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Years back, Gary Chapman wrote the book The 5 Languages of Love. In practical terms, his point was you may show love how you like to receive love, but if your spouse or children have a different love language than you, they do not see or feel your love, even though you deeply love them. An example would be if a husband’s love language is acts of service, he may be confused when he does the laundry or grocery shopping and his wife does not perceive those as an act of love, viewing it as simply performing a husband’s duties. This is because the love language she understands is words of affirmation (verbal affirmation that he loves her).

Interestingly, Jesus told us how to show our love for Him in His exchange with Peter about love. He asked Peter, “Do you love me?” He followed Peter’s affirmation saying, then “Feed My sheep”. When Jesus asked him the same question again, Peter assumed from him following Jesus that Jesus knew he loved Him, but he was totally missing the point Jesus was making. Telling Peter to feed Jesus’ sheep would mean that Jesus wanted Peter to own Jesus’ passion for other people, not just Peter’s interest in other people. Jesus’ love for people is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, which is a selfless type of love for others shown in practical ways—especially for their spiritual welfare. God is not interested in sentimental jargon or in doing for others what we think they want or need. Loyalty to God was birthed in us when we were spiritually regenerated (Ezekiel 36:25-27, NIV). There will be such a deep desire within us that we will be careful to do what He wants done, not what we think needs to be done. This type of transformation can only be something the Holy Spirit can plant in a person. This type of love will prevail when we choose to do God’s will, even when it makes little sense to us or what is asked is contrary to what we desire. We start out with such love, however, neglecting to nurture that desire will allow it to be smothered by our self-centered sin-nature.

How have you been showing your love for God? …the way you like to be loved or the way God implanted in your heart when you were first born again? If you haven’t experienced that kind of love for God, you have an incredible experience awaiting you. It is like a positive traumatic experience that results in an inner joy and confidence that influences your desires and how you interpret life. It literally changes the trajectory of your life. If you determine to invest in becoming an apprentice of Jesus, doing so will be able you to sustain that love and joy for the rest of your life!

Why don’t you see others who once experienced that transformation but no longer show it? It is because they have fallen into the trap the Jesus described the believers in Ephesus had done. After affirming their efforts to do noteworthy deeds, He then said, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.  Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV). Repentance means to turn around 180 degrees and go the other direction in how you are THINKING. The context of this passage shows they had drifted away from loving Christ from their hearts and loving Him from what they falsely assumed was what He wanted. Christ was saying to them much the same basic thing He had told Peter. If you really love me, you will have My heart and engage in expressing it to others as I express My love to others. The consequences for shifting away from having and not showing that kind of love are severe—Him removing His Spirit from one’s life. Yikes!

False expectations are one of the primary causes of conflict, whether it be at work, in business, or in relationships. Such expectations reveal anemic communication. If there is a vacuum in what is not said, our mind will fill it with biased and inaccurate expectations.

Authentic faith is packed with expectations in the face of great risk. But this hope is based upon obedience to what the Spirit has implanted in your heart. Presumption (false expectations) is based on a mix of imagination and scripture taken out of context. Those components can concoct what sounds exhilarating until it ends in heartache. Those cursed expectations can crush us.

A false assumption or misunderstanding, tragic loss, or crisis exposes the depth of trust in God’s sovereignty, love, and wisdom. Judas Iscariot is a classic example of this. It becomes clear when you compare his failure with Peter’s. Judas’s imagination of Jesus being king and how it would benefit him led him to try to do what Jesus’ mother Mary did to Jesus. In John 2:2-8, she essentially pushed Him into performing His first miracle of turning water into wine. Judas’ fantasies plus the miracles he saw Jesus do motivated him to try to force Jesus to use His power to become the earthly King of the Jews. He was so crushed after he realized his mistake; he committed suicide. In contrast, Peter’s failure led him to weep bitterly (Luke 22:62), yet he knew Jesus well enough that he repented and stayed the course and His relationship with Jesus was restored.

David wrote a verse that is very revealing of God’s ways of working with us. “You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth.” Psalm 71:20 (NLT2). This addresses the depth and width of God’s love and grace. As the Father did with Jesus, He will allow us to “suffer much hardship” in order to reshape us more into His likeness. But, like Peter, we must focus on His character and stay the course.

