Good morning, brothers and sisters.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 4:1, “Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them.”
It’s not very often that the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the chief priests, or any of the rulers or religious leaders of the New Testament are praised or applauded for their actions and attitudes towards Jesus and His followers. They are generally derided as hypocrites and power mongers who manipulated the people through the rules and laws they had concocted that set themselves above the common Jew. But I do want to highlight one tactic of theirs that we Christians would be wise to incorporate into our psyche as believers, and that would be their insistence on fighting against the message that they believed was false and destructive. Now, I’m not so interested in promoting a strategy to wipe out all social and moral ills, but rather my intent would be to have us focus more swiftly and decisively on the error and ruin that is going on in our own hearts. For in that battleground, there is a cornucopia of distractions and enticements, habits and acquiescence that the Deceiver subtly presents as acceptable. And as we accept them with their false front and painted face, they become approved and agreeable, even though they are a complete subversion to the authority we have submitted to in Christ. It is this gradual transformation from having our ears finely tuned to Jesus to listening to our own impulses and preferences that needs to be blitzed with the force and ferocity that the religious foes unleashed on the message of salvation in the risen Jesus.
If we could recognize this assault within and acknowledge our part in aiding and abetting the enemy, then we could plea with our King to rescue us from the defilement that we have welcomed into His throne room. None of us is immune to the wiles of the devil, but neither are we without the Victor at our side. If you would take inventory of the passions of your heart, you would find that some are counterfeit and in disguise, set to go off and wound where you would least expect and want. So confess what you have become that hasn’t come from Jesus, and experience the eradication that the Holy Spirit can deliver on the sin of compromise.
As we seek Him today, stop believing the lie, whatever lie you have believed. Repent of giving Christ less than everything, and enjoy true refreshment.
Have a renewed Thursday.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
