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 scenario 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 listen to His voice. His voice is the Scripture; He tells us that we
must not take anything at face value and must diligently study so we are not
led astray from the truth.
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 Yah’weh our wonderful creator.