The writer of Hebrews also allows us to see God’s ways of working with us. Referring to when God shook the earth and spoke to the early Hebrews, he wrote, “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.  This phrase, ‘Yet once more’, indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain”. Hebrews 12:26-27 (ESV) This reminds me of shaking rugs to get the dirt out. There are times when our understanding of God, our belief system, or presumptions will be shaken so violently that whatever is not deeply implanted in our inner being by His Spirit will fall out. Why? So that we can find just how strong our faith and love for God really is. What is genuine will not only remain, but it will also be taken to a new level of faith and love in Him. How do I know? Connie’s graduation has violently shaken my life to the point where I felt so lost as to where to step next. But in His amazing grace and love, He is shaping my love and faith in Him to be stronger than ever. All the dust hasn’t totally settled yet, but from what I can see through the fog, my relationship with Him and trust in Him is tighter than ever.

What kind of expectations might you have of God? Are they based on what you been told or what you have found to be true through your study of His Word and the trials He allowed you to endure? Christ is making a church, “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27).

In one of my recent devotions, I read Mark 10:14-15. The words seemed to jump out at me and continue to do so day after day. I suspect you also can relate to that happening to you. Here is how that verse reads. “When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, ‘Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.  I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.’” Mark 10:14-15 (NLT2) The embolden words are the words that provoked deeper thought.

In the first place, the concept of the kingdom of God was Jesus’ most repeated messages. The above Bible quotation was Jesus’ words to Peter and another disciple when a crowd was waiting on Jesus to come to heal them or see healings. “Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come’” (Mark 1:38, NIV). He was saying He didn’t come to earth just to heal people. More importantly, He came to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. That placed a premium on the good news of the kingdom of God. Strangely, the kingdom of God sounds like a foreign language to us these days.

What was it He was so concerned about? “The Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.” What was it about little children that He was intending to point out? He was referring to the innocent trust a child has for their parents.

He doubled down by saying, I tell you the truth, which in the Bible it means Pay very close attention to this because it is absolute truth! He is getting very serious when He then says, “anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it”. Woe!! There is no gray matter here! That grabbed my attention. Again, “like a child” does not mean you can only receive or enter the kingdom when you are a child. It is in reference to having the faith or trust in the King of the Kingdom as a child has for their loving parents.

The first question that came to my mind was, am I living out that level of trust in God? Do the choices I make witness that kind of trust in God and whatever His word says? Being impatient with God is childish, but is not childlike trust. There is a gaping difference here. Childishness in an adult destroys the very character of God. It is poutingly saying God has not fulfilled His promise to me. It implies God’s actions must be pressed into my time schedule and done my way. It is the frustration of a baby who cannot control his/her parents, which is the very opposite of trusting the parent’s love and wisdom. That is why I cannot judge God by my finite knowledge base. I must practice trusting and obeying, even when I do not understand or like it, as was the case with my wife’s death. God says, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine” (Isaiah 55:8, NLT2).

To enter the kingdom, one must become as a little child, not in the sense of innocence, but in the sense of simple unquestioning trust. I definitely have had faith. But as I have been seeking Him more intensely due to Connie’s passing, I can clearly tell my faith is becoming more childlike and that has been a strong encouragement to me. What might it take to motivate you to lean into knowing Him more? Is it going to require near crushing pain for you to move closer to God? Just remember how Jesus described the required type of faith that allows you into His Heaven.

Years ago, I had been watching a junked 1955 and 1956 Thunderbird that were sitting in the weeds. The owner offered to sell them for $300, which then was very reasonable, yet still a lot for me in those days. When I finally was able to save enough money to buy them and went to purchase them, they were gone. The owner told me he had just sold them the previous week. I missed my dream of buying those classic cars all because of my bad timing! So many good and not so good things happen all because of timing.

“Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket” (Proverbs 25:11, NLT2). I’ve been saved from making a poor purchase because someone gave me advice just at the right time. Car accidents happen, or don’t happen, all because of timing. On July 13, Former President Trump was shot in his ear instead of his head all because he slightly turned his head at the right time. It obviously wasn’t his time to die. The Bible says, “…after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died…” (Acts 13:36, NLT2). I believe it was after Connie completed her God given assignment, she too died. “Everything has its own time, and there is a specific time for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, GW).

