Pam Padgett ... teacher
As I read 2 Thess. 2:10, I recalled something I’d like to share.
2
Thess. 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume
with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his
coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power
and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of
the truth, that they might be saved.
Deceive:
-Cause to
believe what is not true
-Give mistaken impression
Satan tries to give a mistaken impression about
unrighteousness, possibly making it look “good” or of no consequence (“not a big
deal”).
When I was in college I worked in what was called a juvenile delinquency
prevention program. One of the young men
who came to this program once told me something that showed he was involved in
Satan worship. I asked if he wasn’t
afraid of going to hell. His response
was that he wasn’t afraid of hell because Satan had promised to bring him cool
water whenever he wanted. Out of my
mouth came “But he is a
liar”.
At that time I hadn’t thought much
about Satan and didn’t know that in the Bible we’re told this, so was surprised
when I heard these words come out of my mouth.
Later I read John 8:44 and realized what came out of my mouth was the
truth …
John
8: 44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it.
The way this
young man was going is so obviously wrong to us. But the devil tries to deceive us with lies
as well, lies that aren’t so obvious to us … lies which, if we believe them,
will cause us to believe what is not true and go in a way of unrighteousness …
instead of in the way of truth and
light.
Going in the way of truth is unpleasant to our flesh if it costs us in some
way. And truth from God shows us our
sin, which we don’t want to see. The
devil may tell us that we don’t really need to do what is unpleasant to our
flesh, or that we didn’t really sin. But
when we look deeply into the truth, and take appropriate action based on the
truth, we are able to move forward in the way of righteousness, rather than
being deceived by lies of the devil.
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