Tag Archives: deceive

UNITY – THE HALLMARK OF THE TRUE CHURCH

May 30, 2021Bible Studydeceive, greet one another, watch outLuella Campbell

UNITY – THE HALLMARK OF THE TRUE CHURCH

“Greet Mary… Andronicus and Junia… Ampliatus… Urbanus and Stachys… Apelles… Aristobulus… Herodion… the household of Narcissis… Tryphena and Tryphosa… Persis… Rufus and his mother… Asynchritis… Phlegon… Hermes… Patrobas… Hermas and the other brothers and sisters with them… Philologus… Julia… Nereus and his sister… Olympas and all the Lord’s people with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.” Romans 16:6-16.

Strange-sounding names! Real people! Paul knew a host of people, both men and women in the churches in Rome, well-known associates who had worked with him or who had served well in the churches he had founded or with whom he was closely associated. He was always quick to commend or show appreciation for his fellow believers.

When one thinks that this was a young movement in the Roman Empire – not even thirty years old, with no history except that of the Jewish people, which was their root, the maturity of God’s people in a hostile environment was amazing. They had to be, because there were few grey areas in the church.

O yes, there were always the false teachers who distorted the gospel and tried to lure people away. There were the gullible ones, who left the flock to follow them but to be a follower of Jesus was dangerous and not for the faint-hearted. His true disciples knew the risks, stuck together and supported and cared for one another, creating a tight-knit group across the empire called “the church”.

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.” Romans 16:17, 18.

Into this close fellowship crept those who were there for their own reasons. Paul was not shy to warn believers about those who sowed dissention and taught lies to confuse, cause division and lure people into following them. Jesus described these people as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” From the earliest days of the infant church, the apostles were careful to preserve the precious unity that the Holy Spirit had created in the beginning.

“All the believers were together and had everything in common… All the believers were one in heart and mind…” Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32a.

As the church grew and spread, there were the unscrupulous ones, always ready to do the work of their master, the devil. The apostles all warned the flock against such people. On his way to Jerusalem for the last time, Paul warned the Ephesian elders:

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that, after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:28-30.

How tragic that there are people who are so greedy and self-centred, in spite of hearing the truth, that they use unsuspecting people for their own ends. Leaders in the church have a threefold responsibility – to protect love, preserve unity and promote contentment. Paul’s counsel was, “Be ruthless with those who cause division. Have nothing to do with them. Throw out the rotten apple from the box before it infects all the others.”

Why is this so important? Unity is the very glue of the universe. It is a reflection of who God is.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4, was the daily confession of the people of God. The constitution of Israel, the Torah, was an expression of and a mandate to preserve unity among His people because God is one. It is our mandate to maintain that unity in humility by love and mutual submission under the authority and leadership of God’s appointed leaders so that the church can be a reflection of God to the world.

Acknowledgement

JUST AS . . . CONTINUE

February 14, 2021Bible Studydeceive, fine-sounding arguments, firm in your faithLuella Campbell

JUST AS . . . CONTINUE

I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, – rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness (Col. 2:4-7).

There is no doubt that Paul was a hard worker! But how could he be a hard worker in prison, for example? He may not have worked hard manually, but his mind and his spirit were always busy – he had many churches and many fellow believers for whom to contend.

His one goal for which he ceaselessly strived, was to present everyone mature in Christ. He bent all his energies towards this one purpose – thinking, praying, writing and teaching – whether he knew them or not and whether he was with them or not. How many pastors and spiritual leaders have a goal like that for their people today?

Maturity was not about how successful they were or how well they coped in life as individuals, but how they functioned together in the body of Christ. They were to be one in heart and mind as they did life together in union with Jesus as their head. They were to draw their life from Him, and live in submission to Him and in mutual submission to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it? It is if it were not for the Holy Spirit in them whose role was to lead them into all truth and to reveal Christ to them as their model. The Holy Spirit provided the energy to do what was impossible for them to do without Him. He was the ‘umbilical cord’ which joined them to Jesus, and the source of power to obey Jesus as their Master and Lord.

