What’s the meaning of applying your heart to understanding? We say apply common sense to your problem. So we  say apply your heart to understanding? Apply lotion to you skin; apply your heart to understanding, that means put your heart into understanding.

ESV says incline your heart to understanding. I think first treasure God’s word or command in your heart, then listen with spiritual ears carefully to wisdom, exegete the wisdom, extract the wisdom of the word of God, and then apply this understanding to your heart. Knowledge and understating means nothing if we don’t apply our hearts to it. It will still be just head knowledge, but not heart knowledge.

This is the sequence:

Store up God’s words within you

Or treasure up God’s words in your heart. That means read it carefully, slowly, digest it, pray through it, and ask the Lord to open your eyes that you may see the wonders of his law. A good helpful tool is a study Bible to cross check . Though remember this tool acts only as supplement, the most important thing is the meditation between you and God. I sometimes read the commentary notes from my NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, Zondervan, which I highly recommend. Then I think through what it means from historical, theological perspectives to intersect what my thoughts are with God. They may be good or may not be relevant at all, but it’s good to take a look when you need it, though not all the time.

Sometimes, in fact, the times that really impressed in my heart, is when I felt impressed in my heart a certain verse as I read through the passage of the day. It’s amazing how the Holy Spirit works, and indeed this blog is written with a verse that’s stuck in my mind, Prov 2:2 in my morning devotion this morning. I haven’t had a verse stuck to me this way for more than a week or two. So I decided to expound it. So when that happens, I look it up in the commentary, read it in context, and pray and ask the Lord to open my eyes. Prayerful meditation is the most powerful way to exegete a passage. With eyes closed and a calmed down heart. If you feel a verse quickened or spoken unto your heart, it will stick with you, and that’s the treasure of that verse, or store up God’s word, ESV & NIV bibles, depending on version. KJV says hide my commandments with thee. Hide, put it inside of your soul.

Make Your Ear Attentive to Wisdom

It means listen carefully to the wisdom of that verse, with you heart and ear. With all your heart, ask questions, analyze it, think about your own life, let it flow through your soul, soak in your being. Come out of the closet with God a changed person. Meditation is the single most powerful way to connect with God together with worship. Without the Word (Bible), we can’t worship properly. The Lord says you will worship him in Spirit and truth. They go hand in hand.

We crave for wisdom. I try to read Proverbs, every other day when I read Psalm daily, with meditation of course. Take your time in the morning. Remember, not being legalistic, prayer and meditation is best on mornings. Psalms 1 does say blessed is the man who meditates upon the word of God day and night. So morning and night. Proverbs provides multitude of wisdom.

And Apply Your Heart to Understanding

Proverbs 2:2 (ESV)
2  making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;

After you treasured the word, then listen carefully, finally apply your heart to understanding. You got understanding from the first two steps, you want to apply your heart to it. Usually we say apply understanding to your heart, but it’s the reverse here. ESV says incline your heart to understanding. Incline means lean into it. Feel willing or favorably disposed toward (an action, belief, or attitude)

Favorably disposed towards understanding. Incline means favored towards it. Favored towards understanding. In a sense, you may get understanding, but you may dislike it, or unwilling to embrace it, and hence reject it. But the wisdom exhortation here is to be favorably disposed towards it. You like it, you feel drawn towards it, you feel convicted, touched. All words to describe it, it’s very important emotionally we are drawn towards it. The presence of God must be there to happen.

One we have inclined to understanding, our decision making will be favorably disposed towards God’s wisdom, understanding, and this will make a lot of difference in life, this will make a difference between life and death, good marriage and bad one, good children or bad, good ministry or distraught ministry, and the list goes on and on.

Finally, Jesus is the wisdom, the logos of God.

John 1:In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Christ is the embodiment of all wisdom and understanding, all things were made through him and for him. Accept Jesus into your life and walk with the Holy Spirit daily, for the Lord Jesus is our redeemer, he opens up the door to commune with God who is the source of all understanding and wisdom. Jesus changes our hearts. Run to Jesus every day, and pray and read and meditate. God bless!

