I’m pretty sure that when you were young, your parents checked who you were “hanging” with. Why? They didn’t want us to be “led” into the temptation of doing wrong, getting with the wrong crowd. Who watches out for you now? Do you know your Bible well enough to know if your pastor is leading you in a straight path to heaven, or if his/her lifestyle has influenced their doctrine? Not asking you to judge anyone, it’s just if you sit under the teaching of a Charismatic person you can be influenced to think like they do. Think of all the people who followed the infamous Jim Jones into committing suicide! It has become a catch phrase in our society to say someone is willing to “drink the kool-aid.” To preach the Word or tell the truth, even if it is hurting you, is to be a real leader. OK so we say the leader is responsible for our salvation, faith or belief system? No, that is wrong, YOU are the one that is responsible! Matthew 15:14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Jesus puts the responsibility squarely on our shoulders there! 2 Corinthians 4:4 If our Message is obscure to anyone, it’s not because we’re holding back in any way. No, it’s because these other people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention. All they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness. They think he can give them what they want, and that they won’t have to bother believing a Truth they can’t see. They’re stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get.
Sometimes we see the truth but a “feel good” Gospel is so much easier to swallow that we find ourselves being led down the “garden pathway” of lost souls. Luke 13:23 A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?” He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God.
“Discernment”, is like wearing night vision goggles in a totally black room! Sometimes it takes putting on those goggles in the darkened world in which we live to see what’s going on around us with any clarity at all! Pray for spiritual discernment, we are talking about your eternal soul’s salvation!
Happy Thanksgiving!
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