The signs of this new age are everywhere. Advertisements, commercials. grocery store magazines, social media, and television. Sex sells went from a marketing plan in the 1980’s to a reality that has ushered in the age of deception and seduction. The American rock band Van Halen sang about a fantasy in Hot for Teacher in 1984 but this is now a weekly occurrence as female and male teachers are having sex with minors.
Why do you misunderstand what I say? It is because you are unable to hear what I am saying. [You cannot bear to listen to My message; your ears are shut to My teaching.] 44 You are of your father, the devil, and it is your will to practice the lusts and gratify the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a falsehood, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar [himself] and the father of lies and of all that is false, John 8:44.
One of Jesus’ disciples’ points to the source of this deception and seduction. John remembers the day that Jesus blamed the Devil, giving this spiritual creature a nickname that still holds true: the father of all lies. Nonetheless, a second glance at the Tree of Knowledge is no different than any other daily decision to give into temptation. Like the prodigal son, the ecstasy of earthly pleasures replaces common sense.
And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his place of confinement, 8 And he will go forth to deceive and seduce and lead astray the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth—Gog and Magog—to muster them for war; their number is like the sand of the sea, Revelation 20:7-8.
Unfortunately, it takes reaching the bottom of the barrel to wake up, Luke 15:15-16, and snap out of deception and seduction. As one of my former pastors preached about, sin stays longer than you ever expected. Like breaking any bad habit, you have to develop a sense of urgency to break free from addiction. May today’s blog serve as a turning point so you escape the wrath of God, Hebrews 10:26-27.
by Jay Mankus