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Are You Deceived?

My husband likes to challenge our boys. Sometimes, I’m not up for the challenge. When he told them that he heard “gullible” was taken out of the dictionary.
Being the word person that I am, I responded, “How can they do that?”
By his laugh, I knew I had been taken. How could I have not guessed?
No one likes to be fooled.
Although meant in fun, there are times when deception is not so fun.

During this Corona virus scare, many lived in fear by allowing themselves to be deceived. 
Why? 
They were listening to the wrong “news.”

When stories circulated, I would doubt science (not the media scientists and doctors but what I knew to be true about viruses), I would ask my husband. 
By his response [“we fight all illness with cleanliness, and caution. Many die from the common flu every year. Most were already exposed to the virus”], he brought calmness. 
The flu entered our country back in January. People fought a bad unidentified flu and recovered.
That’s how great our bodies are made. We fight sickness—even when we don’t know what we have.
Many tested now show they already had it and recovered.
Just like my husband said.

We don’t quarantine the world, we quarantine those who have it.
And take precautions.
People now know how to wash their hands. Great!
That’s what moms should have been reminding their children all along.
I go back to the truth.

But not everyone has my husband’s ability to calm with facts. 
Nor are they willing to listen to facts.
People wanted to believe what the media and their state’s governments were telling them.
It’s not about your safety that the government shut down schools and quarantined people. 
But people refuse to look at facts. 

At the beginning of this scare, I started a fact sheet of all the things we knew about viruses. 
I never published it. 
Because people don’t want facts. 
They want to hear scary stories that make their hearts race and their lives excited.
They are duped and easily controlled.
They are deceived.
Were you?

John warns us about being deceived. In I John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Those wrong spirits lead us to concentrate on the wrong things—like the environment.
In California, after fighting so hard to bring our own bags into stores to save the environment, we are now not allowed to bring our own bags because of the virus. 
Those same people who cried about using plastic bags  and straws are now changing plastic gloves daily.
Their inconsistencies are blatant if you are searching for truth.
Now we think only of what is safe—for me. 
We think only of ourselves. 
We are deceived.

The antidote for deception is truth—facts.
Paul says in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.”
All else falls away under Satan’s schemes to draw us away from our mission—away from our God.

Jesus told his disciples in John 8:32,
"If you continue in My word then you are truly disciples of Mine;
and you will know the truth
and the truth will make you free."

How many of you went to the Word to find answers for the virus?
I know it doesn't talk specifically about this virus, but it does talk about washing your hands and quarantines. It also brings peace when your mind is stayed on God.

Many Christians today have sacrificed Bible’s truth for others’ feelings. They do not search the Scriptures for answers, but listen to what others say and how they feel.
We can’t tell a transgender, “You’re a man because God made you a man.” That might hurt his feelings.
How many worship leaders in our churches are women? We have allowed Satan’s lies to infiltrate the church and destroy its light.
Instead of bringing light and peace to a frightened world, our churches have become a reflection of the world. How can our message save, when we have changed to fit what is offered by our culture?
Culture does not change truth. A man is still a man, whether he feels like one or not. 
And man should still to be the leader at home and church.

Truth does not change.
Our bodies fight viruses. We can help our body by staying clean and covering our coughs.
This virus showed me how people, even Christians, do not know basic truth. 
People drove by themselves wearing face masks.
Stories circulated how people refused to give their children hugs and spouses stayed in separate rooms to provide “social distancing.” 
Caution is always necessary when someone is sickly, weak or elderly, or in my granddaughter’s case—new born, but our bodies are designed to fight germs. 

People are willing to believe a lie “to be safe.” 
That in itself is a lie. 
Why do we trust the government—who operate without standards and have stated they prefer socialism— 
who won’t even protect the lives of the unborn child—to control our health and safety?
Deception. 
What we must guard against.
How?
By knowing truth. And sticking to it.


Displaying 1 comment

I'm a little late reading this, but the truth still stands today. I really liked this article and the one you wrote about a man needing to work, etc. Truth doesn't change, but man can sure be persuaded and manipulated far too easily, as we have seen the last few months. Too many are in complete panic, as if they would surely get sick and die if they didn't shelter in. Very sad. So very very glad we live up here and can be away from it much of the time and that our children and grandchildren have kept us in their lives all this time. Thanks Sonya for another great article.

I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
               Sonya Contreras

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Author of Biblical fiction, married to my best friend, and challenged by eight sons’ growing pains as I write about what matters.

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