Monday Morning Munch No. 6 - The Art of Deception

The world lies. I'm pretty sure every true Christian realizes that.

But do we realize how subtle its deceptions appear? I mean, Satan has this whole misleading thing down to a glowing art that has the sinner--and sometimes saint--blinded.

I suppose that's why he's called the Father of Lies.

Anyway. The subtly of sin has been heavy on my heart this week and it has surfaced more than I've ever seen.

Or maybe I was just aware of its constant presence.

The following pictures were taken this week and are subtly deceptive.

The lesson?

Be on guard. The enemy is real and his devices cunning. Be sharp, stand firm and bathe yourselves in Truth (Truth is a Person, not a concept- John 14:6) through the Word of Truth so you can fight against the lies of the wicked one and his kingdom, the world.

Lies

 Okay, we'll start out with this easily discovered lie found in good ol' Walmart. 

Just incase you were tempted to try to and ingest something to make you more like God, just know that if you drink this you will, in fact, not gain eternal energy.

...Sounds strangely familiar.

Oh, right. It was Eve who tried to eat the fruit in the garden to be more like God. Yeah. That was it.

Lies. 

 Oh, look. Walmart again. 

This isn't necessarily a lie, but should be a wake up call to the deceit bombarding us and young people everywhere. 

"SinfulColors" professional nail polish.

Wow. Now you can have pretty, brightly colored sin on your nails for less than $2. 

Sounds perfect.

Again, this isn't really a lie, but tossing around the word "sin" flippantly, decreases its harshness and makes sin, well, less sinful.

This is broadcasting sin to be cool, hip and stylish as opposed to the truth that sin is the absence of God, offensive in every way and will lead you to an eternal torment. 

Sin is creeping in more and more and wants to be deemed acceptable in any way possible. This is just the first step, folks.

I really like Dove dark chocolate. Actually I like just about any kind of dark chocolate. In this case, Dove is known for its "Silky Smooth Promises," variously written in each wrapper.

Smooth is right.

A smooth lie.

"Do what feels right." 

Uhh, pretty sure God doesn't say anything close to that.

In fact, I think His exact words were: "If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel's will save it." -Mark 8:34-35

That doesn't exactly scream enjoyable feeling, now does it? 

Do not do what feels right. Do what is right no matter how it feels.

Where to start on this bag of ridiculousness?

"It's OK to be fabulous AND flawed."

To me this reads: "It's okay to sin because being flawed is the accepted norm and you will never be anything else."

Let's just get one thing straight: we are all sinners. We sin. That's what we do. And no, we can't change ourselves, but we can be changed.

We are changed forever when God replaces our heart of stone with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). When He does that, the new heart hates sin and loves righteousness. We do not become instantly perfect--in fact we will never be perfect this side of heaven because we still live in a fallen body--but we are no longer seen as flawed. 

For Christians, our lives are hidden in Christ with God. Hidden. Meaning unseen apart from Him. And thanks to the beauty of imputation, we are given Jesus' righteousness and His very character and Spirit at salvation, therefore we are no longer flawed because He is not flawed. 

Amazing.

If you are not a Christian, being flawed is still not "OK," as this eloquent wrapper tries to make you believe. 

God demands perfection. We can't reach it on our own, hence the need for the perfect substitute, Jesus. (For more on Him, read the Gospel of John.)

I'm going to wrap up my little expose on lies with these four, but believe me, there is more where these came from. Satan has a whole arsenal filled with lies and he fires them every minute, each one aimed to deter you from experiencing the person of Truth. Don't let that happen. Seek Truth and abound in it. Be aware of the lies and don't let even the most subtle one suck you in. 

"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ." -Colossians 2:8

Jesus and Jolly St. Nick

In department stores all over town there are signs hanging everywhere reminding you it’s Christmas time, advertisements suck you in to buying this or that, all in the name of Christmas. You get drawn in by all the sparkles, pretty colors and the holiday specials. Of course we all know that Christmas is really about Jesus and His gift to us, but that gift tends to fade in all the glittering lights of the over-decorated stores. Adults get caught up in shopping and children get caught up in what Santa is going to bring them. This leads to the question:

What if Jesus was like Santa?

What if all we had to do was make Him a list of everything we wanted, then wait eagerly for it to arrive Christmas morning? Maybe leave Him a few cookies and milk as a thank you, but that would be it. No more Jesus until we wanted something else. Like Santa’s bottomless bag of toys, Jesus would grant our every want and desire according to the list we sent Him. And Jesus would always give us what we asked for; we would never have any doubts about that.

Unfortunately, for some people this distorted version of Jesus is not that far off from the Jesus they serve, or rather the Jesus that serves them. Their fabricated ‘Jesus’ is more like a fairy godmother, someone who appears only when they need something, and is not unlike children who think only of Santa at Christmas when they’re waiting for him to deliver their presents.

Like kids who think they earned their gifts from Santa because they weren’t naughty is also similar to the belief of some so-called Christians who think they deserve heaven because they’ve been good or because their ‘nice’ outweighs the ‘naughty.’ Yet the Bible clearly says it’s nothing we do that grants us favor with God; it’s not works that save anyone; no one is good enough to be called righteous, no, not one. However, those false converts are not to be deterred, their ‘Santa-ized’ version of God’s Son dilutes God’s judgment, replacing it with the sparkly, glittery, warm-fuzzy, “unconditional love” God has for everyone.
I guess they missed all the verses about how much wrath God has for sinners.

You see, Santa is seen as the epitome of everything good and pure.

Jesus is everything good and pure. Even His holy wrath is pure, perfect, and totally deserved by every sinner.

Let’s do some more comparisons:

Santa works based off a list we send him. Jesus already knows our most coveted desires before we even know ourselves.

Santa gives us what we want. Jesus gives us what we need.

Santa instills no fear in the heart of anyone. Jesus is to be feared.

Santa is a magical fantasy, one that is shattered with the realization that he is just that- a fantasy. Knowing Jesus, on the other hand, is often magical, but He is not an illusion. However, you do have to be on guard for the lies that say Jesus is also only a product of someone’s amazing imagination. But once you’ve experienced Jesus’ power you’ll have no doubts of His realness.

Beginning right after Thanksgiving, parents take their kids to the mall to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what they want, yet hardly any parents teach their children that God wants them to crawl up on His lap and talk to Him. But even that produces the thought of another good thing, on the endless list of good things, about Jesus; we don’t have to wait all year to send Him a letter in the mail or go visit Him at the mall, because we have a direct line of communication with the Father and the Son that is open 24/7 and is faster than email could ever hope to be. Prayer.

No, Jesus is not like the boisterous, Jolly St. Nick we so often see around town this time of year, but Jesus should be seen as approachable as Santa. He did, after all, give His life for us. The least we can do is boldly approach Him with our gratitude.

So the next time you’re out rushing around the glitzy department stores for gifts, remember there is one gift no man can manufacture; the gift of Jesus. And Jesus is oh, so much better than the fantasy of Santa Clause. Jesus is real, alive, and longs to be the focus of our lives.