THE POWER OF DECEPTION

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.
Romans 1:28

Our country and our world appear to be increasingly bent on rebellion against God. As we read through the Bible, we can see that God allows this for a time. Some think that the prosperity of a person or a nation is always a sign of God's blessing. While it can be at times, it can also be the precursor to God's judgment!

The great empires of the world did very well - for a season - until they crashed and burned!

We should not make the mistake of thinking that whatever is going on in our country is the direct will of God. Some things are the way God wants them to be. Others are merely the way He allows them to be for His unfathomable purposes!

Some may deny that the world is becoming more immoral or evil and will never turn to God no matter how bad things get. Others plan to continue rebelling against God until it is convenient to turn to Him for help.

This is a dangerous strategy! The power is of deception is such that it will take us farther than we wanted to go from truth!

For example, we may see the world's morals are rapidly declining. We may even believe that God will eventually judge ours and other nations for their sins. In our hearts and minds, we think we will continue to be our own master. Then when we see the judgment  of God falling, we will turn to God. But deception is a powerful force. It seems that once it has been yielded to regularly, it is hard to break free from it!

We wonder how the people of Germany yielded to the evil works of Hitler and the Nazi's. It is simple. Look at the verse again!

"They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting."

When we reject God, we set ourselves up to do things that we never imagined we were capable of! We may look at ahead and think that America would never cross certain lines regarding evil or immoral behavior. What we seem to miss is that when we reject God now, we are setting ourselves for further deception - meaning we will find ourselves agreeing to that which previously repulsed us!

It is already happening to some degree. Behaviors which God clearly proclaims as sinful were considered shameful in the past - but now are not only fully accepted,but even celebrated and embraced!

Those who accept these behaviors think they are doing so because they have "evolved" in their thinking. Some may think that those who rejected such behaviors in the past were ignorant, stubborn or close-minded. In our modern world, we consider ourselves much wiser as "forward thinkers."

In reality we have been deceived! If we continue to turn from God - we open ourselves up to further, deeper deception. At that time, this "deeper deception" will allow us to freely accept, approve and do what we would presently consider unconscionable!

Would America ever accept a time when Christians would be beheaded? We may scoff at any notion of that as impossible! We are too civilized for that, right? Consider that Christians are being beheaded - in other countries.

How could these countries possibly arrive at the place where they would accept this? 

Simple...

"They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting."

What has happened in other places can happen here!

Our intelligence cannot save us  from deception. A "civilized" society cannot save us. Only turning to God can deliver us from the power of deception!

We must turn back to God individually and as a nation - before it is too late!

If we do not, we too will be handed over to a debased mind!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW GOD PERSONALLY - FOLLOW THIS LINK...

THE 4 SPIRITUAL LAWS

IF YOU ALREADY ACCEPTED  JESUS AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR - GO HERE...

TEN BASIC STEPS TO CHRISTIAN MATURITY

GOD JUDGES OUR "GOOD" INTENTIONS!

What's in the Heart?
We often say that God judges by what's in our hearts.

There is certainly truth in that. After all, King David was chosen by God because he was "a man after His own heart."

That is not the same as God judging us for our "good intentions."

David's heart was a heart that longed for God. David wrote:

As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.
Psalms 17:15

God was pleased with David because his heart was "God-centered" and God is pleased with us when our hearts are tender, humble and submissive toward Him! Apart from God David knew that he also had wickedness in his heart because he was fallen. This is also true of every person who was born into this world, aside from Jesus Christ who was born of the Father!

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
Psalms 51:5

This "fallenness" means that we all have a sin nature which taints everything we do and our perception of our own hearts. The Bible plainly teaches that the human heart is wicked by nature and deceptive:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?"
Jeremiah 17:9

Our wicked hearts naturally deceive us into thinking that our intentions are good. We mistakenly assume that God will "give us a pass" because we mean well. Our understanding of what is "good" varies greatly. The company we keep, the culture we live in, how we were raised and our environment all create many false definitions of "good."

We may all create our own code of morals and ethics. Criminals have one code. Housewives have another. Our country is currently divided on many issues of right and wrong. Why? It is because we all deceived into thinking that our intentions are "good."

Good Intentions Fall Short!
I believe that God judges us not only in spite our good intentions - but because of them!

God is holy and created man according to His holy image. When God looks at man, he declares that they have "all sinned and fall short of the glory of God!" We may grade ourselves and others on the curve. We look at the best people in the world, realize that no one is perfect, and then judge ourselves to be somewhere in the spectrum between the best and the worst. Most of us think we will get at least a passing grade compared to the worst people on earth - perhaps at the 70% mark or greater.

But God does not grade on the curve! In fact, He sees that even the very best of us are utter and complete failures! If the very best best are failures in God's sight, where does that leave the rest of us?

He perhaps looks at our good intentions and says, "Is that what you consider good?" 

This is what makes us such sinners and failures in the sight of God - that what we consider as "good" is so distasteful to Him! Even our righteousness is filthy in the sight of God:

6 But we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our iniquities.
Isaiah 64:6-7 (emphasis added)

Our only hope is in God! God sent His only begotten Son Jesus to die for us. When He comes into the hearts of men and women, they are not merely forgiven or given a clean slate. He plants the seed of righteousness in our hearts and writes His laws on our hearts! Our dead spirits are made alive and we become partakers of His divine nature!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW GOD PERSONALLY - FOLLOW THIS LINK...
THE 4 SPIRITUAL LAWS

IF YOU ALREADY ACCEPTED  JESUS AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR - GO HERE...
TEN BASIC STEPS TO CHRISTIAN MATURITY