Overflow

I am always amazed at how Jesus ministered to everyone He met in a very meaningful way.  No wasted time.  No beating around the bush.  Never holding back.  But that's who He was when He walked on this earth, even to the point of death.  He not only gave what was needed, but abundantly gave more and more and more......  Of course, for those who know Christ, you know that is who He is and He is abundance!  More than needed.  More than hoped for.  More than expected.  More than our reasoning.  He is God!!!  A story that illustrates this point is found in John 2:1 -11 and it tells of a wedding in Cana that Jesus and His disciples were invited to.  This wedding had all the necessary things they needed to complete the celebration, but they soon exhausted their resource of wine.  Jesus mother brought this to His attention and He asked her what that had to do with Him because He was not manifesting Himself as the Messiah at that time.  Mary told the servants to do what He said even though she didn't apparently understand all this meant.  Jesus proceeded to have them fill up six stone water pots with water and dip in there and take that liquid to the headwaiter.  When the headwaiter tasted the liquid it had become wine.....all of it!!  Water to wine.  Not just some wine, but approximately enough wine to fill over 900 bottles of today's size.  Abundance personified!!  The touch of Jesus took water that was tasteless and made wine, of the best caliber.  Jesus took the bland and gave it taste.  It says His disciples saw the Glory of God and became firm believers and followers of Jesus.  They experienced the overflow and then lived their life out of that overflow.  Later in Jesus' journey he met a Samaritan Woman and gave her a chance to drink of water touched by Jesus.  (John 4:13-15) He told her that if she drinks of this water that she will never thirst again.  Once again, abundance!!  Overflow.  The definition of Abundance is plentiful. If we are to truly grow in Christ, then it will take more than temporal commitments of partial belief.  We will need to totally immerse ourselves in the glory of God and really believe.   In Acts 4:32 - 37, the early church experienced this kind of Overflow and it spread through their lives to others.  They called this community or communion.  The individual way that Christ was impacting each life was drawing them together into a community of believers and the source of their strength was the one who changes water into wine, Jesus.  Their "testimony" to everyone they met was "His grace is plentiful."  Who wouldn't want that.  If we truly lived with that as our hearts cry, we would impact all we came in contact with in an extraordinary way.

Overflow!!  What's keeping you from experiencing it today?  I would think a lack of faith and understanding.  The very thing that is available is the very thing we miss.  We have a weak perception about it so we ignore it.  Paul wrote to the church at Corinth that needed to experience this truth about the mercies that are available and how it is where we find true comfort.  In 2 Corinthians 1:5 Paul wrote, "for just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.  This water touched by the sacrifice of Jesus that satisfies our thirst is not only satisfying but ever growing in flavoring our lives to taste more like Him every moment of every day.  And that is what it means to be Like Christ, or Christian.

Here is what I'm praying lately.  Lord, be real to me and may your Holy Spirit show me your glory in my life and may I be a vessel that can be used by You.  May my flavor be something others want because of who You are in my life.  I promise you, instead of running out of wine when you need it the most, you will have an overflow of it that will be there every time.

Plenteous.....Abundance..........Overflow!!!

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

Where Is the Heart? Stepping Out of the Darkness

I was doing some light reading in the book of Leviticus today and it has an answer for about everything pertaining to living life.  When reading it I could quickly see that some of the "questionables" in our everyday living, were not questionable at all in the words God gave Moses.  Just look at Leviticus 19:21-37.  We tend to give argument for things we want and try to make it seem better by watering down what God "meant" in a certain scripture, at a certain time.  The children of Israel had the same problem, but in Leviticus those laws (and lots of them) were put on paper and they included many very conservative ways of living life.  Of course, we know about the children of Israel and how they would become distracted by every new thing coming down the pike and then they wanted to get rid of God "cramping their style."  The end result would be God distancing Himself from them and they would realize their sin and come back and on and on it would go.  The laws that were given were more to priests at that time and were designed to help keep sin in check and set a standard for living that showed the holiness of God when put beside man.  In reality God was showing them exactly what to do to live a pleasing life to Him both spiritually and physically.  And still they strayed.   So, why the rules if no one is going to follow them.  Why keep on putting up with these people that so easily stray.  Why take these nuggets of pure truth and waste them on halfhearted commitment?  Because God loved them!!  He loved them enough to show them the inner workings of what it means to be holy.  He showed them through rules.  And still they forgot!!

