Do Not Be Deceived

While in Paris on our honeymoon in 1980, we bought some delicious looking pastry’s for breakfast, and they all tasted horrible! I was so disappointed! I found out later that many French pastries don’t contain sugar. But they looked so good!

Then in 2011, I (unknowingly) bought a desert topped with caviar while at the Bolshoi Ballet and Opera Theatre in Russia. I wondered why this cute desert was so expensive. A few seconds later, I discovered it was a caviar desert! I discreetly sat it down on a nearby table and left it there for anyone else who might be brave enough to eat it. I don’t know if anyone actually took it, as we went back into the theater, but it definitely was an expensive mistake on my part. I did slice off a small corner of it just to try a taste of the cake part. The desert consisted more of cake than caviar, and it tasted ok but it definitely wasn’t as good as it looked. My own eyes had deceived me into buying it. Kind of like those Paris pastries.

Fast forward to today, 2022. I see a lot of deception going on, and I’m not referring to the allure of French pastries or Russian deserts. No, and unfortunately it’s much more serious. I’m talking about the kind of deception that has been around since the Garden of Eden. It’s satan’s preferred strategy.

To borrow a line from The Wizard of Oz, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” Our world has changed dramatically the past few years, and it sickens me to see it unfold right before our eyes.

There used to be a time when I trusted and respected our government and governing institutions such as the FDA and the CDC.

There used to be a time when I trusted and respected religious institutions such as the Southern Baptist Convention or the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

There used to be a time when I trusted and respected doctors, nurses, and the AMA.

There used to be a time when I trusted and respected television news anchors and mainstream media.

There used to be a time when I trusted and respected pharmaceutical companies and their vaccines.

There used to be a time when I trusted and respected our school systems and school boards.

There used to be a time when I trusted and respected anything associated with Walt Disney.

Let me clarify a bit. I’m not inferring or necessarily including the employees or members of these entities; but more so, the leaders and those in influential positions in these specific entities.

All of these entities (and many more I’m sure) have systematically changed over the past few years, and not for the better. I believe they’re all presently involved in some type of deception and/or agenda.

The kinds of deception and agendas that include Marxism, the political deconstruction of Americanism, the moral deconstruction of America, woke ideology, liberation theology, false gospel, social justice, critical race theory, humanism, hedonism, secularism, socialism, tyranny, communism, transgenderism, transhumanism, and population control. All interestingly in lockstep with The Great Reset.

The kinds of deception and agendas that go directly against God, God’s Holy Word, the Bible, and the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The more of this I see, the more I am reminded that this world is not my home.

In the meantime, what we should do?

Pray for God to open the eyes and ears of the lost. Ask Him to use you to help spread the gospel to a lost and dying world. Speak up when convicted to do so. Stay in the Word. Be ever thankful.

Pray for the best, prepare for the worst, and trust in God’s promises:

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. Proverbs 10:19

And

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

And

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

And

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7-8