Photo by j_mills
“The Great Deceiver” is the name of a Bible study that several other men and I started this week. It focuses on how the devil, Satan, Lucifer…is VERY real and is an expert at deception. His greatest trick is to lure people into the deception that there is NO devil, NO punishment for sin, NO hell and NO Savior (since there’s no need for one). Jesus, as our Savior, is pointless. We can do what we want. When we die, we receive varying degrees of good things based on how good we’ve been.
People are eager to live in this deception. They can do what they want. They can cheat on their spouse, abandon their family, live for selfish gratification…all with no major consequence. I’ve been seeing a rash of this even among those who claim the name of “Christian.” They go to church with a smile on their face and nice clothes on their back. They pretend everything is great in their relationships and life as a whole.
It’s a big lie! When we don’t live up to God’s plan for loving relationships that are selfless and sacrificial, we WILL face many terrible consequences. I’ve had to face the broken hearts and lives left behind by Satan’s deception. Beneath the smiles on the outside, the pain of brokenness, separation and divorce runs deep and doesn’t just slip away in time. It causes heartache, suffering and pain for the rest of this life. AND, because God IS real and He HAS promised punishment for sin in hell, along with Satan, the suffering for sin is eternal. When we abandon God’s plan for relationships, there will be hell to pay.
That’s why we so desperately need a Savior. We need Jesus. We need His free forgiveness for when we follow the lies of Satan. Jesus does not lie. He WILL forgive us as we flee to Him. He will give us a new start from all the brokenness in our relationships. He will show us a way of sacrificial love that yields inner peace, contentment, joy and happiness. Even if we’ve been deceived in the past, we can start new…in Jesus. We can give up the lie we’ve been living. We can start to be honest about the way we’ve hurt others. We can join in worship as fellow broken sinners to confess to each other, forgive each other and walk forward in freedom with each other.
Don’t let the “Great Deceiver” rob you of the joy that Jesus wants you to have now and forever. Tell Satan to get behind you. Turn to Jesus and receive forgiveness for your failed relationships. Learn from Jesus how to live in His way. Humbly seek help from a pastor and fellow Christians who’ve been deceived just like you. Together we can expose the lies of Satan. Together we can reveal our own lies and be freed from their destructive power. Together we can walk in the truth and joy of the Lord forever.