Warp ahead to today.  Does God love us?  Yes!  Does God want to show us how to live a holy life? Yes!!  Has He done everything that can be done to make that happen?  Yes!!!  Does He do it through some priest telling us how to live our lives and that is our source of strength?  NO!!!!  He has gone further than that.   Waaaaaaaaay further.  He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die once and for all for our sin.  He offers that salvation through faith in His Son.  He takes every bit of what he wrote through Godly men on paper and puts it in our heart when we receive Jesus.  He makes each of us priests, who have a calling or commission when we come to know Him to live for Him and thus represent the holiness of God.  He confirms all of this through His Holy Word and enabled Godly men to write the truths of God in the New Testament.  He takes away the uncertainty of life, of whether we will go to heaven or hell, by giving the ultimate sacrifice, His Son, on the cross.  He defeats death, hell, and the grave to give us the awesome hope of eternity with Him.  You would think that with those of us who are Christians that would be enough to compel us to follow Him.  But it's not!  We sit on our hands and never raise a finger when it comes to standing for His truth.  Not standing on his truth like a soapbox to hurt someone or beat them up.  But show them God's way, the better way.  We have become so nonexistent in our world that now they not only ridicule Him, but us for following Him.  And we smile and walk away....defeated.  We have everything we need to reach this world for Christ as never before and we are still caught up in making excuses to get what we want.  We trivialize the truth to the point that it looks more like an outdated mode of thinking.....BUT IT'S NOT!!

His truth is still the only pure truth, whether our nation follows it or not.  His truth is still the way to living a life of purpose and conviction.  His truth is continuous promised land, but we won't take one step in it's direction.  We have begun to believe the lie and discount God's Truth.  Where is this battle being lost?  In the heart...

I was talking to a group of Christians the other day about some of the questionables in our world.  Things that we have made ok in our lives resemble the world more than God and thus waters down our witness.  We say, "I want to let the lost know that I am approachable, so I will do questionable things to be hip and cool and thus share the message of Christ."  Wow.  Did you see the fault of that reasoning even before I finished the sentence.  Since we have been enabled to be priests through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we surely know the truth.  Since we have been put in this world to make an impact, we surely live the truth.  Since we are to be lights in the darkness, surely a light must shine.  Step out of the darkness in your heart and step into the light.  It must be done now!! But not with questionable lifestyles.   You know what I mean by questionable don't you?  If you know Christ, here's how it goes.  You see something that is no doubt worldly, but you desire it.  All of a sudden you feel something is wrong with it (conviction), but you want it so bad you start finding ways to get it and still be "good."  Here's a realization Sherlock!!  It's wrong and cannot be made right with your standard of righteousness, because your righteousness is filthy.  God won't make it right, just because you want it.  You have been marked as an easy prey by satan and he will be back for more to make your witness weaker with time.  Your heart is not pure and your motives are selfish because God is not in the mix.  What do you do?  Repent and plead with God to bring you back to the freshness of your salvation and then walk the path with His righteousness and purpose.  Paul said it well in his letter to the Philippians in Chapter 4 verse 8, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute.  if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on those things."

Are you dwelling on Godly things or are you dwelling on too many worldly (sinful) things?  You cannot truly worship God if you don't have this resolved in your heart with God.  In John 4 Jesus told the Samaritan Woman that God was looking for true worshippers who worship in Spirit and Truth, not sin and dishonesty.  Just keep this in mind....Just because you raise your hands in the air doesn't make you a true worshipper.   I think about that every time I lift my hands to Him in worship.  Total honesty.  It's a bummer, but it works. Let God show you where your heart is by showing God how much your heart is turned to Him.

We don't follow a book of rules....We follow a God who shows us the best way to live.  It's up to you to show if you really believe He knows the best way or not by how you perceive things.  His way is the best way.  Don't live a dumbed-down faith.  Where is the Heart?? It's right here.  Ready to be used by God.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

No More Dead Bones

Have you ever watched those shows like Dr. Phil when they have guests on who have a grudge against someone for years and they just can't give it up.  Dr. Phil will invariably say something logical to them like, "You've got some issues you haven't let go of and it is controlling your now and your future.  Then they will all talk about those issues of something that happened when they were a child and they thought they were over it, but to the surprise of no one, they aren't.  Then they talk it out and let the wound heal, have a group hug, and walk away changed.  Don't' get me wrong.  I think dealing with those things are vital to moving on in your life so you can get on with bigger and better things.  What if you don't get over it?  What if it is something so powerful and so lasting, you can't move away from it.  It consumes your every thought and no matter what you do, you feel like something is not right.

