Waiting in line with my husband to check into our hotel, my eyes caught sight of a beautiful flower arrangement just a few feet away. Knowing Richard was well capable of taking care of business without me, I made my way to the table where the colorful specimen was on display. A bright red/orange blossom drew me in for a sniff, but to my astonishment and instant pain, the once alluring flower penetrated the inside of my nose.
Ouch! What in the world? I had been fooled through ignorance by a cactus plant, believing it to be something it wasn’t. Lesson learned: do not trust everything you see. Looks can be and often are deceiving. Although this shared painful story happened to me many years ago, I have never forgotten it. However, deception, as you know, is not limited to “beautiful flower arrangements.” With technology, the dark side of humanity threatens even the savviest among us. Stolen identities, stolen property, bank accounts, and the list goes on, revealing how individuals are vulnerable and exposed to the tricks and fraud of modern-day perpetrators.
This same darkness has tragically infiltrated the Christian church. The apostle Paul warned the church in Corinth not to be naïve. He learned that in his absence, some in the church were buying into a false doctrine being peddled by false teachers. Paul was angry with the charlatans, yes, but he was even more frustrated that the people with whom he had spent time living among and teaching about the life and lessons of Jesus Christ could so easily be distracted and led astray. Now, over 2000 years later, people are still being fooled by false doctrine, disguised in the name of “love” and “acceptance.” “If it sounds, feels, and looks good, then it must be good.”
Read the words from the Book of 2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (NKJV).
Friend, I leave you with a final quote from Jesus Himself: “Behold, I send you out as sheep, in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
