My mom once said. “ you
don't speak out against a lie in an effort to convince the other person. You
speak out so that you don't start to believe the lie yourself.” :) When someone attacks your faith, you have only two choices, believe them or combat it with the truth found in the Word of God. Like Jesus in the desert. Jesus spent 40 days alone hearing from God and
at his weakest physical moment the devil comes in and tells him 3 little white
lies to try to get Jesus to deny his Father. Jesus combats each of these lies
with the truth. The problem for most believers is: the smaller the lie, the
more believable it is. The easier it is to take root and grow in our hearts,
causing us to fall into doubt and unbelief and ultimately, sin.
In the
desert, being tempted, Jesus was not silent to the devils accusations, nor
was he in anyway trying to convince the devil of the truth. They both knew the
truth anyway. No, Jesus spoke out to SHOW US WHAT TO DO, AS AN EXAMPLE TO US
that when someone or something comes at you, contrary to the Word, you
IMMEDIATELY need to quench the fiery dart with the shield of faith, with the
truth, the Holy Spirit, with scripture. Usually the devil wants to tempt us
through fine good things, but you have to sell out your family and go to work
(moms especially) or take an 8 hour a day office job that calls you away
from being there for your wife and children. It costs your soul to work for the
almighty dollar. You've got to be ready with the Word that says no man or corporation
is your lord, master, or provider, but God Almighty is your provider and you
work for Him.
Acts 5:4 You have not lied to men but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.
Acts 5:29-32
29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
When
the world comes at you to tempt you with the lust of the flesh, namely today
the perversion of looking at the opposite gender, (those who are not God's one
true match for you, to awaken a lustful desire), you have to be ready
with, what Jesus told the pharisees “even to look at a woman lustfully is
adultery” and “if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out for it is better
to go into the kingdom of Heaven blind and manned then to spend eternity in
hell...” Leah paraphrase, but you get the gist.
| Jer 9:23 | Because they have committed 6213 villany 5039 in Israel 3478, and have committed 6213 adultery 5003 with their neighbours 7453' wives 802, and have spoken 1696 lying 8267 words 1697 in my name8034, which I have not commanded 6680 them; even I know 3045, and [am] a witness 5707, saith 5002 the LORD 3068. |
 Eze 23:37 | That they have committed adultery 5003, and blood 1818 [is] intheir hands 3027, and with their idols 1544 have they committedadultery 5003, and have also caused their sons 1121, whom they bare 3205 unto me, to pass for them through 5674 [the fire], to devour 402 [them]. |
| Mat 5:28 | But 1161 I 1473 say 3004 unto you 5213, That 3754 whosoever 3956looketh 991 on a woman 1135 to 4314 lust after 1937 her 846 hath committed adultery 3431 with her 846 already 2235 in 1722 his 846heart 2588. |
It’s the little white lies that
ultimately spell our downfall into sin or depression. I know that sex outside
of marriage is a big sin, no one can convince me otherwise. I know
abortion is wrong, no one can tell me differently. I know moms should stay at home and raise
their children. But what about birth control...that is a much harder moral
principle and doctrine to argue. What of “harmlessly looking at the opposite
gender” and “what of single women working or married women with no kids or
men with office jobs?”
Titus 2
What Must Be Taught to Various Groups
1 You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy,(homemakers, mothers), at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
Deuteronomy 30:15-16
God's Blessings: many children
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply;
Mmmm,
I know it’s all wrong, but the world and a spineless, weak, compromising
church have made these things so common place. It’s like brushing your teeth
and much more difficult to argue. Not impossible but people look at you
really funny. So what do we do? In order to keep the peace, we remain quite. That
is suicide. Unless we combat those little white lies by speaking out in some way,
the little white lies are harder to identify and can take root easier than the big
ones, whereby we fall ill, sick, and troubles enter our lives, etc.
A friend of mine rooted out a big “little”
lie the other day, not to convince the other person, he knew he was not going
to be able to do that at the time. No, he spoke out to stop the lie from
having any effect on him. The other person was insisting that there wasn't a man in the world who wouldn't look lustfully at another woman. So, in turn, she said women have
a God given right to lust after men with rippling muscles. Well, this goes
against everything in the Word of God. Somewhere along the way someone led by
the devil put all kinds of little lies in this person’s head to make them
believe that what the Bible said was not true! Oh my, but see, the really sad
part about this lie is that this person is not living a fulfilled life with
their spouse. How wonderfully romantic is a pure love life with our one true
match to wake up and go to sleep next to. The only person you will ever have
eyes for. All others are mere shadows in comparison to their strength and
beauty.
Genesis 2:24-25
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Mark 10:5-8
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one.9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
When the
most delicious meal is prepared just to your specifications, you don't look
at someone else's plate and desire to eat off theirs. No, you keep others from eyeing or taking a
bite from yours!