In 1 Kings 17, God sent Elijah to hide by the creek Cherith that flowed into the Jordan River. There, God fed him by the ravens, and he drank water from the brook. But the stream dried up—remember God had sent him there! But God’s grace for that time and place lifted because God had another plan for him. He then told Elijah to go to Zarephath, which was north in what is now Lebanon. There, a widow was gathering wood to make her last meal, so it was time for His servant Elijah leave the dried-up creek and allow God to work a miracle through him for this poor woman. In Exodus, God used a pillar of fire and a cloud to move the Hebrews at the right time. Jesus had been working miracles, but when He went to Nazareth, God lifted His healing power given to Jesus so there, He could only do a few unimpressive deeds. My point, God gives His grace and lifts it because He has a time for everything. This is true for your life and mine. He is working when we can’t see, feel, or hear it. That also goes for our politics these days.

Can you take a moment and try to imagine what our trinitarian God may be doing throughout our world today? He is not just planning and setting up the props to be used at just the right time for one person. He is doing it for each person, animal, fowl, or all of nature. How absolutely awesome and mind blowing is that for you to even try to imagine? In that context, remember, Jesus said, “Dismiss all anxious care for your lives, inquiring what you are to eat, and for your bodies, what you are to put on” (Luke 12:22b, WEY). Paul wrote, “Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers, ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart.  And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7, TEV)

Try to imagine your life with less worry or anxiety and freedom to enjoy all the provisions you already have. Less stress would certainly allow you more time to follow Jesus’ command to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, ESV). The reality is, our ‘need’ to be logical, controlling or to know everything gets in our way of living the more abundant life Jesus promised. (John 10:10) The depth of this truth has been taking on new meaning to me since Connie graduated into His Heaven.

While there is controversy about this, I believe God does speak today to those who will listen. This sounds presumptuous or risky to those who imagine our God to be too holy, distant, or busy to interact with humans today. Bible students who believe some form of this (cessationists) are convinced God stopped talking to people and doing signs and wonders when the apostles died. (1 Cor. 13:10-11) They contend the Bible is what is “perfect”, not Christ’s return.

Could it be, akin to science, the teachings of the Bible can become clearer and more substantiated through church history and present-day experiences, implying that certain interpretations of scripture were made too soon? Time has now shown that we were created to interact with God. He not only speaks to us but literally works through us, as did the Spirit through Jesus’s humanity when He walked on this earth.

Personally, I can point to hundreds of times when I intuitively knew that I knew His Spirit spoke to me. As I then collaborated with Him, things happened that only God could do. Since my wife graduated into His Heaven, I have experienced His still small voice encouraging, guiding, correcting, supporting and teaching me more about Him and His ways from the written words in the Bible. Yes, there have been times when I took my own initiative to do what I thought to be right, yet they proved to be what I only thought God might want, not God’s voice. To be candid, today, I do not trust my thinking unless it is confirmed in God’s word.

I have observed God is talking to us far more than we are hearing Him. Most everyone deeply wants to hear Him, but they don’t because they haven’t learned to recognize His voice when He does speak. It is like having several phones with multiple lines. When He is calling us, we pick up the wrong phone, one connected to audible human voices or the voice of our thoughts or emotions, instead of the still, small, intuitive voice deep within us. When we obey the wrong voice, we get confused and even blame God for giving us the wrong directions.

Interestingly, when we do happen to pick up the correct phone and hear His voice, quite often He is telling us something different from we expect, so as soon as He hangs up, we start having ‘second thoughts’. We think what He said does not make sense because it’s contrary to what we expect Him to say. Then we have third and even fourth thoughts that we think are better options.

Reality is, God has created us to for intimate fellowship with Himself. The Bible is full of times when He spoke to people. (Ex. 29:43-46, Ps. 23, John 15:11) We expect to talk with our close friends. If God wants to be close friends with us and we to Him, why would we expect Him NOT to want to speak with us? However, unlike our close friends who only want to speak warm fuzzy things with us, God wants to be a closer friend who will tell us things we need to change in our life so we can live a BETTER, more abundant life. He knows that the pursuit of glamor, wealth, power, or popularity is a dead end, so he will guide us in a more fruitful direction. Jesus said, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things (context: food, drink, clothing) will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, ESV). Hearing God makes sense only in the framework of the practice of living in the will of God. He has NEVER misled me in 78 years on this earth. When He asked Connie and me to go against our desires or logic, our obedience led to transformation, abundant fruitfulness, and gratification.  What has He been intuitively speaking to you?

