for them every day.

PRAYER: O Lord, we approach Your throne today with many thoughts and concerns. We must ask about all the people who are like the seeds that fall on a mass of thorns in Christ's Parable of the Sower, MT 13: 3-8, 18-23. In this story, "some of the seeds fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants" (7). Christ later explains in (22), "The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear the message; but the worries about this life and the love for riches choke the message, and they don't bear fruit." It was a revelation to me personally why so much of what my former group believes is focused on the afterlife and why so much unfounded extrapolation is found in their beliefs. Their love of riches mainly applies to their leadership, which owns tremendous land and business holdings. Even with having said this, the average people in that group live very wholesome lives and are genuinely good-hearted. 5) Their lifestyle is designed to limit any contact that they have with people outside their denomination. And, as You know, Lord, that is a common trait amongst such groups. Dearest Abba, You have walked beside me through all my personal experience with half-truths and unbelief in my distant past. You still walk beside me today. Such is Your behavior with each of Your human creation, because of the love that You have for us. We were created in Your own image [GN 1: 27], and You have made us new again in union with Christ Jesus [2 COR 5: 17]. COL 3: 9-10, "Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself." These verses give us a glimpse of the on-going hard work You do in bringing about our sanctification. We are forever grateful to You, praise and thank You, for Who You are and all You do for us. In Christ's holy and mighty name we pray. Amen.

Next week: The Holy Spirit directs me to go on with this list of things false teachers do. We must address the issues of poverty of spirit and lack of training to meet challenges with meekness [humility]. In the meanwhile, all of us need to know how much our one and only God loves us. He loves us enough to equip us for spiritual warfare [EPH 1: 18-20], to see to our sanctification, to grant us salvation through faith [JN 3: 16], and to give us the help of the Holy Spirit [RO 8: 14-16]. I could go on and on with the many evidences of His love for us. In 2 CH 7: 15, God tells us, "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place." This is serious business on God's part, as it should be on ours. When we have faith in the Lord Jesus, we are given this amazing promise, found in JN 15: 7, " If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish and you shall have it." Does this mean that if we pray for a believing loved one who is physically dying and that person does pass away, that our prayers were wicked? Of course not! Instead, it means that from His much greater perspective than ours, God knows that it was in this person's best eternal interest to go home to Him. And to be sure, that believer only dies physically, but spiritually He will live forever with the love of His Father in heaven enjoying the reward that He has been promised while still on earth. God loves us enough to give us His perspective, when we are willing to spend daily time in His word and have an active prayer life. Remember 2 TIM 3: 16-17 about God's word and PS 86: 5, 7 about prayer. Know that God loves each of us enough to never abandon us, but instead to always hover near us [PS 9: 9-10; PS 145: 17-18]. PS 138: 8, "You will do everything You have promised; Lord, Your love is eternal. Complete the work that you have begun." We offer God praise and thanks for all the goodness He brings to earth!

Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn

© Lynn Johnson 2012. All Rights Reserved.

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