Darel E Paul wrote an article in First Things in June 2020:

Queerness has conquered America because it is the distilled essence of the country’s post-1960s therapeutic culture. The therapeutic originates with Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. From its beginning, the goal of psychoanalysis has been the salvation of the suffering self. Therapeutic practices of introspection seek to reveal the unacknowledged sources of psychic suffering. Sexual desire plays an especially prominent role in therapeutic narratives. For Freud, sexual drive was the engine of the personality. He believed both men and women are bisexual in nature and direct their sexual drives toward diverse objects. In this way, the therapeutic not only obscures gender differences and grants wide berth to atypical sexual expressions, but it also blurs the distinction between normality and pathology, making every self a neurotic one on an eternal quest for “mental health.”[1]

A real important eye opener to many of us from where exactly queerness come from? Didn’t know that it’s all about therapeutic culture which is ordinarily aimed at identifying and reducing and managing psychic suffering. The therapeutic started with Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud believes men and women are bisexual in nature and his therapeutic obscures gender differences and gives rise to this unusual, atypical, abnormal sexual expression which is called out numerous times big time in the Bible. So this is very important for us Christians to understand in our applications of the scriptures to this present days of sexuality and transgender craze that’s erupted aggravated by the present administration.

Yet the therapeutic turns traditional American individualism into individuality, [2] wedding the former to a romantic sensibility of the self as a unique and creative spirit whose reason for existence is its own expression. [3]

This is one heck of description on the rationale and cause of queerness, which Carl Truman has also written brilliantly. Essentially it all boils down to self-expression. It was Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1992 who argued that it’s the woman’s right to define one’s own concept of existence, and the mystery of life. It is such a departure from honoring or at least acknowledging at least where a person comes from to be given such heavenly right, to define life? Who are we to define life as we like?

Former  Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who in 1992 famously defended “the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” …. as he constitutionalized same-sex marriage in 2015 as an expression of the right “to define and express [one’s] identity.” [4]

Who is Anthony Kennedy to write that kind of opinion? That argument is really putting man and woman in the place of God to define life. How do we get to define life, if we didn’t create life on the first place? Who gave us that authority to define life, calling it as our right. Like driving on the road is a not a right, it’s a privilege, so better drive carefully, not exceeding speed limit, etc., all these aimed at protecting the lives of other drivers on the word, pedestrians, and us too! Same thing our life is a privilege, an honor bestowed by the Almighty God, not a right that we have. God can take it away anytime, anywhere, anyhow he likes, or God can create life and put in a woman’s womb any time, any where, and any how. Surely he will stand before God one day and face the wrath of God.

The therapeutic organization together with the queer group has taken it to another level. Using rational logic argument, they demanded not only for authentic self-expression, (notice it’s all about self, to the exclusion of the family, community, and God), but also for social recognition. Darel Paul wrote:

The therapeutic demands authentic selves that are not only expressed but also socially recognized. Mental health professionals …. Under the therapeutic, they now advocate for the wholesale transformation of all of society in order to facilitate self-actualization. [5]bIt’s called self-actualization, defined as “highest level of psychological development where the “actualization” of full personal potential is achieved, which occurs usually after basic bodily and ego needs have been fulfilled.” [6]bThis is why simple tolerance is wholly inadequate, for without recognition, selves will internalize a sense of inferiority and thus fail to become authentic.[7]

Therapeutic argues that without recognition, selves will suffer a sense of inferiority, and hence fail to become authentic. Again, in the name of needing to be authentic, they pushed for recognition. But the question is, we should settle the question if its right or wrong first, before going into being authentic. The thing is, you can be authentic to be yourself, but authentically wrong! Have they thought of that? To pull the line of conclusion based on authenticity is insufficient, and deficient. It has to be based on right or wrong, that’s where one goes back to the Bible, which us abundantly clear about queerness being wrong.

Romans 1 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Their women changed natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. What’s that? Of course, in the context, it’s the relating between a woman and another woman, which is termed as unnatural. Men committed shameful acts with other men. What’s it called? Shameful. That’s God’s Word, not some mere mortal’s opinion. With that, who wants to be authentically in the wrong side?

