All posts by Larry

Blame Game

Genesis 3:12-13 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

One of the first things that happened after original sin was this conversation in which Adam and Eve began pointing the finger of blame. This is perhaps the first lesson we should learn about sin. Don’t blame others for your decisions.

I had mentioned in an earlier blog that I was not raised up in a household where God was lifted up. I had no instructions in righteousness, right actions nor right relationship. Since I didn’t know there was a right way, I could blame my parents for that failing. At some point in my life I would have to take responsibility for my choices. My sin was not someone else’s responsibility. Being in school with others should have taught me that certain behaviors were not acceptable. Even if I did not understand why I was misbehaving, it did not give me the right absolve myself of my actions.

At some point we have to take responsibility for our own decisions. We have to take charge of our own destiny. There is an age of accountability. We have developed a sense of right and wrong with or without instruction. It is at this point in life where our souls are placed in great peril. It is where our conscience begins to build a bridge between desire and decisions. Without that bridge desire gets its way without the guilt of consequences.

Consequences for sin is a natural law, inescapable. An evil conscience does not assign personal blame to the soul for sinful decisions. It is someone else’s fault. It often assigns blame to the victim.

Can you see this in our world today?

Lies

Psalm 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

We can only expose a lie with truth. I begin with the truth. God has made a way for us to know truth.

John 18:37b To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

We hear the truth because we have a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Look closely to Jesus’ words here. Satan does not abide in truth. We abide in Christ and we abide in truth. The light of truth is the only way to expose a lie.

Now for the hard part. As I pointed out yesterday, our perceptions are not truth. We should not rely upon our perceptions which are clouded by raw emotions.

We encounter people daily who do not have a personal relationship with Christ. They do not know the truth. What they speak is not a lie but rather their perception. One must know the truth to speak a lie. There are many in the world who believe the lies of Satan to their own detriment. Some lies are only distractions to keep unbelievers in the chains of sin.

Some who believe the lies are the enemies of the Cross and these are not harmless and mean to do evil things in the name of the liar.