DECEPTION

I Was Just Thinking About – DECEPTION.

An old saying states: “Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” It was expressed in the play by Sir Walter Scott, "Marmion". It referenced how complicated life can become when people start lying. In the play, it referred to a love triangle and how it complicated life.

Romans 1:28-31 dives a defining statement about the depraved mind of mankind: It begins with: ”doing what ought not to be done.” Obviously, deception was the key factor in the Garden of Eden when the serpent convinced Eve that God did not mean what he said about fruit from the tree of life. The serpent DECEIVED Eve and the reality of depravity began to infiltrate the human race. Paul defines it as: “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, DECEIT, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.  They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.” The infiltration is all-encompassing and thorough.

In Jeremiah 9:5-6, Jeremiah shares the lament about God’s people and the depths to which they had sunk and the lifestyle to which they had become unchangeably accustomed: “Everyone DECEIVES his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity. Heaping oppression upon oppression, and DECEIT upon DECEIT, they refuse to know me, declares the Lord. It had become something they craved to be and from which they refused to repent.

Paul also reminds us – Galatians 6:7-8 – the defining reality that each one must believe: “Do not be DECEIVED: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

I raise this point about the web of deception because of a current experience, namely, my primary email account having been hacked and all on that list of names was contacted with varying appeals for “stuff” and forwarding gift card funds, etc. Microsoft has tracked it to someone in Nigeria (but not limited to that place). The hacking causes a lot of angst and untruthful appeals. The best thing anyone should do is immediately send any such email appeal as being from me into SPAM.

I received many phone calls from those who were willing to assist IF there was a genuine need. I am grateful for each contact and the expressions of concern. I also regret that some may have been bilked by the DECEPTION and DECEIVER. It reminded me of the words in Second Corinthians 2:11 about the source of evil and wickedness in this world: “that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” First Peter 5:8 also reminds us: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary/enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (or to DECEIVE). Resist him…”

Prayerfully – consider these things with me!