A Deceptive Message-The Lean

What happens when we are inundated with worldly attitudes and worldly reasoning? If we do not guard our hearts, we will begin to lean toward accepting this humanistic way of thinking. Even leaning a little can cause us to give in to the world. Here is what happens and the warning from God about it. Romans 12:² Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Part of the process in growing in our faith walk is the realization that there is good and evil, and evil is very aggressive to deceive us, and thus, the lean will turn into a lifestyle, and that lifestyle draws us further from God. Of course, the Holy Spirit is involved in our heart and mind to give us wisdom, but sometimes Christians who are leaning toward the world will ignore the Holy Spirit, any "skin" in the game of their life.

1 John 3 speaks to all of this and about the deception that is thrown at us from every side. 1 John 3: See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. ⁴ Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. ⁵ And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. ⁶ Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. Here is a warning from the further instruction from 1 John 3:⁷ Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. ⁸ But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

This is not "new" or "radical", but it is necessary to heed the warning from the above verses and do a self-evaluation to see just where you are in this faith walk. I know what drifting in your walk can do, because I have done it in the past, and it occurred when I was not in the Word, and it was a scary place. Part of trusting God is trusting His Word at every level, and the Holy Spirit brought me forward in my walk to a more literal faith, and not just a "guessing" faith, which is where my "lean" began at that time. Praise God for His Word that brought me back to leaning into God and not leaning away. Proverbs 3:⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

The Deceptive Message from the enemy will always point us away from God, a little at the beginning, and then more as we ignore God's Word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There is an illustration of how to handle the deceptive message in Matthew 4, and it was when Jesus went into the wilderness, and He had fasted for 40 days, and He was hungry, and that was when the tempter came to Him. Here is the dialogue that took place, and you will recognize some characteristics of our enemy, the devil, really quickly. Matthew 4:² And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. ³ And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”⁴ But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

There it is! The way through involves knowing His Word, the Bible, and using it as our defense when the deceptive message comes our way. Not just quoting, but living by the Word of God is our answer to the deception. Of course, the devil did not stop at the first rejection by Jesus^; he came back from another direction, and that is popularity, status, and testing the Lord, to which Jesus replied. Matthew 4: ⁵ Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,⁶ and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You’;

and ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’” ⁷ Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” The devil was not giving up, and neither was Jesus, and the last test involved who to worship, and this is important for the church today. Do not worship people, but worship only God. Matthew 4: ⁸ Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; ⁹ and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” ¹¹ Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

In our world, it is easy to begin to worship God's creation and not the Creator, and that is dangerous. Some people will worship knowledge and use that as their strength, but that is a "lean" that can lead to pride and confusion. Some people will worship certain people, like a president, or a movie star, or a certain preacher, and that is a "lean" that will lead to a divided allegiance between that person's teachings and God's Word. We are constantly barraged with pictures and videos that try to draw us into becoming immersed in following a certain person, to the replacement of the time God wants in our thinking. Don't let yourself lean in that direction, because God is a jealous God when it comes to our allegiance. Deuteronomy 6: ¹⁴ You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, ¹⁵ for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth. Ok. I get what the writer is saying, and the danger of following a compromised message will end in a bad way for sure. Just love the Lord your God, and He will keep you on the right track because His message is pure and loaded with good for those who follow that message. The hymn entitled Leaning on the Everlasting Arms applies here,

and you might look it up and sing it when you are tempted to lean on the temporal arms of the enemy. Just sayin.....

Footnote: Exodus 34:¹⁴ —for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

Today's Message,

David Warren