En Garde!

En garde - Wikipedia:
En garde or En Garde can refer to: A French warning, "On [your] guard", a term in fencing.



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2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NLT)
3 "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths."

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I've done some sampling and some serious study of teachings promoted by a myriad of Christian teachers, pastors, authors and other information sources over the years. Each has usually purported to be authoritative and some declaring they've been personally selected by our God to carry a specific message. I'm not disputing them, nor challenging them or their teachings here. I've discovered that those most popular are often passionately challenged in the available media sources by others already. So that I'm not misunderstood, let me say that I believe many of our pastors and teachers are indeed anointed godly shepherds and such an awesome blessing. They're not my focus. My unapologetic and unashamed intention here is actually to urgently and passionately challenge some others that Jesus might also refer to as "God's chosen ones."

As a young man I was repeatedly and rightly admonished that there is one sieve suitable, holy and completely trustworthy through which we must sift everything in life - that being the word of our Lord, the Bible. In another post previously, I in essence questioned how hard it would really be to deceive the elect in the end days if they weren't continually invested in learning, understanding and absorbing the word of our God personally and directly for themselves. Quote follows ...

"But in giving it serious thought, how hard would it really be to deceive the elect if they weren't checking their own perspective often to make sure that it matches God's while being continually bombarded with worldly, intellectual viewpoints that may not necessarily agree with what He's already said?" (from my post:The Weight Of Perspective)

It's not that I'm directing contention against any pastor or teacher in this discourse. I feel confident that the inspired word of God will do that in each of us personally, if and where it's appropriate - but only if His word is in us ... all of it. I'm going to throw out a very big caution right here. It's contained in a quote from a manuscript that I have yet to put forward:

"I heard someone say something once that resounded with my own thinking and confirmed something I feel quite strongly about. I believe that it has a lot to do with the failure of people to understand and to engage in their intended destiny - intended from before time began. Paraphrased in my own words it's this: The word of our Lord is not something that we can take snippets from and then expect to come away with a full and fruitful understanding of regarding how to live successfully in our God's presence. The Word of our God may have many chapters, and in our own way of describing it, many books. But from the beginning to the end it's one story and one book. You can't treat it casually - only performing hit and miss readings and expect to have a sound grasp of it. I personally believe that it's the most complete and comprehensive instruction manual - in reality a love letter, regarding the singularly most critical thing we will do in all of our lives from the moment we draw first breath - respond to God."

Too many times in my own journey I've heard someone take a particular verse or passage from the larger message and use it as a hammer to drive home their own personal narrative. Not only does this potentially make their alleged declarative tool out of context and wrong as wielded, but also dangerous, damaging and offensive. It can be like reading one line from a mechanic's manual and assuming that you can rebuild an automobile engine even though you've never done it before. As with the mechanic's manual, you need to read the Word from cover to cover with the intent to know and understand - repeatedly in this case. I say repeatedly because every time you read it, you'll find that you understand something new that you previously missed. There might be some who disagree with the need for repeated readings. To them I would say - you're cutting off your own growth.

In my opinion, the continual absorption of the word by itself though, isn't enough to complete the growth effort or fulfill the purpose for our creation ...

"But even in this effort we have to remain unerringly humble and submissive to the Holy Spirit, deeply entwined in a most intimate relationship with the Sovereign Lord to avoid becoming religious. Religion by itself is dead, it's an abomination to what our Lord desires from us. The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus day were religious and He reviled their dedication to their ceremonious religion. It's the intimacy and the fellowship of a consecrated and wholly committed relationship with each of us individually and corporately that the awesomely sovereign God who rules over all that exists desires from us in His heart. He's told us how to get there, but the rest is up to us." (from my post: Carnal Thinking vs. Given Eternal Wisdom)

But getting back more directly to my topic, the primary motivating concern for me to write here is the fact that the imperfections of human nature seem to have a habit of inserting themselves repetitively in history. The reason I find this ever more concerning deals with a warning that Jesus Himself gave us:

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Mark 13:22-23 (NLT) (Jesus speaking)
22 "For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. 23 Watch out! I have warned you about this ahead of time!"
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I believe that in order for any of God's chosen to be deceived, the deception would need to appear nonthreatening, include a reasonable amount of truth and come from a comfortable or trusted source. Seems like a logical potential doesn't it?

Now I'm not suggesting that we should hold our teachers and pastors in suspicion. What I am suggesting is that each of us bears personal responsibility to know the word of God that we as believers claim to believe and that  knowing it has so many definite advantages. One of them is itself, the personal familiarity.  

As a young man, I was given another very wise directive by a respected teacher. He gave it to be followed as a form of personal defense to help protect me against the insertion of human error, whether the error be by innocent ignorance or by intention. He said:"Never take what another man says alone for what God is trying to tell you in His word - read it for yourself." In essence, what  he was telling me was that I need to use first hand knowledge of the bible itself as the sieve to sift everything I would be told about God or His word. Without that first hand knowledge, I would not have a sieve or any hope of sifting out any deception served along with the truth.

The enemy of our God tends to like to use partial truths, truth out of context and misrepresentations as a weapon against believers. He even tried to use that methodology against Christ while He was being tempted in the wilderness. If he tried to use it against Jesus, there's good reason to believe he will try to use it against us in the days ahead. Do you know the truth of God's word for yourself? Are you ready?...

                                   En Garde!