Deep Deception

Deception is real and the Christian must stay on guard.  The recently concluded a study on my radio program from the book of Nehemiah.  God reminded me many things from that study.  One of the things was how Nehemiah dealt with conflict.  There was all kinds of conflict in the life of Nehemiah.  There were those who came from without, and made fun of the nation of Israel as they were seeking to follow God.  At one point in the book the adversaries pointed and said, “Look, a Fox could knock down that wall.”  Discouragement began to set in.   There were times when Nehemiah fought battles from inside Jerusalem.  Family units not getting along with one another.  Individuals criticizing others, some taking advantage of their brothers. 

I thought about the opposition that we as Christians face today.  One such real threat is the threat of deception.  And there are a lot of threats from the outside that would try to deceive us, but one such threat comes from within the evangelical camp itself. The church is fallen victim to a very deceiving doctrine.  There is a deception and the prosperity gospel.  It is subtle but real.  Their are a lot of people today who think, “I should never suffer, I should never have a need, and I should never be down.”  Many today have the attitude:  I should never have a want to my life.    The prosperity gospel sounds so spiritual. 

But I think the prosperity gospel flies in the face of the life of Joseph.  Recently, I've been studying the life of Joseph in preparation for a sermon series.   For years he was down in the dungeon.  Joseph was falsely accused, and condemned without purpose.  The prosperity gospel is not the message of the Bible and it is not the message of the early church.  It is not the message of men and women of faith throughout the church, who have faithfully served God through good days and bad. 

The more we pursue such deceiving doctrines, the more we will end up like pampered children.  Getting everything we want will not turn us into soldiers for Christ.  God will sometimes put us in the place of difficulty to prepare us... Not to prosper us!

Yet because we live life in such a prosperous society we have our eyes fixed on the wrong things.    Hebrews tells us: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”