“A company of wolves, is better than a company of wolves in sheep's clothing.”
― Anthony Liccione
The Lord speaks to me in parables. When I ask Him to explain something to me, He often times tells me a story in pictures. I believe He does this because a picture is truly worth a thousand words. This morning I asked Him about things that I know are wrong, because He has told me they are wrong, but I still don't fully understand why they are wrong. Sometimes I can argue with myself using scripture and that's when I have to say, explain this to me Lord. If this is really you, then I have to know what I speak for You is true.
A little girl of about 7 years old walks into a butcher shop firmly clutching the hand of her grandfather. His Swedish accent is heavy as He asks for roast beef for tonight's dinner. The little girl loves it when her grandfather makes dinner for the family. She doesn't know why it tastes different than anyone else's cooking, but He said it is the love He puts in it.
As they leave the butcher shop and walk along the store fronts, she tries to read every word in every store window. She stops abruptly when she reads "The best beef in town". Her grandfather quickly picks up on her concern, "It's okay baby girl. That is a lie. We have the best beef in town right here." He holds the package out for her to see.
"Why do they lie about there beef, Grandfather?"
"To make money. It is not real. It is a pill that you eat and it tastes like beef."
"A pill?"
"Yes. Many overweight people like it because it tastes like beef, but there is no calories."
"I don't understand."
"It's a lie. That is what you need to know. Don't ever settle for the counterfeits, Baby Girl."
They continued into the street market where people were selling vegetables, small tools and many other things. The little girl waited patiently while her grandfather purchased potatoes and green beans. As they made their way through the many stands, the little girl saw another sign and read it aloud for her Grandfather, "The best vegetables in the country."
He looked at her for several seconds as He thought about what to do. Finally He led her to the stand and asked the ghost of a woman there if they could see the best potatoes in the country. With pale, bony hands she held up a small pill.
"Do you see, Baby Girl?"
"Yes Grandfather, that is not a potato."
Knowing she was not making a sale, the ghostly woman suggested, "You can slip it into a teaspoon of real potatoes if you want and you still get the great taste, yet only the calories of a teaspoon of potatoes."
A young man came behind the woman and with much more energy began his sales pitch. "These new and improved vegetable pills now give energy. They increase focus and decrease need for sleep. After just a few weeks of ... " his voice faded as Grandfather quickly led the little girl away.
Grandfather stopped at a stand with several flavors of ice cream. He instructed the little girl to pick a flavor for her cone and then they found a picnic table in the shade and sat down to enjoy their ice cream together.
"Grandfather, how do they fit beef and potatoes and beans and stuff in those little pills?"
Bothered that his granddaughter was obsessed with the fake food, he knew he was going to have to explain it all. "Baby girl, what do you think would happen if all you ate were those pills for the rest of your life?"
"I don't know."
"There is no calories, no nutritional value, and a counterfeit taste. Those pills are basically poison. If you eat them you will die a slow death. It might feel good at first having energy and the ability to focus, but as you keep eating them instead of real God made food you will eventually be unable to focus, unable to think, and eventually you will shrivel up and die."
"But what if you ate them with real food. We could even put them in our ice cream."
"They are still poison. Poison is poison, no matter how much you eat. If it is not real it is false. If it does not give life, it gives death. Jesus made food, vegetables, fruit, and fish to feed our bodies. Those pills are the lies of Satan, false food, empty promises. Even if we stuff them in the real thing they are still from the enemy."
The Lord gave me many examples of this. Yoga is idolatry even when it's practiced with Christian music. Dirty Dancing, even when done in a joking manner. Slander/gossip wrapped in a prayer request. Lies, wrapped in good intentions. The change has been so gradual we can't see it. Jeremiah 19 talks about burning their children in a sacrifice to Baal. Now we call it abortion and many unborn children are injected with saline that burns their lungs and scorches their skin, causing them to die. They are sacrificed so women are not burdened with a pregnancy.
Jesus said, Go and sin no more. He wouldn't say that if it were not possible. But so many continue to do what they want and wrap it in their own version of what grace is. How many men and women alike do not consider themselves adulterers yet they are constantly committing adultery with their eyes. If you speak against gambling, drinking, belittling, sexual jokes, etc, then comes the accusations of being religious or having a spirit of religion on you or judging. There is a time coming soon and I believe for some it has already begun when we will have every area of our lives lit up in front of us and a choice to make. Are we going to see the poison and throw it out? Are we going to focus on truth? Or are we going to keep believing what we want to believe and continue to hear what we want God to say to us? It's time to step up and be spiritual adults.
“There is no way to counterfeit courage; we either have it or we do not”
― T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
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