Sunday, August 28, 2016, 5:30 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Jesus, Lead Me.” Speak, Lord, your
words to my heart. I read 1 John 4
(ESV).
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the
spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out
into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does
not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which
you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are
from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is
in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and
the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us;
whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of
truth and the spirit of error.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from
God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not
love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made
manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might
live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved
us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so
loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we
love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us,
because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the
Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that
Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to
know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever
abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected
with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he
is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love
casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not
been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I
love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his
brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this
commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Test the Spirits
There are many people in
our world today who profess to know Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior of their
lives who live just like this: They are addicted to sin, and it has a
stronghold on their lives. They are liars, deceivers, and manipulators, who act
like they are following God with their lives, but who are skillfully conducting
their lives according to the sinful nature, and not in accord with the Spirit
of God. They are double-minded with divided loyalties, who give off a false
image on the outside while inside they are full of wickedness. They pretend
that all is well, when it is not. They often live in a make-believe world,
engaging themselves in fantasy and not in reality, i.e. they live under a dark
cloud of deception, and they are deceivers themselves. They perform
sleight-of-hand tricks or other illusions in order to deceive others into
believing their lies and their false persona. They are great actors and
pretenders who will often stuff their true emotions and thoughts in order to give
a false impression of what they are really thinking or doing, so no one knows.
When confronted with their
sins, they may react in anger, rage, and defensiveness, or they may display an
eerie calm, and act as though what is being said to them does not bother them
at all, but later it comes out that it did, when their guard is down. They will
minimize the serious nature of the sin, or call it something else, or isolate
each sinful act so as to not face the reality of the sin pattern (addiction),
and then claim that God’s grace covers it all. They may show no sorrow over
their sin at all, or they may express sorrow and even have tears come down
their cheeks, but inwardly refuse to repent, i.e. refuse to turn away from
their sin and turn to follow Christ in obedience. They refuse to stop being
enslaved to sin and to turn to become a servant of righteousness. They break
off their covenant relationship (vows of fidelity; their engagement) with
God/Jesus through their continuous acts of adultery and their refusal to
repent, i.e. they quench and grieve the Spirit of God, so there is no true
fellowship between them and God, although they like to pretend that there is.
Or, they never truly knew God, but only faked their relationship with Jesus
Christ.
When confronted with their
sins, or when they are in danger of being caught, or when they want to set the
stage for a sin they plan to commit, in order to try to make someone believe
that what they are doing is something else - even faking devotion to God and to
his service in order to cover up what they know is wrong - they might display
these characteristic traits: rationalizing, justifying, or explaining; blaming
and accusing others; debating and arguing, and/or dodging pointed questions or
switching the topic in order to avoid answering. They may also joke and tease,
or compare themselves to others, trying to take the focus off themselves, or
they may agree or even cooperate on some level to avoid being found out. Or, they
may “throw someone a bone,” i.e. admit to something lesser or make minor
concessions in order to appease, while withholding something much more serious
or something they want even more than what they were willing to give up or
admit to. The addict may also practice the silent treatment, or threaten
suicide, or make jabbing remarks intended to hurt another, or act dumb,
refusing to take responsibility.
If they feel backed into a
corner, they may go on the offensive and may try to discredit the person who
knows them best, and who is trying to help them, and they may create a false
scenario about that person for the benefit of maintaining this false impression
which they want to present, which is either completely false or is somewhat
true but taken out of context and twisted to their advantage in order to gain
sympathy for themselves from others, and in order to make their perceived opponent
out to be the “bad guy,” and them the victim.
Again, they are great
actors and deceivers, and many of them will go to most any length to protect
their addiction and to keep themselves from being discovered, even if it means
destroying other people, their marriages, and the like. In other words, they
deflect (sidetrack), redirecting attention and even accusation of wrongdoing to
another in order to avoid being found out. They must protect their addiction at
all cost, no matter who gets hurt in the process. This is the nature of the
beast (sin addiction). Those who love them deeply, and who know them best, will
see these patterns when others, who may be fooled by them, may not.
Abide in Him
We who call ourselves
Christians are to walk in the fear of the Lord. We are to revere, respect,
honor and obey God and his holy Word. We are to take him and his word
seriously, and not throw him or his word out the window so that we can live
however we want. God has set boundaries for us for a reason. They are not
optional. They are also not to make us miserable and to spoil all our fun, as
Satan would have you believe. God loves us so much that he sent Jesus Christ,
God the Son, to the earth to take on human form and to die on a cross for our
sins so that we could go free from bondage to sin and free from having to spend
eternity in torment in the fires of hell. Jesus died that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness. He died that we might no longer live to please
ourselves, but that we might live for him who gave himself up for us. He died
that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who walk
not after the flesh, but who walk according to the Spirit.
Yet, so many who say they
believe in Jesus have stubborn and rebellious hearts which want to continue in
their sinful ways. So many of these have been drawn to a false grace gospel
which requires no death to sin and no following our Lord in obedience to his
will for our lives. It gives free license to continue in sin without guilt and
without remorse, which is why, I believe, so many people today are living with
sin addictions, because not many people are telling them that God requires them
to turn from and to die to sin, but they, instead, try to make them feel good
about themselves while they engage in such sinful behavior. They lie to them
and tell them that God is pleased with them no matter what they do, and that he
looks upon them with delight, even while they are engaged in sinful acts. May
this never be! And, the people love it this way, because it gives them
permission to keep on sinning, to show no reverence for God, and to live however
they want, while still promising them heaven when they die.
Jesus said that if we want
to come after him we must deny self and take up our cross daily (die daily to
sin and self) and follow (obey) him. He said if we hold on to our old lives (of
living for sin and self), we will lose them for eternity, but if we lose our
lives (die to sin), we will gain eternal life (Lu. 9:23-25). Paul said that if
we conduct our lives after the flesh, we will die, but if by the Spirit we are putting
to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live (See: Ro. 8:1-14). The way we
come to know Christ is by putting off our old self, by being transformed in
heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and by putting on our new self, “created
to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (See: Eph. 4:17-24). God’s
grace, which brings salvation, teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and
worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we
wait for Christ’s return (Tit. 2:11-14). We do not have to walk in sin, because
Jesus set us free! He has given us the way out from yielding to temptation, but
we have to take the way out he has given us. God has delivered you from sin if
you know Jesus, and he can lead you to victory over sin addiction, too.
Jesus, Lead Me / An
Original Work / July 22, 2011
Jesus, lead me all the way.
Be my hope and be my stay.
Gently lead me where I should go,
So Your Spirit, I want to know.
Open up my heart to You.
Fill me with Your love and truth.
Make my heart want to obey.
Be my Lord today. Gently lead always.
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Cleanse my heart, and make me whole;
Be transformed in my heart today,
As I turn from my sin and pray.
Make Your will known to my heart.
May I not from You depart.
How I long to hear You now,
As I humbly bow. Jesus, hear me now.
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