1 Cor 6 9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men

Clearly men having sex with other men will not inherit the Kingdom of God. He may inherit the riches and pleasures of the world, but the Kingdom of God will not accept him, and that’s for eternity

Again:

9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 

So again homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanders, swindlers, all with not inherit the kingdom of God.

[1] Darel E Paul, Under the Rainbow Banner, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/06/under-the-rainbow-banner

[2] Individualism: the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant. Individuality: the quality or character of a particular person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially when strongly marked.

[3] Darel E Paul, Under the Rainbow Banner, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/06/under-the-rainbow-banner

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Self-actualization, in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is the highest level of psychological development where the “actualization” of full personal potential is achieved, which occurs usually after basic bodily and ego needs have been fulfilled.– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-actualization

[7] Darel E Paul, Under the Rainbow Banner, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/06/under-the-rainbow-banner

Attended a good talk by Dr James Anderson (RTS Professor) today on The Reformed Response to the Problem of Evil. Fascinating if you think about it, an Almighty omnipotent omnipresent and omni knowing God would tolerate or allow the even mere existence of evil in this world? By the title of omnipotent, surely it is within his power to have stopped that. But he could possibly be framed as micromanaging God or all controlling God, and that pops in the most lethal question of “Free Will”. I believe this “Free Will” issue is the single most important and palatable answer to the whole question of evil.

Let’s take the case of the original sin by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 . It is absolutely mind blowing that it takes literally less than an hour for Satan to trip up Eve and Adam to the collapse of the entire mankind, in handing over the dominion of this entire earth, world, cosmos from Adam to Satan, and it activated the salvation redemption plan of God into action, sending the most powerful precious very Son of God himself God, to a wooden cross for torture, bleeding, blasphemed, slapped, mocked, ultimately separated from God the Father, to act as the lamb of God sacrificed to take the judgment of God upon mankind. Jesus became the Savior of the world, by a sacrificial substitutional sacrifice as the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

All these to describe the deep damage that’s been inflicted upon mankind and even God himself, by a single act of temptation by Satan in the form of a serpent. No one can believe that Eve is not premeditating upon taking the forbidden fruit, her desire to be like God, meaning taking over ultimate control of herself over her life, effectively sending a message to God, “I want to be in charge of my life, not you”. She essentially rejected God, and put her onto the control seat. And her husband of hers who’s supposed to be in charge, meekly and tamely consented to such the most important and biggest decision in life, without struggle, argument whatsoever, much to my shock and dismay, and to the disgrace of the entire man race. But the point here in this essay is God “allowed” it, with full foreknowledge, with full “power” able to intervene and even killed the serpent if needed. But the entire discourse of the interaction between Satan and Eve, God was visibly absent. Did he see all these happenings, of course he did. He knows everything, but remained quiet. Why? The only reason I can think of is that he gives enough free will choice to mankind to choose him or the power of self-autonomy. In a sense he watches from behind to find out what’s really in a man’s or woman’s heart that he created in his own image. The troubling part for me, which I have no answer to, is that God knew before hand, but that’s not too bad, but the doctrine of predestination truly throw me off in this.

Did God predestine that? That will not make sense. I can see that he foreknew that or foresaw that, and he let it float, so therefore in a complicit way, he predestined it. But he did not predestine it, to become evil, he predestined it to let it play it out, in order to bring out his ultimate beauty and glory in his selfless love to save entire mankind by dying on the cross to save them. (Anderson’s point on bringing out the better good) We humans would not been able to perceive God’s love today as the way we see of the cross, without the cross. But there would be no cross needed without the falling into sin by Adam and Eve! So in a roundabout way, this helps me to understand better. I can see that God, in an indirect way, predestined the fall of Adam and Eve to bring about his ultimate glory, by letting it float. The other doctrinal issue is that the Omnipotent holy God created Adam in his image. So does that mean that the image of God is flawed? If it is so, that won’t be Adam’s fault, should it be God’s fault? How dare would I say that, but God’s image is put to the test, to see what’s really in God’s created man. I keep coming back to this, it seems. But some may argue doesn’t God already know what’s in their hearts? Sure he does, but he will let it play it out from knowledge into experiential, and that’s bringing knowledge into reality. That’s big, and important.

