Checking Out the Sheep

I have missed you, my friends. My 4th holiday went beautifully. It was very traditional. I so love our small town celebration. As a family, we enjoyed good carnival foods, i.e., corn dogs, candy apples, barbecue, cotton candy, etc. We listened to some country music, and watched a fabulous fireworks show.

Yesterday, Monday, I spent the day sorting and cleaning out the rest of my closet and bedroom. This took all day. I enjoyed listening to Christian radio the entire time. The morning began with many Bible teaching programs. About mid afternoon, I picked up a book Kevin had found in a tote of older books. This particular book was about coping with cults. It was dealing with false religions, false prophets and counterfeit Christianity. I was mesmerized with this book.

I am a relatively mature Christian or a maturing Christian if you will. I have learned many things these last 20 years. I was “saved” at 11 but truly I was committed and truly surrendered to Jesus in my early twenties. However, recently, within the past 2 years, I have truly become more dependent on God’s word. I am talking not just attending or leading a published Bible study, but digging in God’s word with just me and the Bible. It’s a powerful way to truly know Jesus by allowing the Holy Spirit to teach, inspire, and correct/convict. So as I am reading yesterday, I am realizing just how easy it is to stray away in our beliefs and personal convictions by falling under the influence of other “good” Christians who seem to have their lives together and know a lot about the Bible, especially if we don’t read the Bible for ourselves.

Recently, I have questioned some of the theology and doctrine I have learned because I have looked at the lifestyles of a certain group of people that seem to live what they believe. Then I took the time to see how their theology lined up with the Bible. It seems that rather than taking the Bible as is and follow its truth and time line, they created doctrine and found Bible verses to back it up. I admittedly did not do lengthy or deep drawn out study but the commentaries I read and chapters in the Bible I read were clear that the theology was not supported by the Bible in its entirety. Now, I am not going into details of what I was questioning at the time. I am basically setting up my blog topic to be kind of a warning…beware of counterfeit Christianity. Not only beware, but be proactive in safe keeping your faith. This is done, girlfriends, by knowing God’s word and knowing is accommodated by genuine, daily, Bible study. When is the last time you “studied” God’s word? You know…do some highlighting in the Bible, take notes, pull out commentaries, and spend more than a 10 minute devotional. I know it has been awhile for me. My life has been very busy these past few weeks.

So as I was finishing up my room yesterday night, I was listening to a few radio programs. It was amazing how God worked. The topic of the first show I listened to was about “deceivers”. The speaker was Chuck Swindoll. I have noted some of his teaching based on 1 John chapter 2.

“Led astray” – the Greek word for this means “to destroy the inner life”.
Our being led astray pulls us away from a personal relationship with Christ and ladies, talk about destroying the inner life. Wow!
“The serpent (in the Garden of Eden) didn’t come to Eve with a sign saying he was there to deceive.” Girlfriends, deception is truly a sly one. The way I see it is that we should consider the company we keep because soon enough we may adopt some of their thinking or start questioning our beliefs, moral standards, and Christian lifestyles.

Deceivers most likely were once in the church. The Bible says they went out from us. Swindoll says deceivers are rebelling against it (truth), and they go to a place where the message was good, or they never really trusted Christ.

Believers: trust Christ personally.
Faith has nothing to do with going to Church…we must know Christ personally.

Obviously, I am writing this from memory and I don’t have specific scriptures which he used in the broadcast. It is my and your responsibility to not just take this blog info but to back it up in Bible study. I just wanted to give your some of the words that spoke to me.

The next radio program was by Skip Heitzig. He talked about discernment.

Learn to discern. Judge with righteous judgment.
Deceivers speak “sheep talk”. Jesus said to beware of false prophets in sheep’s clothing.

3 Tests of Deceivers
Test of Character. Fruit of Spirit is character of Christ. What does he live like?
Test of Creed. Who do they say Jesus is? What do they say of the work of Jesus Christ? Who are they trying to “add” to Jesus?
Test of Converts. Followers blossom.

He also gave scriptures and more information. I just touched on his teachings. As I said earlier, we must truly study the Bible for ourselves. There are some wonderful teachers, especially of years past, that deliver truth and can enhance your Bible study, AW Tozer, John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, and others, yet the most important is God’s word. These men of God can enhance our learning but are not a substitute or an “add on” to Jesus. Ladies, keep you eyes on Jesus. Know who He is and His word, so when a deceiver comes your way, he will be recognized as a “wearer” of sheep’s clothing.

It is very late on Tuesday night. I am feeling very free tonight,not because of the airing and listening of the radio programs, but because Father God got my attention. First, through the book, and then the provision of His audible Word, while I worked. He was present. He truly is the truth, the way and the life! Acf