Dominos is a favorite because it is so versatile. There are over 100 games that can be engagingly played with the identical elements and the age range can run from kindergartners to the elderly. One that I have been attracted to is when you stand them on end, maybe an inch apart, in a snake-like shape. When the first one is tipped, all the rest will fall.

It is fun when you set up your finances just right so that when one domino falls; you will reap a windfall of money. The more sobering domino type is when events in finances, health, or international conflict are set up that tipping one of them has the potential of tipping all the rest, leading us into depression or world war. I recently read in the news that a study group focused on international affairs said our world is as close to world war as have ever been. The last very tense time came when I was in high school. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 happened when Russian and the United States were in the Cold War. There was scary talk about nuclear bombs and building your own bomb-shelter.

The Global Peace Index (GPI), the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness, reported our world is at a crossroads. We have 56 conflicts going on, the most since World War II. But beyond that, given how nations align themselves, it means 92 countries are involved in conflicts beyond their borders. The more notarized conflicts are the Russian-Ukraine and the Israel-Arab wars. Our own nation is facing a highly divisive condition when facing a hostile presidential election. Given the dockworkers’ strike, our days ahead could get very dark.

I point those matters out only to help us acknowledge it would not take too many dominos to fall for our world to be severely shaken. Jesus warned us about these world conditions when He said, “you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately.  Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world.  But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come Matthew 24:6-8 (NLT2)”. Cf. Mark 13:7-8 He then said situations for Christ’s followers would become horrible!!

Given that warning, it begs the question; how then should we be living? The most important answer won’t come from others. It will come from what your inner being (spirit) is saying to you about you. Living in denial at this time will not be in your best interest!! As for me, the Bible has proven to be the only truth that has endured through time. But the Bible is of no use if you don’t know what it says about how to live. Jesus said multiple times, “he who has ears to hear (is open to hear), let him hear (Mark 4:9 NIV)”. Clearly, not everyone who has ears will hear. Jesus’ disciples heard and wanted to hear more clearly, so they took the initiative to ask what He was really saying. He said to those who asked; “you are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not (Matthew 13:11, NLT2)”. My point is, unless you are eager enough to discover for yourself what the Bible says, you won’t like the price you will pay.

Yes, there’s “more to come”. World conditions are warning us it’s time for you, and your loved ones, to get deadly serious about discovering for yourself what the Bible says. There are other qualifiers in the Bible and only those that endure to the end will be saved. But, Jesus said, when you find that treasure, you will gladly “sell all that you have” to own it. (Matthew 13:44-46)

Several years ago, I learned about the Johari Window. It is a self-awareness test that shows how blind we are in how we see ourselves. Think of it as an iceberg that has far more beneath the surface than what is visible. It is made up of four quadrants, each representing a different aspect of human interaction.

• • • Open area: What you know about yourself and are willing to share with others.
    • Blind area: What others know about you, but you don’t know about yourself.
    • Hidden area: What you know about yourself, but don’t want to share with others.
    • Unknown area: What is unknown to you and others.

This model was often used in corporate settings to help improve relationships and communication by understanding conscious and unconscious bias.

The Johari Window reveals everyone is blind in some areas of their life. It is easy to see in political figures who are certain what they see is right when others can see their idea leads to destruction. It is also true of our spiritual life. The Psalmist and Prophets referred to this condition as having eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear. Isaiah wrote for the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers) (29:10 (ESV). An example of this is also seen in the Jewish leaders who refused to believe what Jesus said. At a different level, Jesus’ disciples were blind. Jesus repeatedly preached for three years about the kingdom of God. Nevertheless, they still didn’t ‘get it’ until Jesus ascended into Heaven!

People in the church today have varying levels of spiritual blindness. Our perception of God limits what He can do in our life or through us. A few examples of this are…

• • • Unbelief (shown in not being willing to take a risk with or for Him).
    • Pride (personal knowledge or experience, doctrine, way of worship).
    • Past wounds, sinful habits (gossip, prejudice, addictions, contempt, thinking like the world).
    • Need to control.
    • Too busy to spend time seeking God. You no doubt have others that came to you.

