Don't Be Deceived About Being Deceived.

I don’t know what to say about Charlie Kirk. I am not an advocate of violence and in no way do I condone what happened to him. I also did not agree with his message or his tactics. What saddens me more is the venom of hate that I see coming from it. 

Sadly, we live in a time when people call evil good and good evil even the people who are supposed to know the difference. The great deceiver is actively working in our world and he is even deceiving people who we would consider the very elect among religious leaders.

It’s a crazy world right now. It’s very nasty and ugly. We used to be able to disagree and respect the opinions of others. I may not agree with you but I’m not going to attack you and I’m not going to waste my time debating you. I will just go my separate way.

We make heroes of people who have a message that is contrary to the Gospel. What is wrong with us? I am disturbed that many have been deceived by political activists who claim to support the message of Jesus Christ.

There are many warnings in the New Testament to be vigilant against deception.

Jesus cautioned his disciples to  "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many" (Matthew 24:4–5). He further warns that false messiahs and prophets will perform signs and wonders to deceive, "if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24).

The Apostle Paul gave warning that, "I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3).

The Apostle John advised, "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

Peter also gave warning that "there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies...and many will follow their destructive ways" (2 Peter 2:1–2).

Many people assume that anyone who speaks positively about Jesus is of God. However, false teachers can present a different version of Jesus or the Gospel that is not biblically accurate. The Bible also warns against seeking out teachers who say what people's "itching ears want to hear," which can lead to rejecting sound doctrine and chasing myths (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

So if the Bible gave us these numerous warnings then we should probably pay attention to it and not jump on the bandwagon of people who appeal to our political views.

Crabby Attitudes

Overlooking the Sea of Galilee is the Church of the Beatitudes. This is thought to be the location where Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount. Many years ago, I visited this site, our guide told us that the nuns at the Church of the Beatitudes do not like having tourists. In fact, they are known as the “Nuns with the crabby attitudes”. Ironic, isn’t it? The very location where Jesus preached a sermon on the attitudes a believer should have is the place you would expect to see it lived the most.

It isn’t that surprising when you see the attitudes of people today - even people call themselves Christians? There is a nastiness like we've never seen before. We need a serious attitude adjustment.

What did Jesus really say about our attitudes in the Bible passages which commonly referred to as the Beatitudes?

He said:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit."
Believers are supposed to be people who know who they are in Christ and not seeking the fame and fortune of a ministry. There are too many today who are promoting themselves and their own "righteousness" while hating others.

"Blessed are they that mourn."
This isn’t only referring to funerals or grieving the dead, this about someone who has true Godly sorrow. Those who mourn are very sensitive about offending the Spirit and very in tune with the Spirit. Are we concerned about others? Are we desperate enough to pray and mourn for them?

"Blessed are the meek."
Meek doesn’t mean weak. This isn’t about turning the other cheek when someone slaps us. Pride often gets in the way of our ability to be meek. We must be willing to surrender our will to His will and let go of our pride.

"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness."
We should be people who want to do what is right. We should be the model of integrity. Today there are those who call evil good and representing that good is evil. This means we must be careful of the friends we hang out with. We need to prefer people with the same goal of seeking after righteousness.

"Blessed are the merciful."
We should be experts in forgiving people. When someone wrongs us, we shouldn’t be plotting our revenge or allow bitterness to take root in our hearts. We should not be easily offended. Unfortunately, some people also seem to be looking for ways to be offended.

"Blessed are the pure in heart."
The only way we will experience God’s presence in our lives is to get rid of anything that will hinder us from having a pure heart. No hidden sins or making excuses for things that are not of God. 

"Blessed are the peacemakers."
We need to be people who seek peace and not desiring to stir things up. Instead of looking for ways to be mad at someone, we need to look for ways to make things right even if it requires us swallowing our pride and making the first move. We should give people the benefit of the doubt and not that everyone is against us.

"Blessed are the persecuted."
If we boldly identify ourselves with Christ, we will not be popular. Now is the time to take a stand. This is not a popular message today. Evil people do not want to be held accountable, and we will not be accepted for opposing them.

"Blessed are the believers."
We have to make a choice to either believe or not believe.  Our nation is attacking those who believe in the true meaning of being a believer. 