In my mind the predestination of Christ to be crucified on the cross is a hugely heroic selfless sacrificial act by God in response to the fall of Adam, and as such definitely in line with who He is. But the predestination of Adam’s sin, will not be in line with God’s character of holiness, compassion, righteousness. 

Therefore I called it a complicit predestination of Adam’s fall, while the predestination of Christ’s crucifixion was totally glorious and reflecting who God is.

With that, I will say God allows evils to let it play it out to the fullest and ultimately express his glory and love to us. Amen.

Psalm 4: 6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”
7 You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.

“Who will show us some good?” That’s the question everyone in the world is asking for themselves.

We Christians asked the same question again and again especially if our answers are not yet answered. I wonder Samuel’s mum will be asking that question when she pressed unto the Lord and cried unto the Lord pleading with him for a child, as she was barren and was mocked by her husband’s second wife. The Lord out of his exceedingly goodness and kindness, answered Hannah on the spot and she became pregnant. I wish that would be the same case for many thousands of Christians praying to the Lord and crying to him, not on something not legit, but totally in line with the scriptures. How about praying for your child to come to Christ? How about for those parents crying to God to make amends on the wayward behavior of sexuality of their kids? I have heard of heartbreaking stories of men and women unto God and some have rightly claimed their shaking of their faith in their belief in the goodness of the Lord. That’s always the dilemma of Christianity, a mystery that we somehow cannot put our hands on. To exemplify the cries , it seems the Lord doesn’t hear. I don’t know if certain prayers will ever be answered in life or not, even if takes 40 years of Moses cries to liberate Israel from the slavery bondage of Egypt, that will be phenomenal! Regardless, that will be a solid answer from the Lord, no one can dispute. Moses delivered by the power and glory of Yahweh, the like of kind that’s not seen or heard in the entire world, 4000 years ago, and still up to this day. No one can challenge that. Hannah’s cries unto the Lord, brought forth one of the most prominent prophets in the Old Testament, Samuel. What a sweet fragrant answer from the Lord, and she promised to the Lord to offer him to the service of the Lord at young age full time. (Good he doesn’t even need to apply for full time ministry). I have yet found a case where the prayers and cries of the saints not answered by the Lord, have you? I haven’t. What does that tell us, if God doesn’t answer our prayers, or not yet. But there again, Jesus did say that Elijah was sent to the leprous in Samaria, but not in Israel. I am sure many Jews with leprosy would have cried out to the Lord, but they never got sent a prophet to heal them.

Of course there is this argument that says the Lord our God is sovereign, and we will put our trust in him completely, and his love endures forever, and he’s faithful. That’s what we shall hang onto even without seeing clearly what our future, or their future hold. Some parents prayed for their kids to come to Christ, and after like 20 years, they came to Christ. Many have testified on the faithfulness of our God. We shall put our faith in him, Amen!

That’s where this psalms seem to fit in well, among many others.

Or “Where can I find some good?” Or “How do I get some good for my life?” That’s what David describes as ‘many’ who say….”

David’s response to that question is “Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” David’s immediate default response is he turns to the Lord. He didn’t turn to his career advancement, not to some pleasures in the world, or some ball games he can attend, or some Broadway show. He immediately cried to the Lord asking the Lord to shine the light of his face upon him and them, the light of God’s face means the favor of God, the presence of God. You see how important the favor of God is? Nothing else matters, or compares even remotely. God’s favor is all what it matters.

Lately I have been thinking of this myself. I am sure we all have things of requests and petitions we have made and making continually crying out to him in prayers. Have we gotten the favor of God? Have we gotten the light of the face of God? Remember David was so successful,

1 Samuel 18:¹⁴ In everything he did he had great success, because the Lord was with him.

It means God was with David. And Calvin rightly commented on it, that David’s sole primal wish in life is God’s favor, God’s presence with him, above everything else in life, above every seeming prosperity in his life, which he had plenty.