My friend was
able to combat this lie in his head and in doing so, kept himself open to
God's wonderful blessings of a good, Godly, beautiful wife and children.
If he had let that lie go, it might have tried to take root or at least
torment him later.
It's easy to get
rid of the little white lies; we just have to stay on top of it!! To do this, the
Bible instructs us to “take every thought into the obedience of Jesus Christ”
meaning, any thought that does not line up with faith or the Word of God, must
be fixed. This is also easy to do. God
promises us that we don't have to have any man instruct us. Ministers are led by
God to remind us and guide us to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit of
God himself. We must follow the Lord
on our own, others can only confirm what God has told us. How? The Holy
Spirit will bring the Word of God to our remembrance! :)
Romans 8 :13-15
13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.
The
person who lusts after shirtless men has never experienced the greatest of
all passionate romances as laid out by the wisest man to ever live, king
Solomon. He wrote a book called the Song of Solomon so we could see what true
romance really looks like, what God in his infinite wisdom had planned for
man and woman.
Song of Solomon 1:2
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more
delightful than wine.
Song of Solomon 2:16 My
lover is mine, and I am his.
Song of Solomon 4:10 How
delightful is your love, my sister,(in Christ), my bride! How much more
pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any
spice!
Song of Solomon 8:6 Place
me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as
strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing
fire, like a mighty flame.
Song of Solomon 8:7 Many
waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give
all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
Now,
in practice, he probably didn't get to experience this romantic kind of
relationship for his entire life because he was not saved and given the mind of Christ and the sin of his
father had come down upon him. The Holy Spirit would come upon him and write
through him. He knew the truth and laid it all out for future generations. All whose minds our renewed by Christ can
have this. Ester, Ruth and Boaz,
Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Mary and Joseph, all had one true match.
It is said that Abraham knew his wife Sarah; she was the most beautiful woman
in all the land.
Genesis 12:10
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.
1 Samuel 16:12-13
Then the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; he is the one.”
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
These
marriages were fulfilling until old age. Hey, Abraham and Sarah even got
together to have a son, (had to keep trying you know, they knew how a child
comes into this world), even when their bodies had otherwise told them to
just give up on the romance...God said 'nope, keep the love fires burning,
for I have a son to give to you! Woo hoo! That too shows how God intended
marriage and relations to be...lasting even until old age...goodbye nursing
homes and Depends, hello to Gods way of living and True fulfilling pure
romance! So, you tell that little white lie in your head the truth and
you gain will gain the victory and get stronger in your faith!
Another example of a little white lie
deceptively taking root was when Michelle and I did not quench the lie that
we had to pay big money for a house we already owned free and clear. How in
the world could this happen? A bunch of little, tiny lies we knew were lies
but we did not speak out and nip them in the bud one by one. This is the
devil's greatest trick "oh, I know the truth here, so I'll let this one
slide." Nope, bad idea. We ended up repeating a lie as truth, that we
KNEW DEEP DOWN was NOT true. Our grandma had left us her house free and clear
of any snags- only problem? She was relying on her other children who were
known liars to speak the truth and do the right thing. We could have turned
things around right from the beginning if we had not kept repeating their
lies that "they were supposed to give us the house." It sounds
right, but actually it was a tiny white lie that grew into a great big one. We
needed to speak the truth, “Grandma gave us the house.” Under God, (man's
rules do not always line up with God's rules), when Grandma told everyone she
wanted Michelle and I to have the house- that was it, it was ours. She knew
we were not selfish. She knew it meant we would be sacrificing and taking
responsibility for her son for the rest of his life- but she was raped of her
sound mind deceived / forced by brainwashing into giving the wrong guy power
to get it done.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments/imaginatons and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
1 Timothy 5:8
8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Brainwasher/con artist
John 10:1
7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me [fn1] are thieves and robbers,
If Jesus can take down the devil in the
desert with the truth, so too, can we. We thought "just get along with
them for now, don't make waves." But when the devil is staring you in
the face- MAKE WAVES! It's the only way to defeat him for his trickery,for he is
like a “trained, practiced, black
magician. He has been doing it since he asked Eve "Did God really
say?" Did grandma really give us the house? Absolutely!!! Good news!!!
We had to see it all the way through. Now we are speaking the truth, it will
make a change. Everything is redeemable, everything can be healed. The truth will heal the whole thing up and have it to happen right way, in
the Lord "All things work together for those who love the Lord and are
called according to His promise." So, we will have the victory now that
we know to always speak out against the littlest white lies. A little late
but just in time!!! :)
Comfort for the Contrite, Isaiah 57:14-15
“Build up, build up, prepare the road!
Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”
15 For this is what the high and lofty One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
More Than Conquerors, Romans 8:28
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, [fn10] who [fn11] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
I have a friend who is working very hard
to get all the little white lies out of his head so he too can walk in all
God has for him. Like myself, as a child he was told things about himself and
encouraged- even forced to do things he knew deep down were lies. "If
anyone causes a little one to sin, it would be better for them to have a
millstone tied around their neck and for them to be cast into the bottom of
the sea than what he will experience on the day of judgment." Matthew
18. Just the other day he told us he was told he had terrible handwriting.
Actually, he has a very good, legible script. Better than mine most of the
time, (that's why I type, so I can read my own writing :).
Matthew 18:5-7
5 “And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. 6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
7 “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!
Matthew 18:1-4 Let God heal your Childhood memories. Your faith in God is in those memories erased by the devil. Get it back!!!
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
This
is a lie he will have to eradicate. Along with all the others, especially
with food. They always forced him to go hungry so he has a different way of
viewing food. "If only I could just skip eating all together and live
hooked up to an IV." They made food fun for themselves but awful for
someone who burned 1,000s of calories a day and needed a lot to refuel. They
made him feel guilty for the bonafide hunger pains he experienced. He has and
is going back to those times when he was told "no pizza for you. no
cotton candy, no extra green beans even," and fix it so he actually
ENJOYED EATING- He will eventually learn to love all the good food
the Lord has for us, including fruits and vegetables that he just couldn't
stomach in that depressing and unhealthy environment, but it will take some
time to unravel all the lies and take every thought into the captivity of
Christ. But with each lie wiped away with the truth, a bigger part of our
minds is opened up so we can experience all the great things God has for
us!!!!
(Side
note, whether it's overeating or under eating, or not liking certain
natural foods- when we are abused, healthy things do not always appeal to us
because our abusers want us unhealthy and they will make it very unpleasant
to actually enjoy being and eating healthy. But NEVER FEAR! I had a hard time
with many foods until I got set free from my dad who messed up my eating
habits with abuse. The longer and farther away I got from that mess, the more
natural foods became pleasant and enjoyable for me to not only eat but to
prepare!!! Fast food is a drug to keep us from dying because of the pain.
It's a painkiller that the Lord says is okay to use until we are not being
beaten anymore. Until the hitting stops, we need something to ease the pain.
Then, the Lord can show us a better way! So, don't feel guilty for only
liking certain fast foods, etc.- just know, the closer you get to God your
tastes will change naturally on their own!:)
So, to sum it all up-
when the devil comes in like a flood- raise up God's banner against him!
Don't let EVEN ONE LIE go by unchallenged! This can be a challenge itself and
I am working on it myself. But remember, we don't always speak out to
convince others or even convince ourselves. We speak out so we don't get accidentally swept up in the devil's #1 trick...little, tiny, white
lies...
Isaiah 59
Sin, Confession and Redemption
1 Surely the arm of the L ORD is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are stained with blood,
your fingers with guilt.
Your lips have spoken lies,
and your tongue mutters wicked things.
4 No one calls for justice;
no one pleads his case with integrity.
They rely on empty arguments and speak lies;
they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
5 They hatch the eggs of vipers
and spin a spider’s web.
Whoever eats their eggs will die,
and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.
6 Their cobwebs are useless for clothing;
they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their deeds are evil deeds,
and acts of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet rush into sin;
they are swift to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are evil thoughts;
ruin and destruction mark their ways.
8 The way of peace they do not know;
there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them into crooked roads;
no one who walks in them will know peace.
9 So justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us.
We look for light, but all is darkness;
for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
10 Like the blind we grope along the wall, 10 Like the blind we grope along the wall,
feeling our way like men without eyes.
At midday we stumble as if it were twilight;
among the strong, we are like the dead.
11 We all growl like bears;
we moan mournfully like doves.
We look for justice, but find none;
for deliverance, but it is far away.
12 For our offenses are many in your sight,
and our sins testify against us.
Our offenses are ever with us,
and we acknowledge our iniquities:
13 rebellion and treachery against the L ORD,
turning our backs on our God,
fomenting oppression and revolt,
uttering lies our hearts have conceived.
14 So justice is driven back,
and righteousness stands at a distance;
truth has stumbled in the streets,
honesty cannot enter.
15 Truth is nowhere to be found,
and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.
The LORD looked and was displeased
that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no one,
he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm worked salvation for him,
and his own righteousness sustained him.
17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
18 According to what they have done,
so will he repay
wrath to his enemies
and retribution to his foes;
he will repay the islands their due.
19 From the west, men will fear the name of the
For he will come like a pent-up flood
that the breath of the LORD drives along.
20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,”
declares the LORD.
21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.
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