Endurance 05

The pitfall of false apostles. During his travels Paul ran into this cleaver little scam. Think of the guy who is riding a donkey and gets it to move by dangling a carrot in front of its nose. In like manner a false apostle is someone who uses what motivates you to get you to do his work. They see that you want to grow in the Lord and that you’re striving to learn the things of God. So they tell you all sorts of great stories and stuff on one hand, but with the other they make certain requests known. They need money, they need food, they need you to serve them in some manner. Hold the phone. So do all pastors, teachers and priests. So what is the difference? Ah… good question. The difference is when they sell you on the idea, somehow, that what they offer is special and you will only receive it, if you get it from them. Remember that God is no respecter of persons. What he will do for others, he will do for you. So no man has anything special and unique from God. Neither can any church, organization or group make that claim. The only unique name in the Bible is the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. The word says that there is no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved. Therefore the one thing you need from God, Salvation, is given to you directly by Jesus. No man, no organization, no group, no not even a church or a prayer room full of ordained ministers can do anything to affect that. So when you find that the teachings of this one or that one is starting to bring you under bondage to them, rather than closer to Jesus, well, you are being lead astray by a false apostle. These critters can be hard to discern from the real thing, and a mite hard to deal with. But here is something I learned the hard way. The false apostle will eventually reveal their true heart. You know that where your treasure is, you heart will be also? If their heart is with anything other than God, that is your queue! Common maladies are the love of money, power, prestige, and/or fame. Hints of such maladies may be discerned when for example a pastor declines an opportunity to minister to the lost because: ‘it costs too much’, ‘they would not become members of this church so it isn’t expedient for us to do so’, ‘our mission is elsewhere right now and that would just put an unnecessary burden on everyone’, or ‘if we did that, the press would have a field day at our expense!’. If you have heard any of these lines, or anything like it, you have been given a clue that the person does not have his heart in the right place. Pray for that person and be on guard. Do not allow them to ensnare you and burden you. If you do, you’ll eventually become aware that you have been made an (er) donkey … out of.