Believe it or not, that is what happens when you "give your life" to Christ at salvation.  If not nurtured and grown that seed of faith will not grow like it needs to, but you never get over it.  You can't "get things right" with a group talk session or a group hug.  It gnaws at you every day.  And the gnawing is not from what you ate that day or how good or bad your week is going.  The gnawing is the Holy Spirit (that is in you) drawing you toward a deeper walk with the Lord.  That is why an intense discipling of a new believer is so vital to their continued growth in the Lord.  When a person accepts Christ everything is different, but unexplained that difference can be confusing and sometimes frustrating.  The new convert knows there is "more" but they don't know what the "more" is.  So they think attending church and praying from time to time and quitting smoking, drinking, cussing, and hanging around with those who do it will suffice.  But as good as those changes are, they don't represent the whole "package" when it comes to knowing God.  Sometimes the person will even get in a new Bible Study and get charged up, to only fall back into mediocrity again......confusing.  Some people will get so frustrated that they totally drift away from God, church, and other Christians and sadly enough, that is the condition of the church of today in our country.  What's wrong?  Our bones are dry and disjointed.  There is not "meat" in our faith and our lives are listless and dead.  So we say, "ok.  I give up!"  Here's the thing....the gnawing doesn't stop!!!  You can't get away from it.  It's going to stay there until you let the Holy Spirit have full control of your life.

In Ezekiel 37 the prophecy went like this: 

Ezekiel 37

1 God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and sat me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. 2 He led me around and among them - a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain - dry bones, bleached by the sun. 3 He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "Master God, only you know that." 4 He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones: 'Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!'"5 God, the Master, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. 6 I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!" 7 I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and, oh, rustling! The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. 8 I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them. 9 He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, 'God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!'" 

I see the problem of our day and it is going to get worse, as long as we turn a deaf ear to God's call for us to BELIEVE again in these dry bones coming to life.  You may say, "What will it take?"  I believe verse 14 speaks to what must take place 14 I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I am God. I've said it and I'll do it. 

If you have not grown in your faith, or become lifeless in your walk, you need a fresh touch from God.   When you reesatablish that relationship, it will be like you have been saved all over again, when in reality you are now using the connection that Jesus established for you when you accepted Him.  I know for me personally it is a constant struggle at times to keep myself focused on learning more from the Master, but He is faithful to freshen me up continually as I do.  We have been drifting far too long and now the gnawing is the calling God initially put in our life and the only satisfaction and peace we will get out of life is when we "give in" to the call and follow God as we know we should.

The writer of Hebrews 2 made total sense when he said:  1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation ? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.  Are you looking at the signs?  Are you listening to His Call?  Are your bones ready to be put back together with meat on them?  Are you ready for the breath of God?  The moment you open your life to God in that way is the moment your heart will be complete!  No more gnawing.  No more drifting! Just direction, peace, and completeness.  Pay attention to what is going on around you and let God lead you and you will never drift again.  I think that is what Jesus was trying to tell the Samaritan Woman at their well encounter, don't you?  When you pay attention you will see that God is up to something huge and you are a part of it.  Now is the time to move....You will never be the same again....

The Pilgrimage continues......

David Warren

Wake Up!!!

I remember during my teen years a bad habit of not wanting to wake up in the mornings.  My  mom would call me again and again and I would just lay there like a dead man.  You could have set a bomb under our house and I would have just grunted.  In all honesty, I could hear my mom calling the whole time, but my desire to sleep overcame my desire to get out of the bed.  There were different things that caused me to want to sleep in; like staying out late the night before, not studying for a test I was taking the next day, etc.  I would even fake sickness in order to stay in the bed to satisfy my desire to sleeeeeep.  As I grew up and matured I understood there WAS a world functioning  before 9am and that it was probably the best time of the day.  I was able to get so much more done in the day and when I laid my head on my pillow at night it was a sleep of satisfaction, knowing that I had used my time wisely that day.

The sad thing is many Christians are content to sleep through just about everything God wants them to do.  God's plan goes on and they sleep, not realizing that there is work to be done and the time is short.  I had a minister say to me once, "God doesn't need us to get His work done."  That minister was also one of the laziest guys I had ever seen and he was using the thought of God's awesome power to minimize our part in all of this.  God can do all this without us, but He does it WITH us and THROUGH us.  Sometimes we think we are doing God a favor by serving Him and it is our feeble effort to say, "thanks" to Him for His goodness.  When Christ came into my life I couldn't help but show my love for Him by serving Him.  Every time I would see Him use me, it made me realize that I am part of this plan of His.  He gives me significance that drives a yearning inside of me.  A yearning to spend time with God and experience Him through His power and grace.

