My goodness! It’s much easier to identify the devil when he’s got a red painted face and big old horns stickin’ out the sides of his head, than when he comes at you softly, with a little bit of “love” hanging with him. Don’t you think? We believers get so easily confused. I mean, I’ve gone to this church my whole life. My parents went to this church! It has to be right! And we don’t even question the junk that’s being stuffed down our throats. See? The devil has a little bit of love hanging with him. But what do we expect when we don’t examine the Scriptures daily to see if what we’re hearing is true (Acts 17:11)? The devil disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). It is benefitting him to make sure he’s mixing a tiny bit of truth with the lies. So there’s the big fat liar, the father of lies, feeding us a line of bull and we fall for it. He is being his sneaky self, causing us to look not at Jesus, but at junk, garbage. When he’s got the horns, we know enough to stay away from him. But, when he’s saying lovey dovey things we think he’s acting like Jesus would act. The problem is, Jesus is truth and love, not just love. Nobody wants to hear truth. It might upset them. It might convict them. So they just let the devil lie to them. They believe him. We believe him, or pretend to. That’s easier than proclaiming truth, going against the tide, being odd, different, unpopular. And which of us wants to change? Not me. I prefer living in my sin. I also prefer staying comfortable, not ruffling feathers, and by all means, not being thought of as weird. But at some point we, as believers, must start telling the truth in love. It’s the only hope for this world gone mad! And it’s the only hope for defeating the father of lies and spreading the hope of the ONE who came and died to save us. We are not without hope! We can thank JESUS for that (John 3:16).
The Masquerader