Of course, we are not able to ‘see’ the blind areas in our life, and that is a most sobering thought to me. My personal prayer is that God please protect me from myself, the foolish decisions I make due to my blind area. Recently someone fixed my collar at church, which I appreciated. Later my ‘fly’ was down, but I didn’t see it either. I NEED others to be candid with me and tell me what I don’t see about myself, but not just about my apparel.  We all NEED each other to be candid with us and call our attention to spiritual or social blind spots we have. Have you given permission to your friends to do that? How else are we going to become like Jesus?

Paul wrote some very sobering words that we often attribute to others who are spiritually blind. Romans 1:18-22 (abbreviated -NLT2) But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God … Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

 I urge you to get alone with God and ask Him what truth you have been suppressing because it is too scary to face. God wants to bring spiritual sight into those areas so you can live an increasingly free life in His presence and His likeness.

I’ve been doing a deeper dive of Isaiah in my current personal devotions. As I journal, I receive more dynamic revelations about God in some sections than in others. Most recently, the context in Isaiah 43 is the Jews in captivity in Babylon. The Spirit is inspiring Isaiah to prophesy to them that although He had to send them into captivity for their sin, He still deeply loved them (as He does when He disciplines us). Paul describes this same love when he wrote, God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8, NLT2).

Through Isaiah, God tells those in captivity He is going to bring about a new exodus out of Babylon. It will be far more awesome than their exodus out of Egypt or their liberation from the Assyrians—two armies of two world empires. In each case, in a single fell swoop, God drowned the best Egyptian army and destroyed the powerful Assyrian army in one night through a plague! I couldn’t even imagine a power of that magnitude! And we stew about an election or skirmish between the Russians and Ukrainians or between the Jews and the Arabs or the economy. Let that word-picture soak into your heart and inspire your inner being!

As Isaiah was writing this prophecy, something happened to him. It appears a fresh wave of the Spirit crashed upon him. I wonder if it might be like being on the top of a very high mountain looking over the surrounding mountains. From that height you only seek the peaks, not the valleys. You are just amazed at what appears as a nearby mountain range. Isaiah got so excited that what his spirit envisioned about this new exodus began to blur with real time. He tells those in captivity to forget about those things that he just wrote about. God is going to do a new thing!

The wording could give the impression that it’s talking about their return trip from Babylon. Yet, if you take a closer look, it reveals itself as something much greater. In verses 19-20, he discusses the transformation of the wilderness into a flourishing garden with flowing rivers. This change would lead to even wild animals and birds praising God. The reality is, nothing even remotely like that happened when they came back. Was God or Isaiah misleading the people? Not at all! If you read the next verse, God refers to people He has formed for Himself, who will declare praises of Him. Stop and consider. How would you describe the spiritual state of Jews today? Most are not ‘practicing Jews’ and are far from sharing God’s values. Even so, there was a small group of Jews who remained devoted to God during that period, just as there are today. The same applies to the church in modern times. There are ‘overcomers’ who are serious about being apprentices of Christ. These are the ones who God is forming for Himself. Paul writes …as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25b-27, ESV).

Isaiah’s words became so alive and dynamic to me when I realized Isaiah was writing like Jesus talked—in parables. The words could apply to daily life, but what Jesus said was really about spiritual truths. (Matthew 13:10-13) It not only showed me God’s sovereignty, wisdom, and power, it also boosted my faith in Him resolving life’s troubling circumstances. If God has such things all planned out and under control, what is the big deal about the frightening things going on around us? They are really NO BIG DEAL in the light of our God. I can now relax and be more child-like as He said we should be.

The term ‘friend’ today has a wide range of meanings. If you ‘friend’ someone on Facebook, you will be able to see each other’s comments, etc., but you can just as easily unfriend that person for any trivial reason. Some boast of how many friends they have on Facebook. However, this would be the loosest use of the term possible. From that base level, there is a wide spectrum of use of that term. Try to name at least one for each classification.

1. Acquaintances

These would be like your neighbor whose name you know and maybe their job, or someone you chitchat with at the library, coffee shop, or at your job. You don’t make firm plans to see each other, although you might be neighborly.