Sadly enough, as God calls each of us and His church to awaken out of this slumber we almost feel like He is cramping our style.  We hear Him and we even acknowledge Him, but we never immerse our life in who He is and thus, we continue to sleep.  Of course, sleeping or resting is good, and God even did that Himself.  But the awakening I am talking about is different than resting from labor.  It is a call for us to "wake up" and be active in our faith and belief that God is at work and we want to be at work with Him.

Can you hear the "alarm clock" as it goes off?  Are you trying to stay asleep and are you happy staying asleep?  If you are, then you need an awakening in your spiritual senses so you can hear the voice of God calling again.  Maybe you have been asleep so long that now it's going to take something loud and radical to wake you up.  Why wait for that to happen.  Awake today!!

God is calling and the world is out there needing wide awake believers serving in the power of the Holy Spirit.  The ole, "I go to church on Sunday and that's it" isn't' going to cut it anymore.  If you truly know Jesus, then you will take the Word of God where it says in Ephesians 5:14, "Awake sleeper, And arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

It's time to wake up and and let the light so shine in our lives so the world will see that Jesus is Alive!!!

The Pilgrimage continues.......

David Warren

Here We Go Again

I started reading a book the other day written by Jim Hylton, entitled "Supernatural Skyline."  Jim was the pastor of FBC West Plains, Missouri back in the 60's and he referenced the time he was there in the first chapter of his book.  In his reference he talks about the movement of God in that area and the fresh encounter people were having with God.  It was a breath of fresh air and affirmation when I read it.  He shared that the movement of God was one of the most significant of the day and in remembering it, I agree.  You see, it was out of that movement of God that I accepted Christ.  I was one of hundreds who received Christ during those days and the thousands affected in the years ahead all were connected to God moving during that time.  Numerous full time ministers came out of that movement, not to mention all the individuals that experienced the life changing power of Jesus Christ.  In reading the book, I realized that I had forgotten a lot of what God had done during those days and the memories  started flooding back again.  Memories of my salvation, my stand for Christ, and the life long change that became the pilgrimage of David Warren became fresh once again.  Something started then, impacted me for now.  My life was never the same again.

There were things God did in the town of West Plains that changed my life forever.  I surrendered to full time ministry at FBC West Plains,  and served the Lord there in two different six year time periods.  My wife Andra accepted Christ there as well.  Our kids learned to live a faith that makes an impact from the experiences there in West Plains.  We were fortunate to see numerous young people surrender their lives to Christ during our times there and also saw God move in extraordinary ways.  We saw a conference called Student Renewal, that started as a vision God put in my heart, grow from 120 in attendance to over 1,500 in attendance.  During those conferences hundreds received Christ, or rededicated their lives to live for Christ.  We were constantly attacked by satan with circumstances we could never plan for and God sent His people to protect and uplift us again and again.  I was influenced heavily by the Godly example of men like Dow Felty, a Deacon at the church, and Clarence and Roberta Barber, two people who saw after me and my family and made sure we could be all Christ had called us to be.  A dear lady by the name of Audrey Lea Stone prayed for me from the moment I accepted Christ until her death.  When I stood in front of the church after receiving Christ, she came through the line and put her hand on my heart and said, "David, God's hand is on your life."  Wow!  What an affirmation!  I also served with one of the finest Christian men I know, Jim Brill.  We saw God do things that we couldn't explain, but we will never forget in the area of church growth.  We had Godly friends like Grayson Gordon, Helena Spencer, Jeff Barton, Chuck Smith, Craig Miller, Doug Pierce, Doug and Steve Page, Kevin Smith, Ward Franz, and many more who were a constant source of challenge and encouragement.  So many people and so many great memories that seemed to, yes I believe, came out of that initial time of God moving in 1966.  You may ask, "Can it be?"  I  have to answer, YES.

We tend to minimize the movement of God by thinking of what happened at that time and then moving on.  In doing that we lose some of the attachments I believe we must keep with a visitation from God.  It's a lot like our salvation.  Sometimes I'm around people who accepted Christ at one time and now they are "over" it.  Over it!!  You must be kidding.  When we accept Christ a process starts that not only changes us, but everyone we meet.  That process starts tying all the events of our life with other things and people.  That's when the multiplication starts kicking in.  One life changed by Christ X the Holy Spirit = multitudes affected.  That is a God thing...Truly!!