The world around them was alienated from Christ and full of wickedness, trying to lure them back, through deception, into their old lives of rebellion against God. There was also an enemy within, their old nature, against whom they had to contend to remain faithful to Jesus in spite of its pull. And, on top of that, the devil was in league with their old nature, always there to dangle the pleasure of sin before them and never to remind them of the small print!

Paul’s answer to these powerful enemies who were always there to put stumbling blocks in their way, to trip them up or to lure them off course, was to continue as they had begun. How had they begun their new lives in Christ? By faith in Him! They trusted His word that He had forgiven their sin, and reconnected them with Him as their life source. They were no longer out of touch with God and left to navigate their own way through life.

Their way had not worked. Their own rules had landed them in fear, guilt and shame but in Christ they had been set free. They were a new creation, on a new path back to the Father, full of joy, and really living instead of existing. Now, said Paul, remain in Him, rooted, built up and strengthened in the faith.

This is where so many new believers in Christ, and even many who have been on the way for years, go wrong. Having been joined to Jesus by faith, they try to carry on on their own. They do what they think Jesus wants them to do or they ‘work’ for the Lord in order to ‘pay Him back’ for His grace, instead of simply ‘remaining’ in Him.

Before Jesus left His disciples to go to the cross, He spent His final hours teaching them about the Holy Spirit. He wanted them to know, above everything else, that the Holy Spirit whom the Father would send after His passion and resurrection, would be His personal representative. He would live within them and would be the link between Him and them, providing everything they needed to live their new lives.

‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’ (John 15: 5).

Paul’s work was to partner with the Holy Spirit in prayer and instruction so that his beloved fellow-believers would learn to rest in Jesus. Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? Paul rested, but he also worked at resting in God as He worked in the lives of others in response to his teaching and his prayers. This is the paradox of Christian ministry – labouring to rest.

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. ²⁹ To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. Colossians 1:28-29

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his work, just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience (Heb. 4: 9-11).

Once Darkness – Now Light

January 19, 2016Bible Studydeceive, empty word. God's wrath, live as children of light, once darknessLuella Campbell

ONCE DARKNESS – NOW LIGHT

Let no one deceive you with empty words for, because of such things, God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord (Eph. 5:6-10).

What are the ‘empty words’ of which Paul speaks? ‘Empty’ simply means that these words have nothing in them – no substance – which implies that they are lies. What kind of words are empty of truth? Words that man speaks in contradiction to God’s Word have no truth in them. Satan is their source because he wants to lure people away from God and from the truth.

Satan spoke empty words to Adam and Eve and when they believed him and did what he tempted them to do, they discovered that it was God who had spoken the truth, not the devil. The outcome, just as Paul had written, was the wrath of God on them for their disobedience. Scientists and philosophers who deny the existence of God, speak empty words. Those who disregard God’s moral requirements, living impure and wicked lives, are under the dark cloud of Gods’ wrath because they have believed the ‘empty words’ with which the devil has deceived them.

Deception is one of the devil’s most potent weapons. He deceives through lies which contradict God’s truth and he deceives through fear – a powerful emotion that drives people to ignore or disregard the character and promises of God.

Paul counsels his readers not to partner with people who, under Satan’s influence, propagate his deception both by their words and by the way they live. God has preserved in written form over thousands of years, His directions for living lives that please Him and that protect us from the effects of His wrath. God’s wrath is not capricious outbursts of anger but a settled disposition of displeasure. To be under God’s displeasure is to be subject to the consequences He clearly describes in His word for choosing to disobey Him.

There is no small print in God’s Word. He hides nothing from His people. He takes no pleasure in meting out punishment to those who are disobedient. The devil has spawned the lie that God is a hard taskmaster, waiting with His rod of punishment to catch anyone out who transgresses His laws. God has clearly warned everyone who cares to take notice, of the consequences of disobedience but He has endless mercy for those who repent and return to His way.

Why should His people not be partners with those who contradict and disobey His Word? Not only is such association detrimental to our wellbeing, but it also cuts across everything we are and have been taught as children of God and citizens of His kingdom. Loyal citizens of a country are bound by the constitution of that country. Should they step outside the boundaries of that constitution, they will be prosecuted. Our prisons are crammed with people who have transgressed the laws of our land.