God can give us more Joy in Our Hearts than any Abundance from the world

A godly answer that David provided in this Psalm, is that he finds more joy in God’s favor, presence than all the things, pleasures, comfort and ease from this world.

Psalm 4:6–7 (ESV)
6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”
7 You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.

That’s the case. David is so firm in his conviction that there is more joy in his heart when the light of God’s face shines on him, than whatever the world can offer him, because God can put more joy in his heart than when people get their grain, harvest, dividends, profits, and wine abound, speaking of the comfort and pleasures of the world. It is this conviction of David that’s so compelling, and attractive to God that God puts his favor upon David. That stamp of favor. Because David delights in God more than all the world comfort and ease can offer him, and he had a lot of wealth, possessions, wives, women, concubines, pleasures from the world in his palace, and yet none of those things ever moved his heart. You see, that’s the man after God’s heart.

God is looking for that kind of man.

Psalm 61: ² From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

I love it. This call is desperate. Only desperate people get this special response from God, to get to experience the Lord as our Rock. It says from the ends of the earth I call to you, that’s a long way to call, to shout, to scream, to yell, at the top of our lungs, and voice, hopefully God will hear. And the next sentence says , “I call as heart grows faint”. Oh my gosh, when was the last time, you called out to God and felt fainting? Did you ever feel that way? If not, don’t complain if God hasn’t answered you yet, you know why? Because this calling’s from a far land, correction, the ends of the earth, see how intense that get? How descriptive that is? That’s actually a call, a loooong desperate call from one of the most famous kings, if not the, in the history of mankind, King David of Israel. He’s certainly more famous that King Alexander, King Napoleon, Hitler, and so forth, and he’s definitely much more righteous and favored by God. So that’s the call from King David to God, at the top of his lungs to God! And not only that, but he must also be yelling and crying out to God for quite a while, because you can see that he’s exhausted, and fainting! He says my heart grows faint. You know if there is any one with most ingenious creative expression language, it’s David. His heart grows faint. He speaks heart language for sure.

And his first verse is: Psalm 18: ¹      I love you, O Lord, my strength. ² The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

So what’s the rock higher than I that important? Because it is higher than you! We need something higher than ourselves ! We need to be led to the rock that’s higher than I. That means its more powerful, more reliable, more outstanding, and more stronger than I.

You see this all about me, self. We need to get out of our self-mode. Our world spins around me. The me world. God is offering to take us out of our self-world, to a higher ground, and not just something higher than us, but a rock! That’s he himself!

We have been so indulgent upon our desires, our wish, our needs,  our wants, etc. etc., and God wants us to lift our eyes off ourselves for once, and focus on him, the higher grounds, the higher rock. We are sinking by ourselves. We can’t save ourselves. Many people try to be their own savior. But we can’t save ourselves. Try one of the hardship you went through recently, I have many, as you have surely, recall those time, when you call out to God for help? Could you help yourself?

We need something to get out of ourselves. Quarrel with our spouse, job pressure, sickness and our health, our problem with our children, economy, community, friendship, list goes on and on. Can we help ourselves? Can we pull ourselves out of this mess?

Also, we cannot just live for ourselves. We need to cast a vision that’s higher than I, higher than ourselves, and thats the Rock, the Lord, not just anything that’s higher. Only safe way to set your eyes on, is the Rock thats higher than you. Live for a higher ambition in Christ to be fruitful, not just a the pleasures of this world, the security this world gives us, the family that we love. But the higher vision of who God is, what God wants, and His most pleasurable will for us, as He made us in his image. Don’t lose that vision. Cling unto it. Set your eyes on the Lord. You wont go wrong, everything else will.

We need the Rock that’s higher than I. We need that, and we must be like David, crying out at the top of our lungs, calling out to God until our heart faints. Yes, do it!

David’s prayer is O Lord, lead me to the Rock that’s higher than I. Lead me. I want to follow. I need a leader in my life. I am not the leader in my life. I can’t trust myself, in fact, I can’t do it. Many paths I can take, but only one path, lead me O God.

Amen. A great prayer to pray. Nothing shameful about crying out to God. The greatest king in human history cried out to God all the times and in fact, he cried out loud, and strong. Not like our weak cries and given up. No, press on.

Hallelujah! Amen.

John Piper preached on this topic, and I am pleasantly surprised because I have never heard any reformed preachers, the big names, who preached on it. Mostly on all things except this sensitive topic. Many preached in cultural issues, psychological, philosophical issues, but basically none have preached on this. This is a topic that Pentecostals love to handle, because it touches on the supernatural, and even sensational, though not very well. But to hear a man of such scriptural strength and sharpness in exegesis, I feel encouraged. Not many preachers want to touch on this.

That lawlessness man is a man, not a spirit.  Not an angel. But an incredibly powerful, charismatic, world-class leader that will eventually proclaim himself to be God. He is sent from Satan, propelled by the secret power of lawlessness. By that name itself, he will cause chaos, anarchy.

The Man of Lawlessness will come first before the Return of Christ

2 Thessalonians 2:1–2 (NIV) Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, ² not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.

The return of the Lord Jesus Christ will not happen until the rebellion occurs, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. So don’t be alarmed by any hearsay prophecy, word of mouth, or teaching.

He will perform signs and wonders and exalt himself over everything to proclaim himself God but  is doomed to destruction

Though very powerful indeed, in controlling the world with mighty demonstrations of signs and wonders, he will be eventually be doomed, destroyed by the Lord Jesus. So there is nothing to be afraid of him, though he will cause one heck of havoc and destabilize the world. The world will be marveled at his power, that many will succumb to him. The bible already says those who rejected the bible will be delusion by him.

2 Thessalonians 2: ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. ⁴ He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

People who are being deceived are those who refused to love the truth and so be saved

He will perform all sorts of display of power through signs and wonders to deceive those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth, the truth of the Bible. Those who are being deceived by the man of lawlessness are those, who first of all, refused to love  the truth of Jesus in the Bible.

Notice it says “….who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved”. The only reason they are perishing and being deceived by the man of lawlessness is because they refuse to love the truth. It’s not enough just to know the truth of the Bible, or even do bible study of the Word, and try to follow to obey the Word, but actually you would need to love the bible. Why? Because it’s going to be tough to be a loyal Christian to the faith in Christ, in this more and more godless end time, when liberals take the helm, redefining culture and sexuality. Christians better love the truth, for you to combat the heresy that will begin to flood the market and putting pressure on God living Christians to compromise to give into the trend.

It’s the Truth that Protects you from being deceived by the Lawlessness Man

It’s interesting only those who do not love the truth will be deceived. It’s kind of no brainer to say that it’s the truth in our lives that keep us from being deceived by this big nasty evil lawlessness coming. Its anti-Christ basically. It’s the truth that protects you.

Anyone who spins the bible to their own ends, their own agenda, will all be deceived, and there will be no return. In other words, you cannot and will not be deceived by the man of lawlessness until you refuse to love the truth of the Bible in Jesus Christ. God will protect you from the power of lawlessness if you believe and walk with the truth in Jesus Christ. Therefore whatever you do now on earth in your life, determines what’s going to happen in the end time, when that lawlessness happens. From looking around what’s happening round the world, and in America, that doesn’t sound to be too far away.

2 Thessalonians 2:⁹ The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, ¹⁰ and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹ Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, ¹² in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

God will send them a strong delusion so they continue to be deceived and had pleasures in unrighteousness and be condemned

It’s amazing that v11 says “Therefore God sends them a strong delusion”. It’s like God tops it up. The word delusion means deceived, note that the words “Therefore God sends them a strong delusion…” The word “therefore..” must refer to what’s before that. God send a strong delusion because of v10 that says …because they refuse to love the truth and be saved.” Simple as that.

In other words, the Satanic forces cannot deceive anyone of us, unless and until we ourselves refuse to love the truth. It’s an act of refusal on loving the truth. Maybe they are only liking the truth, spinning around the truth of the Bible, bending here and there to twists to their liking, that kind of people, will be deceived by the lawless one , and be given a strong delusion by God himself! What’s that delusion for? It’s to make them to believe in what’s false. I mean they merely refused to love the truth, and now they ended up in being under delusion, and believing what’s false, and had pleasure in unrighteousness, and therefore condemned. They will go to hell. Suffering in eternal anguish and agony.

Many will grow cold because of the increase of lawlessness but those endures to the end will be saved

Matthew 24:11–14 (ESV)

¹¹ And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. ¹² And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony and then the end will come

¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

The contrast of the evil works of Satan, will be the Gospel of the Kingdom of God will be spread even more to the whole world. Not just the western world, or African or some parts, but the whole world. They will be preached as a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ!

And then the end will come. I don’t believe that the gospel has been preached to the whole world, as the redemptive narrative has spread beyond Jerusalem. I believe the whole world, every nation. We are almost there.

Please LOVE the truth of the Word of God. Amen.

2 Chron 16: ⁷ At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. ⁸ Were not the Cushites^[b] and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen^[c]? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”

King Asa, an outstanding king of Israel who turned to the Lord and served him with all his heart for 35 years, because of one major silly mistake turned his life upside down, and rejected by the Lord. What happened? By one mistake, he fell! What about King David? It’s not like David never made any mistakes? From the moral point of view, David made much bigger and more serve mistake, like he committed adultery with someone’s wife, Bathsheba, and also set it up to have the man killed in the battlefield. In our modern world, he would be impeached as the king of Israel, borrowing what’s happening today in America. But he turned with all his heart and repented, and God loved him all the same. It’s amazing. But for Asa, it’s one mistake , he’s gone from the favor and blessings of God. Why?

The accusations from the prophet to Kin Asa is that he didn’t rely on the Lord in the forthcoming battle with an invasion army, but he relied on the King of Aram to deter the invasion by the King of Israel. Why is this so serious?

He failed to trust in the Lord

This is about trust in God or some other idols, while David’s case, he’s always trusted in the Lord fully, but he gave in to his lust.

You can see that giving into your own moral values is not as serious as failing to acknowledge God in your life, especially you are a leader in the house of God. In a sense, Asa didn’t commit moral failure, but he committed a divine failure, by not putting his trust in the Lord, instead he propped himself up with another power, a foreign king.

This is a stunning revelation. I wonder how the ecclesiastical bodies today will judge King David and King Asa? In my mind, I think David will be far more condemned and probably impeached. But Asa, will be reprimanded and rebuked, but he will be in power.

We can see that God is above moral values and judgements. In fact if we trust in God, we won’t fall into moral failures in the first place. So, David fell, but he loved the Lord dearly. First thing that came out of his mouth, after he was rebuked by Nathan the prophet after his adultery with Bathsheba, and indirectly killed her husband, was that “I have sinned against the Lord”,. You see how close God is towards his heart. He yelled it out from his mouth automatically. Reading through Psalms, you will know that David is so close to the Lord, and deeply passionate about the Lord, and intimate with God. There is no way God will drop him, even with his moral failures at that point. Indeed, he was judged by God, but after he’s recovered, he was mightily blessed and favored by God. Ironically, Jesus came through the descendent of Bethesda and David, not other wives. Amazing indeed. What does that tell you? In spite of such immorality and murder, the next king after David was Solomon, his son through Bethesda too! God honored Bathsheba enough for that to happen.

So guys, my word here is that relationship with God crowns over morality.

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God has proven to Asa before, and yet he failed

⁸ Were not the Cushites^[b] and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen^[c]? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. 

God is mad with King Asa because God has worked miracles for him in another similar battles, and yet he failed to trust in God the second time. What went wrong? His carnality, his trust in the more tangible things in the world, pulled him away from the most important source of his power, might, favor, and strength, the Lord. That was too much for God to take, and God abandoned him. King Asa crushed.

So as Christians if we ever put our trust in other things, or persons, in our lives, we are potentially facing big troubles in our lives.

Put our trust and faith in Jesus especially if we have experienced the goodness of God before.

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