Wednesday, September 02, 2009

thought provoking/ by p matti

JUST ONE FACE?
Jesus told his disciples to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,which is hypocrisy...” Lk.12:1Is it really possible to live our life with one face only?Isn’t it unwise?Hasn’t God given us an ability to mislead and cheat in orderto protect ourselves?What does it mean to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves”?Matthew 10:16Didn’t Rahab leave us an example of a person who was led by Godto lie and therefore was later promoted and honored by God fordoing so? Joshua 2Can we lie at least to bad people, if not to the righteous ones? Jesus was not just full of truth, He is the Truth. John 14:6He identifies Satan as the Father of ALL lies. John 8:44I don’t believe that Rahab had to lie in order to save the spies.She was not honored for her lies, but for her faith.Spiritual discernment and wisdom sometimes look like lying.Even the expression of our faith looks like a lie in the kigdomof darkness. When a Spirit filled believer says that he is a newcreation , Satan accuses him for lying and living in a denial.All statements of faith look like lies to the faithless world. We don’t need to lie in order to help God out.However, when facts are distorted and used for evil we should obey God more than men. Acts 5:29When the 12 tribes returned from their mission, ten of thembrought back the facts. Numbers 13, 14They were the majority and they all agreedin their testimony. Joshua and Caleb brought a contrary report.They looked at the same place with the eyes of faith and gavea positive report. Were they lying? No, they were simply looking beyond the visible, beyond thefacts in order to see the truth.