Have you ever seen a bunch of crabs in a basket? Put in a basket, crabs pull each other down in their attempt to climb to the top, which makes getting out of the basket an almost impossible task. In the same way, our negative attitudes can affect other believers. If we offer no hope, no encouragement to each other, we will not achieve what God wants us to do. Certainly, we all have our bad times or when we are going through trials. I’m not saying that we will always be sugary sweet all of the time but when our attitude is always negative, we must recognize the need to adjust our attitude back in line with the beatitudes.

Why Hurting People Hurt You

Ever wonder why people who are hurting end up hurting others?

Let me share my personal painful experience with this subject.

My parents were never a part of my adult life. They chose to move away and decided that having a relationship with me was not important. Throughout the years assumptions were made, and feelings were hurt.

Why am I telling you this? It isn’t a pleasant memory for me to write about, and my parents have passed away.  The reason I am telling you this is that I realized that the hurts we experience are serious and can poison other relationships in our lives. My mother was hurting and hurting people tend to hurt others.

It was difficult to try to fix things with my parents. There were times when we reconciled but unfortunately those times didn’t last long. Something always happened. Either I didn’t visit them, or they didn’t visit me, or someone said something or did something that created another rift followed by another season of estrangement between us. It was a constant and vicious cycle.

The issues between us tormented me greatly. No one would ever know how deeply I was hurt. Letters, phone calls and prayers never seemed to work. They would easily believe their negative assumptions rather than giving me the benefit of the doubt that I never was doing something to intentionally hurt them. It was a losing battle. I never resolved issues with my mother. The last straw was when she lied about having cancer in an attempt to manipulate me as well informing me that she had reconciled with my ex-wife for their rocky relationship while we were married. She felt that she could have this “forgiveness” with my ex yet couldn’t ever make any such an effort with me.

Manipulation and guilt.

These are the weapons of a person who is hurting. Hurting people will continue to look for more evidence to add to their list of hurts. My mother was hurting because she endured a lifetime of physical pain, depression when her father died and resentment that she was a preacher’s wife. This combination of negativity caused her to poison relationships and intentionally sabotage them to make her to appear the victim.

When my mother died, my dad didn’t call me. I was told by a family member as well as finding out on social media. I did not attend her funeral. What was the point? My dad didn’t want me there and my family had chosen to take her side in our differences. Everyone chose to believe her version of the story.

You see, people have things they go through that no one ever knows about it and are hurt by people they never, ever thought would hurt them. I never dreamed that my parents would not want to be a part of my life but that is the path they chose. I had to navigate through it. I learned that I had to set my own boundaries and know that I could have a life without them in it. It was hard but necessary to keep my own sanity. Let me tell you, there aren’t any nice Bible references I can give you that magically helps with these kinds of issues.

What you have to do is live your life above the hurts. Don’t let people who hurt you to cause you to hurt others. Break that cycle. If you don’t, you will live a miserable life.

A couple of years after my mother had passed, my dad got sick, and I spent the last two weeks of his life at his bedside. In those two weeks, we got to know each other better and I was glad to be there with him at the end. I realized just how much my mother had interfered with my relationship with him. It was a rough time for me, but I understood things a lot better. Did it make it easier? No but I got an understanding that I didn’t have before.

Don’t waste your life hurting. My mother wasted too many years hurting over wrong assumptions. It never had to be that way. I can tell you why this was never resolved, my mother never wanted to resolve it. She had this thing about being the victim and wanting the attention of being the hurt one. Things could have been resolved if we could have talked things out. She never wanted to hear me and only wanted to resolve it in a one-sided way which would be my concessions.

I don’t have any regrets. I tried - many times. I realized that I could only do my part. I couldn’t do the part my parents needed to do with theirs.

Don’t set yourself up with having regrets. Do what you can to resolve issues when you are hurting. The longer you hurt, the deeper the roots go into your heart. It poisons you and every other relationship you have.

Because of this experience, I don’t tolerate manipulation. If someone tries to guilt trip me because they are hurt, I cut them out. I’ve been through it at a level many would never understand, and I will not waste whatever years I have left trying to pander to someone who is hurting. My friends, life is too short for this. The Bible says it is like a vapor. It is here and then it is gone.

My mother was a miserable person. Her grudges and hurts kept her in prison that she created. She always held the key to get out of that emotional confinement, but she never used it. Don’t be a prisoner to your own hurts.