Don't lie to me.....

Don't you hate it when someone lies to you?    Even as I type that, I can feel the emotion that rises up from betrayal and deceit.  Feeling it, too?  It's a low blow, and leaves you feeling lower.   I hate it even more when those that I love best are lied to.   That makes the 'Mama Bear' thing in me rise up and roar !!

Well, let me start this Good News blog with some bad news:  You are being lied to.    
And I'm ready to roar!    Now, you may know it, and maybe you even recognize it and have not fallen for it, but the majority of the people that I know and love don't know it.   Let the roaring begin!  :)

I can tell you when it started, the root of the lie:   God had just created the most beautiful earth, pristine and marvelous and full of wonder.  He filled it with the most amazing waterfalls and sunsets and and colors and beauty.   He came up with endless ideas for animals, from giant elephants with ears bigger than my head to  tiny hummingbirds that can stay suspended in mid-air ....  Not to mention a whole other world BELOW the sea....   And why?   He tells us, '...   the earth was made for man.....'.    He made it for us:   an endless garden to live in and play in and enjoy!!   Adam & Eve got to hang out with God there, walking and talking with Him "in the cool of the day...."     How amazing is that?     He was revealing to them his great love for them!

Enter the lier:   You know the story.   The snake whispers into Eve's ear and lies to her about how great that fruit would be.   Wait, that wasn't the lie:  the fruit WAS good!   And he wasn't lying about 'their eyes being opened so that they would know good and evil...."     That happened, too.   (enter guilt and shame that came to stay!)   He wasn't even lying about them 'becoming like God'.  (it wasn't even wrong for Eve to WANT to become more like God:  who wouldn't want to be like the most amazing, loving person in the universe?  God's intent, in fact, is to make us like Himself....  but in His way, in His time, trusting Him to do it...)
 Without delving further into this passage from Genesis 3 (you can read it if you want), do you know what the REAL lie was on that fateful day?   What was the most deceitful message ever given, the underlying lie Satan told Eve?       It was this:     'God's holding out on you~!!!      You can't trust the heart of GOD, his heart is not good,  He's keeping the BEST stuff from you.   There's so much more!   You're missing out!!'

And it's the same lie the enemy is telling you and me today;   4000 + years later.    The same lie.   And we, for the most part, are still buying it.
Can you hear him?    He whispers to you, "God's not gonna come through.  It's time to face it, and take matters into your own hands...." 
His goal?   To get us to mistrust the good heart of God.   To get us to "take for ourselves" that which God has not given us yet.  '...take it, Eve.   You'll love it.   Take it...."
Can you hear him? 
"Take sex now.   Waiting for marriage is incredibly out of date."
"Take his offer to live together now, you know you love him.  Look at the money you'll save...."
"Take the things you want so you can enjoy them NOW... what do you think credit cards are for?"
"Take that invitation to party tonight.  Where else will you meet people?"
"Take that drink.  Who cares if you're under 21?  Who waits for that?"
"Take another, lonely lady. It's better not to feel...."
"Take that other woman.  You married the wrong one..."
"Take that other guy.  Your husband will never change..."

""When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some....."  3:6

And bam.   Eve took the bait.  She stepped into the trap, reached out her hand, and SNAP!  The trap snapped shut.   Eve was caught in the snare.  No longer free.   Now bound in the enemy's grasp.   Captive to the evil one and his lies.   And the rest of us were born from that place.  

Ready for some GOOD news?   God knew we would need rescuing.  He knew that free will would cost him:  but free will was worth it.   Think about it:  His WILL is that we would be FREE!   He gave Adam & Eve the freedom to choose whom they would trust.  He doesn't desire robots who MUST do what He says.  He wants sons and daughters who have seen clearly the lies and captivity of the enemy, and then CHOOSE to trust the heart of the Father who loves them.  He sent His only son to come and rescue us, pay the price for our ransom with his very life, so we could be FREE.  
          "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins...."    Colossians 1:15

Look back at the list of lies our enemy is whispering to us  (notice his name is "our enemy".... he hates us with a vengence because we are God's children!!  How he craves for us to "turn to the 'dark side'!!_)
Each one of them looks good, sounds good, but  leads to bondage, captivity.  You are being lied to.    "There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads only to death."  Proverbs.          The next time you hear one of these, or feel 'tired of waiting on God's way', or catch yourself taking matters into your own hands, remember:   You are being lied to.   It is a trap.    It leads to captivity.   There IS another way:  a way for you to be free...
            Cause the truth is, God DOES love us.   God's heart toward us IS nothing but good!    He DOES want to give us GOOD things.  We CAN trust Him!!!     He is NOT holding out on us:  In fact, He LOVES and LONGS to give us GOOD gifts for us to enjoy, he wants to give us the purest and best form of these things:   like sex, companionship, joy, deep peace, provision, ... but He wants us to trust Him to GIVE them to us at the right time - not TAKE them for ourselves.  I've tried both ways.  I've been lied to and bought it. It led to misery and guilt.     So now, even when it's hard & the lie LOOKS like the better choice,  I've decided to trust the  One who loves me, the One who can see  what's best for me in the long run, the One I can TRUST, whose Name is TRUTH.....      for He will never lie to me.
  Father really DOES know best!   

"the Lord bestows favor and honor;  no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly...."     Psalm 84:11

and that    is some seriously      GOOD news........