Likewise, those who belong to God’s kingdom have voluntarily placed themselves under the constitution of His kingdom. They have committed themselves to loyalty to Jesus as the king and have placed themselves under His authority to obey His Word because His Word has substance – it is the truth.

Light and darkness cannot co-exist. Darkness disappears when a light is turned on. Darkness has no substance; it is merely the absence of light. Light exposes the furniture in a room which would be potential obstacles in the dark. Light enables us to see what is in our environment. In the light, we are able to avoid tripping over things we cannot see in the dark. In the same way, the light of God’s Word enables us to avoid falling prey to devil’s lies and destroying ourselves by believing his deception.

It is our responsibility as children of the kingdom of light, to live out in our daily lives who we are. The fruit of our lives reveals the root. Paul insists that God’s children bear the fruit of lives that live in the light – for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. It is impossible to live in the darkness of disobedience and, at the same time, bear the fruit of light. What we do reveals what we are.

And find out what pleases the Lord. What is it that pleases God? The Bible gives us the answer. God gave King David a title He gave to no one else. Preachers and theologians often make heavy weather of this, one simply because they have ignored the context.

After removing Saul, He [God] made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ (Acts 13: 22).

Did you get that? Obedience to His Word pleases God more than anything else. It is not our service or our sacrifice which pleases Him. It is our prompt and complete obedience. Obedience to God’s requirements is the one thing, above everything else, that indicates whether we fear Him or not.

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

Honesty Is The Key

November 4, 2015Bible Studyconfess, deceive, faithful, truth, without sinLuella Campbell

HONESTY IS THE KEY

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word is not in us. (1John 1: 8-10)

I had a recent experience when this Scripture came home to me very vividly. I was in a group of believers and told a story which contained a lie. It came out so unexpectedly that I was caught out and could not wriggle out of it without great embarrassment. On reflection I tried to tell myself that it was nothing and that it didn’t matter, but I could not shake it off my conscience.

This passage of Scripture came repeatedly to my mind. It was not the content of the story that mattered but the fact that I had embellished it with a lie that bothered me. Not even confession to the Lord and taking responsibility for what I had done would give me peace. I knew that I had to own what I had done to a trusted fellow believer.

I am very close to my pastor and I chose to write a letter of confession rather than speak to him because I am able to express myself more freely in a letter. His response was kind and gracious. He said something like this: “Don’t you just love the Holy Spirit? He so gently does everything He can to protect our fellowship with the Father.” That’s it, my dear readers! And the moment I received his message and knew that I had acknowledged my sin to another person, God’s peace once again flooded my heart.

How difficult it is for us to face our sin and own it! Why are we so reticent to acknowledge what we have done when we leave the path of God’s Word and go our own way? John said that we deceive ourselves. Self-deception is just as damaging as Satan’s lies because they have the same source – the devil; and his intention is to disturb our fellowship with the Father and keep us away from enjoying our union with Him.

From God’s perspective, it is not our sin that is the problem – He has taken care of that through the death of His Son. It’s our unwillingness to own it and to come clean with Him. Why do we keep lying to ourselves and to God when we know that He knows our deepest and most intimate thoughts and actions? Pride keeps us from being honest with ourselves and God and robs us of the fellowship we could and should enjoy with Him.

He did everything possible to restore us to Himself so that we could return to the state of innocence and righteousness that Adam and Eve enjoyed before they chose their way above His. It cost Jesus His life to bring us back to the Father. Why do we forfeit the honour of closeness to Him just because we won’t acknowledge that we have sinned?

God is not demanding that we drag up everything we have done since birth. That’s not the issue although some people tag the same refrain onto their prayers over and over again, “And forgive my sins,” as a blanket statement just in case they have forgotten something that God might be holding against them. Have they forgotten that God has cleaned the record, once for all?

John’s first chapter is about fellowship. What is it that gives us the confidence that we can have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ; and what disturbs our fellowship with Him?