Which brings to mind.....what is God presently doing in your life that is first of all, tied to your initial salvation and your call in life.  If you answer nothing, then you have missed the boat.  What's in the boat you missed?  Things like peace, hope, direction, vision, and happiness.  Many more than I can list, but the point is you want to get on that boat, called The Gospel Ship.  You need to get on that boat!!  If you have lost your fire for serving God.  If you have drifted from the mainstream in your relationship with Christ.  If you are a daily meal for satan because of your lack of prayer and faithful living.  If you are an observer of this thing called life.  It is time to change.  You know, turn around and go the other way.  You are headed in the wrong direction and God has a better way planned for you.  Why?  Because there are God moments you will experience that will not only affect you right now, but others down through time.  Your faithfulness today will make a difference for someone else down the road.  I was bound for hell in 1966, but God showed up and I repented and my life was changed for ETERNITY!  Not only mine, but everyone I've met.

Turn the ship around and say, "Here We Go Again" and this time, DO IT RIGHT!!  Today is another day for LIFECHANGE!!

Philippians 1:6  For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

A Darker Shade of Gray

Gray is a color that is in between black and white and considered a combo color.  Gray is the great non-committal color of the color wheel and is usually used as a background color to allow other colors to be seen better.  Why?  It has no life in it, or we might say, "it doesn't POP!"  The more you shift it to either dark or light, it becomes more that color.  Ex:  Put more white in it and it becomes more white, put more black in it.....etc.  The crazy thing about gray is that when you put more black in it you can make it totally black after a while, but when you put more white in it, it is not pure white.  The black color always bleeds through and keeps it from being totally white again.  The dark is a continuous shade that, once added to white, will never be pure white again.

This all relates to the spiritual condition of man and how we try again and again to make ourselves better Christians by doing more and more for God.  We think that if we follow through with the duties of the Christian life it will make us look more righteous, or white, to all who know us.  Our impression of what it means to glorify God in our life is by what we do and that makes us who we are.   When in reality it's not about us at all.  Think about the condition you were in when you accepted Christ.  You realized you were a sinner and that the only hope for you was in repenting and turning to Christ and receiving Him as your SAVIOR.  When you invited Him into your life, everything changed......spiritually!  Old things passed away and everything......EVERYTHING was new.  Then probably, no one told you what it means to develop that relationship with Christ, so you defaulted to going to church, reading your Bible (sometimes),  praying, and eating out with other Christians.  All of those things are good, but what is at the heart of you doing them?  Did this activity take you into a whole new way of thinking and continue to develop you?  Probably some, but not all you needed.  You see, these activities can become like a base you use, like playing tag, and the depth of your faith never gets too much below the surface because they become "habits."  Good habits....but habits.

Look at what Jesus said to the Pharisees when they cornered Him for eating with tax collectors and other scum of the earth. Matthew 9:12 -13  "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.  but go and learn what this means: I desire compassion, and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." It almost sounds like Jesus doesn't have much trust in "the righteous" and so He finds true honesty in sinners!  In a sense, that is true.  Back to this default way of living.  If we live a certain way, and feel like we are better than most, then we might start categorizing  people by how we see ourselves.  Our duty becomes our "medal" and not a result of realizing who we are and who Christ is.  Our very motivation for living the Christian Life can be wrong and result in a very nominal faith at best.  On the other hand, when we have a deep appreciation for the power of Jesus working through our life and daily allow Him to do heart surgery on us the whole thing changes.

Breaking it down:  The more we put our duty into our faith, the more gray it looks and no matter how much "white Christian service" we put in the paint, it still looks gray.  The result is a very work oriented faith that is more about us than about Him.  But the more we throw out the paint and start from ground zero with a true sold out life of surrender to Him, the more pure white the paint will be.  Years ago we used to call this "rededicating our life" to Christ.  What happens is we come to the point to where Christian games don't satisfy us anymore and we throw the whole thing out and start fresh with a whole new outlook and faith walk.

