In Spite of Myself

I think that most Christians today are severely lacking in their knowledge of the scriptures. I admit to my shame that I don't spend as much time in the Word as I should.

The Bereans "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:10-11).

This is a major problem, because in today's world we are constantly being flooded with things that are touted as being of God. Just attach the name of Jesus and anything goes.

And how can we know the difference between the Truth of God and the lies of Satan if we are not constantly immersing ourselves in the Word of God? The Bible has a lot to say about false prophets and false teachers.

"But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction" (II Peter 2:1).

"By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber" (II Peter 2:3).

 ". . . having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness . . ." (II Peter 2:14-15).

"While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage" (II Peter 2:19).

Matthew 7:15-20:

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

Also, we need to be very careful about the whole dialoguing and finding common ground thing. Finding common ground with someone is great if the purpose is to reach them with true Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (like Paul did). However, merely finding common ground with someone and then simply agreeing to disagee (the whole I'm okay, you're okay philosophy) is not something that we find in the Bible. At least I haven't found that yet. Nor do I find that Jesus came to earth to dialogue and find common ground with man. I see that he came to call sinners to repentance. Christ did reach people where they were, but he didn't get involved in the sinful things they were doing to accomplish this...he forgave them and told them to go and sin no more. God reaches everyone where they are at, but He doesn't want them to stay there. Too many professing Christians are still feasting on milk instead of meat. And so when the next thing comes along that looks "good" and feels "good", they assume it is of God and blindly run after it.