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. 1 John 1: 3

Did you get that? We have fellowship with one another and with the Father and the Son because we know and believe the truth about Jesus. What disturbs our fellowship with one another and with God? Not our sin but our dishonesty. We are still in the flesh and in a fallen world. Sin will still be a part of us until we shed this body and depart for the realm where we are no longer subject to sin.

The Holy Spirit does not convict us of sin; He convicts us of righteousness (John 16: 8-10). He holds up God’s standard of righteousness so that we can come back into line with God’s Word. When we are honest enough to take responsibility for our sin, He responds by washing away our unrighteousness and restoring our fellowship with the Father.

Isn’t that worth a little bit of humility?

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

The Beginning Of The End

August 20, 2015Bible Studybirth pangs, deceive, earthquakes, fulfilled, warsLuella Campbell

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple. Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, ‘Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?

Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pangs.’ (Mark 13: 3-8).

What a golden opportunity for Jesus to give His disciples a timetable of the end times – but He didn’t. He could have, had He wanted them, and us, to have a countdown of events to the end of time. His response to His disciples is puzzling if we do not understand what He was telling them and why. He answered and yet He did not answer His disciples’ question. He told them what would happen, but He did not tell them when it would happen. Why?

Had He given them a timeline, it would have given them, and those who followed them an excuse to live carelessly and only come into line as the events took place that heralded His return. Jesus was wise. Instead, He gave them principles and warnings because His people had an assignment – to follow Him and to be replicas of Him and citizens of the kingdom of heaven in the midst of the darkness of a fallen world.

Deception is a formidable enemy – and we humans are very good at falling for the deception of others and deceiving ourselves as well. ‘Watch out for false messiahs.’ Jesus warned. Why do people fall for their deception so easily? Surely they are easy to detect? How can we protect ourselves from falling for deception?

God gave us an infallible test – prophecy! Remember John the Baptist’s question? ‘Are you the Messiah or do we look for someone else?’ What was Jesus’ response? Check the database. God had given a “database” of prophecies to His people of messianic “fingerprints” in their sacred Scriptures. All John had to do was to check Jesus against the fingerprints and he would have his answer.

How can we check the claims of those who insist that they are followers and representatives of Jesus? Jesus gave us the answer – examine their fruit. Do their lives measure up to their profession? Who do they represent – themselves or Jesus? There is a database of evidence in the Scriptures to help us identify true followers of Jesus.

The second warning – don’t get excited when natural disasters happen. These are what Eugene Peterson, in “The Message” paraphrase of the Bible calls “routine” disasters. They have always happened and they will always happen because the earth was corrupted by Adam’s disobedience. Jesus called them “the beginning of birth pains”. Nature is in labour. This is nothing new. Paul observed and wrote about it in his letter to the Romans.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time (Rom. 8: 22).

Wars are another phenomenon which have been going on since the Fall. Human greed was born in the hearts of men when Adam chose his own way over the will of God. Man is at enmity with God and men. He wants what is not his and he will take it when and where he pleases at the expense of others. Wars will continue until the end of time, as long as fallen man pits himself against fallen man.

It is true that there is an escalation of both natural disasters and human conflict, with warfare becoming more sophisticated and destructive of human life. Just as a woman’s birth pains increase in frequency and intensity, so the earth’s “birth pains” are likewise becoming more violent and intense, a sign that her labour will soon have its end result. Nevertheless, there is no way in which we can or should predict the time of His return.

Like the bridegroom whose return for his bride is set by his father when he is satisfied with his son’s preparation for the consummation of his marriage, so Jesus awaits the Father’s time to return for the church and to restore everything that was broken by the Fall.

The role of the bride is to prepare for His return so that, whenever the bridegroom comes, she will be ready. When He returns is not as important as that He will return, for He has promised. In the interim she has a task to do – to prepare her wedding gown so that she may take her place with Him in the beauty of His holiness.

Are you ready for Jesus’ return or will you be caught, like the five foolish virgins, unprepared for His coming, and left out in the cold?

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

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HE IS RISEN!