2. Casual Friends

With friends of this sort, you socialize and talk about colleagues, maybe a job change, or noteworthy events, but you don’t reveal your deepest secrets. Your casual friends are tied to your hobby, profession, and occasionally coffee or lunch.

3. Utility Friends

These friendships are based on both parties receiving help from each other in some way. They might be business partners that share financial interests but disagree in various other areas. They are common and regular, but they can be impermanent and change over time.

4. Mentor/Coach Friends

These are the individuals with whom you share private information but only to enable them to better help you improve in an important area of your life.

5. Close Friends

These have earned a VIP pass to your heart. You feel genuine affection and concern for each other, therefore spend hours with each other nearly every week. They are friends with whom you openly discuss personal matters, dreams, and fears. They know your quirks, favorite ice cream flavor, and do vacation with you. They are like co-pilots on your life journey.

6. Intimate Friends

These are your few soulmates of friendship—the ones who know the secrets within your heart. Your shared trust enables you to freely share everything. You are with them every free opportunity and you talk about anything and everything. They’ve seen you at both your highest and lowest points. Solomon describes them when he wrote, there are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24, NLT2). The Bible tells us Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God (James 2:23, ESV). His belief in God was seen in how he took the huge risk of packing up all his belongings, leaving his hometown and friends, and headed east to a city that didn’t even have a name! It was also seen in his willingness to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.

I’ve shared this so I can ask this question for you to ponder. In real time, where might you classify your relationship with God? You see, it is within the context of intimate friendship that transformation occurs. It is through authentically living out this relationship we become more like Him. You cannot become like Him just by attending church, seminars, or mission trips, as important as those opportunities are. It is absolutely true, without that relationship, all a person has is religion. I can tell you from personal experience, a continued intimate relationship with Him is without an equal. You then know deep within that it is well with your soul. It will provide you with the greatest sense of well-being possible on this planet earth.

Do you remember how many spam calls you got last week? If you accidentally answer their call, you soon discover they all have a sales pitch, trying to sell you a desirable product or play on your fear of losing something very important. It is always a scam of some sort. A person I know responded to spam in the last 30 days and it resulted in a loss of well over $100 thousand dollars.

Have you considered the possibility that there are also ‘religious’ spammers? They too have a pitch offering simulations of true worship that sounds Biblical but is really appealing to a god created in man’s image—created to please the soul or flesh of mankind. Their liturgy and teachings appeal to the mind and/or emotion over one’s spirit and are based on ‘cherry picked’ Bible verses. They offer a way to go to God’s Heaven that will include most everyone, no matter the kind of person they are (not were). Most religious spammers are not bad people. Most are good, well-meaning individuals. They simply are not students of the Bible nor apprentices of Jesus and therefore they preach or teach other speakers material.  They were simply spammed by what they heard or have been taught or may not have had much of a personal encounter with the Bible God that changes everything.

How can you know if you attend a spammer led or ‘progressive’ oriented church, or one that subtly deconstructs what you know the Bible does says about God? Unfortunately, far too many attendees don’t personally know what the Bible actually does say about God and His truth because they don’t know how or haven’t taken the time to personally find what it says. Churchgoers come to hear what their pastor tells them the Bible says or their unique spin on what they think He intends to say in His Word. It’s like eating at a fast-food place with unhealthy ingredients you wouldn’t use if you cooked the meal yourself.

Interestingly, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV). He wrote in the previous chapter a cure for avoiding religious spammers.  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15, ESV). The original word translated Do your best literally means to be eager, zealous, diligent, make every effort, to do your utmost, to do what? To … present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. It is noteworthy that Paul tells you what to expect when you zealously or diligently study scripture. There are four things it is profitable for; teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Did you notice it is NOT just to soothe your bruises or pump you up? The scripture’s teaching helps you get a clear understanding of truth, reproof points out errors when you read or hear them, correction straightens out the curves or distortions in your life, and instruction is to help you know how to make correct decisions and align your values and ways to those of God’s kingdom.

By handling real currency, you can learn to spot counterfeit money. By consistently studying scripture, God’s truth is stamped in your heart so you will intuitively sense if what you hear or read is spam. How are you positioning yourself so God can imprint His truth in your heart so you can spot spam when you hear or see it? If your plan is anemic, I strongly urge you to take responsibility for protecting yourself and those you love from the prevailing winds of deception.