I accepted Christ when I was 12 years old and had little or no mentoring in the faith.  I was tapped on the heart by God when I was 20 years old and He reminded me that I was His, but I had to let go of all my wrong impressions of Him for the past 8 years and start fresh.  I am 57  years old and continue to live out of that refreshing at age 20.  White.......White.......You know  what they say, "When You Go White, You Lost the Fight!!!"  I gave in to Jesus and started a friendship relationship of honesty that to this day makes me never want to live a gray life again.  The same heart physician who changed my life continues to work on my heart every day to make me more like Him.  The process hurts from time to time, but the end result is being more in tune with Him.  Paul wrote about the result of this sold out living and what will  happen when you tap into it.  This is so encouraging for individuals and for the church!!

Ephesians 1;16 I couldn't stop thanking God for you - every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. 17 But I do more than thank. I ask - ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory - to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, 18 your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians, 19 oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him - endless energy, boundless strength! 20 All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, 21 in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. 22 He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church.23 The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.

So If you want to live in the purity of a faith that changes you drastically, then it's time to color out the gray, and let the "white light" be seen in your life.  No more darker shade of gray.  Just a whiter shade of white....every day.  

The Pilgrimage continues......

David Warren

The Society of Deception

Do you ever feel like there is something wrong in the world we live in, Christian and Non Christian?  I mean, do you ever step back from everything that is buzzing around and think, "I think I'm being deceived!"  The reason I mention Christian and Non-Christian is because it happens in both spiritual conditions.  Of course,we would like for everything to be hunky Dorey, and we turn a blind eye to things in our world to make sure our impression of the true condition of things comes out smelling like roses.  But these roses have thorns don't they?  In the last days, the Bible states that there will be sugar coated truths and ways of thinking that will draw us into their trap and our thinking will be cloudy.   In those days, the truth will be preached with just enough slant to lessen the effectiveness it needs, so that it will be received by all who hear it.  In other words, not lying, but deception.  Sometimes we think that lying and deception are the same things, but they are not at all.  Lying is an untruth that is easy to spot and easy to discern and you have to be bold enough to handle the pressure when you tell a lie.  But deception, oh deception, it's much more subtle than lying and way more deadly.  Why?  Because it takes a course of action that allows half-truths to look more like truth than lies.  You want to call it a lie, but because it has been lurking in the shadows of innuendoes, you can't put your finger on it and say, "that is a lie."  In Joel Gregory's book, Too Great a Temptation, he spoke about the deception of a particular preacher he served with and called what the preacher said as, "double talk."  I too have experienced this "double talk."  Double talk is where you say one thing to generate some reaction or thought process to make something go your way.  The heart is evil, but the words and actions sugar coat the truth to make it come out smelling like a rose.  Our buzz word for it would be "political."  You may recognize this kind of action that mirrors what the Scribes and Pharisees did when dealing with Jesus and His Ministry.  They even put Judas out there to be the fall guy for them and then dropped the hammer when it came to owning up for their part in it.  It was deception at it's best and the end result was the death of our Savior.  Deception continues to try to kill the gospel of Jesus again and again through misused power by men and women of God.  To the point, that the witness of the evangelical church and Christians in general has been minimized and lost it's effectiveness.  You can believe that Jesus would not have put up with even the first hint of this type of deception that is running rampant in the church of today, much less accept it.  Years ago I knew of a pastor who would not openly lie about things, but he would manipulate the truth to get his way and then use someone else for the fall guy.  The fall guy served out of commitment to the authority of the pastor, and in the end took the brunt of any criticism that should have gone back to the one who manipulated the truth of it all.  It's almost unimaginable that this could happen in the modern day church, but it has, and there is more on the horizon if we don't get a handle on holding each other accountable.

It's a sad testimony for the gospel of Christ when the actions of Christians run parallel with the world and you can't tell the difference between the two.  I believe our world is what can be called "The Society of Deception."  Nobody wants to own up to their untruths, and we do everything we can to keep ourselves from looking bad.  The truth is, we are bad.  Bad to the bone.  Our righteousness is like filthy rags that are not good for anything in the area of cleaning.  Isaiah said in 64:6, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."But the righteousness of God is pure and makes a positive, lasting impact on everyone who sees it and hears it.  We need to stay away from The Society of Deception, and the best way to do it is quit following man and giving liars a free pass.  If we will look through God's eyes of discernment we will be able to see the real truth and deal with that and not the mirage.  If we let this continue and don't stand up, the end result will be souls lost and Christians deceived.  Follow God.  Don't follow man.  There is something wrong, and no manipulation of Scriptures for personal gain will ever be able to hide the real truth.  Let's give God the glory, not ourselves.  

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren