There are many lies that can keep us away from God. Most commonly, lies keep us from God by turning us deaf to the Spirit. I thought I'd write about two of them, ones that are usually had by two completely different groups of people.
Introduction
This post is about two lies. They are very different from each other, and by no means are they the only cause of distance between God and man.
First, the lie that leads us to believe that God can not and will not love and accept the real person that someone is.
Second, is the lie that sins, especially exploitative sins, are acceptable to God.
The First Lie
The first lie causes us not to hear God. It causes people to believe that not only can they not repent, but that inherent qualities render them forever severed from God. That belief causes people to be blinded to the love of God.
The great truth is that God so loved the world, and God so loves you, that he gave everything, including his only begotten son, to save the authentic you. It does not matter if you are poor, or blind or deaf or afflicted.
The belief that God can not or will not love someone can form a barrier between them and God.
The Second Lie
The second lie was preached about by Brigham Young when he despaired of those who would cheat a widow out of her cow and then go home, drop to their knees, and thank God for such a great blessing.
Before I read that part of his sermon I thought of such people as those who believe that they do not need to make a choice between God and Mammon. Worship God and he will deliver Mammon.
For such people, you worship God so that he will reward you by giving you the opportunity to exploit and cheat others.
Those who fall prey to that lie, that exploitative sine is not only acceptable, but a gift from God, are substituting listening to their own lusts over listening to God. They may hear something, but it is not the Holy One.
Closing
The first lie causes us not to hear God because it blinds us to the message of the love of God.
The second lie causes us not to hear God because we hear our own voices instead.
Together they seem to take the opposite ends of a spectrum, one one that cuts us off from the truth either way.
Questions
- How hard is it for you to accept that God really loves you. Not only that God could love you, but that God does love you?
- If you did not cause it, if you can't control it, how can it be your fault (speaking of mental illness and other inherent conditions that people blame themselves for)?
- When you isolate yourself from other people, does that isolate you from yourself? From God?
- Do you think God ever rewards us by allowing us to take advantage of other people? What do you think about Abraham refusing to accept any of the spoils of the Battle of Siddim?
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