Every good and perfect gift comes from God above. (James 1:17) And for every one of them, the devil tries to counterfeit or twist it in order to deceive as many as possible from the TRUTH.
A powerful TRUTH that acts as anchor for a Christian is the covering, the cleansing, the forgiving power of the BLOOD of Jesus. Sin was a problem that required constant sacrifice and shedding of blood before Christ came. The blood of animals was not sufficient to cleanse sin FOR GOOD! We aren't any less sinful than the Israelites or anyone else. However, the shed blood of Jesus cleanses us of sin once and for all time, because He was a Lamb without spot or blemish, the perfect sacrifice, holy, and therefore acceptable to meet the requirement of a Holy God in a way no other sacrifice ever could.
So is it all that surprising, that unable to do anything about the cleansing blood of Jesus, the devil would try to make "blood" itself into something else, something evil and not to be trusted? You see, Satan has no real "power", not against a blood bought believer, but he does have ONE TRICK. Just the one, but he has it perfected to the nth degree. That trick is deception. He deceived Eve and he deceived Cain and he deceived Judas and he is still deceiving people today into thinking things that are not true and therefore acting in ways that are contrary to truth. When we act contrary to truth, guess what? We reap consequences that are contrary to truth and we begin to feel defeated, and Satan heaps on more deception and before we know it, we are so far from the truth that we are no longer certain there even is truth!
Enter "Dracula", that blood sucking vampire who frightened me into sleeping with my covers firmly tucked around my chin every night of my childhood. Suddenly blood is about death rather than life, which is the truth of God. LIFE is in the blood, and Satan deceives millions into seeing it as DEATH. Deceit doesn't have to be elaborate to be effective. It just has to make you miss the narrow way. It just has to get you one degree off course, and guess what? YOU ARE OFF COURSE! You aren't a little bit going the right way, you are completely going the wrong way. You've missed blessings, and joy and peace and all the wonderful things God intends for you.
So how do we stay on course? How do we make certain we are entering the narrow way, and living according to Gods truth? So we can be sure we are reaping all the benefits and perks God really wants to bless us with? By reading the Bible. It is our map, charting our course to the Truth. Check out the Daily Bible Reading page. This two year schedule will take you through the entire Bible at a pace that allows time for reflection and consideration of what you are reading. (Plus, you'll be reading in tandem with hundreds of others who follow along with The Unity Project!) Let's read together, and then we can grow together - seeking answers from Gods word about our world today and our role in it as Ambassadors for Christ.
See ya in the funny papers......
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