Stop Thief!
Imagine you are working as a cashier, and a customer comes in
and purchases a major item and pays for it with six one hundred-dollar bills. The customer takes his purchase and leaves.
The next day your boss goes to the bank to make the weekly deposit and is informed that there are six counterfeit one hundred-dollar
bills in the deposit. The company is out six hundred dollars; your boss is extremely disappointed in your failure to follow
the proper bill checking procedures. He has no choice but to let you go.
Now lets look at the same situation from a slightly different
perspective. Imagine you are working as a cashier, and a customer comes in and purchases a major item and pays for it with
six one hundred-dollar bills. You follow the proper bill checking procedures, discover the counterfeit money, and the would
be thief makes a hasty retreat. You inform your boss of the incedent and are rewarded with praise, an increase in pay, and
a promotion weeks later.
These same scenarios can be used to show us how we are expected
to deal with anyone who trys to fill our minds with unrealistic, or counterfeit information. We are warned to be on our guard
for deceptions, and deceivers.
2Peter 2 partial
But there also came to be false prophets among the
people, as also among you there shall be false teachers,
who shall secretly bring in destructive heresies, and deny the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2And
many shall follow their destructive
ways, because of whom the way of truth shall
be evil spoken of, 3and
in greed, with fabricated words, they shall use you for gain. From of
old their judgment does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.
Lets look at a couple of scenarios similar to those above.
Imagine you are sitting in a church, synagogue, temple or any
other place of worship. The preacher, rabbi, bishop or whomever is feeding the people information. The topic is about Christmas,
the Jewish calendar, Easter or some other topic. You absorb the information, and inwardly you praise the speaker for their
wonderful power of keeping the audience awake and enthralled. You leave the services and think to yourself what a wonderful
message it was, and that you will look forward to next weeks message.
Now lets look at the same situation from a slightly different
perspective. Imagine you are sitting in a church, synagogue, temple or any other place of worship. The preacher, rabbi, bishop
or whomever is feeding the people information. The topic is about Christmas, the Jewish calendar, Easter or some other topic.
You absorb the information and write down the Scripture verses that the speaker uses to justify his stance on the subject,
inwardly you praise the speaker for their wonderful power of keeping the audience awake and enthralled. You leave the services
and think to yourself what a wonderful message it was, and that you will look forward to next weeks message. Later that evening
and as you have time you review the Scriptures given, you use commentaries, and historical references to ensure that the interpretation
of the topic is Scripturally based.
As children of YHWH, we are tasked with a certain responsibility.
Through our faith (belief) in the Eternal, and our evergrowing love, respect, and reverance for Him we must listen to His
voice. His voice is the Scripture, He tells us that we must not take anything at face value.
2Timothy 2 partial
14Remind them of this, earnestly witnessing before the Master, not to wage verbal battles which is useless to the
over- throwing of the hearers. 15Do your utmost to present yourself approved to Elohim, a
worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly handling
the Word of Truth. 16But
keep away from profane, empty babblings, for they go on to more wickedness, 17and their word shall eat its way
like gangrene.
We are very fortunate to be living in this age of tremendous knowledge
and information. We have more resources at our disposal than at any time since man has walked the Earth. There should be no
excuse for not obtaining the true intent of Scripture.
The workers of iniquity have led people astray for thousands of
years. But we have to ask ourselves, where does the responsibility ultimately lie? Yes the adversary, his minions, and his
seed can cause people to sin. But is the blame to be placed upon them?
Are we not ultimately in control of our thoughts, actions, and
emotions?
We have the choice to make in every situation. We can take the
easy way of sin, or we can take the hard way, which is of the Father.
May we deal rightly with the instructions of Yahweh our wonderful
creator.
Shalom in YHWH's Precious name
http://exodus_20az.tripod.com/shalom/
