LXXXII

EVIL MEN AND SEDUCERS SHALL WAX WORSE AND WORSE, DECEIVING AND BEING DECEIVED

2 TIMOTHY 3:13

SEVEN SALLIE

“You lied to me,” Sevenia said with an eerie calm as she placed her fists onto her hips. The gaze emanating from her green-grey eyes was intense.

“Actually, Sweet Pea, I did not,” I told my daughter.

“Well, let me see,” she said as she placed an index finger on her chin. “You told me you wouldn’t air the interview you did with Devin Easton, and today I heard the interview you weren’t going to broadcast when I tuned into ‘The Seven Sallie Showdown’.”

“Ah, but you didn’t,” I said as I pointed an index finger with an air of triumph that I didn’t actually feel. Did I lie to my daughter? Technically, no.

“Please enlighten me, Dearest of Fathers,” she said with a non-humor grin. Dearest of Fathers? She may be a young saint, but the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree. “Because I’m pretty sure I heard an interview with a fellow named Devin Easton.”

“Ah,” I said, trying to be lighthearted by pointing my finger in the air again. “You did and you didn’t.”

“What?” she chuckled, but with a frown.

“When I told you I wouldn’t play the interview, I did, in fact, scrap it. However, Devin returned and the former hooligan showed me something pretty amazing.”

“And what was that?”

“Have you seen my twitter page in the last couple of days?”

“I have not.”

I showed her the picture Devin shared with me of the angelic entity.

“Oh, Father,” Sevenia said as she bowed her head and covered her eyes with a hand.

I chuckled at first because she unintentionally reminded me of Sylvester the cat’s son when he was disappointed with his own father. Then I frowned when it dawned on me that that usually happened when Sylvester failed in humiliating fashion to catch a mouse.

“What’s wrong?” I inquired. “People in the Bible had angelic encounters. Our beloved Captain Kirk had an angelic encounter. So why not Devin Easton? Judge not lest the be judged, Sweet Pea.”

“Dad, I’m not judging Devin. What I’m saying is I do not believe a holy angel would subject themselves to being photographed.”

My phone binged. It was Devin Easton. He was a couple minutes away and wanted to know if he could stop. I told him to come on over.

“Well, it looks  like you’ll be able to tell Devin himself that his encounter was phony.”

“What do you mean?”

“He just texted me. He’ll be here in a couple of minutes.”

“Dad, I didn’t say it was phony. I believe he had a supernatural encounter. What I’m saying is what he had an encounter with is highly questionable.”

“You say po-tay-to, I say po-ta-to,” I said.

“You say to-may-to, I say to-ma-to,” Sevenia replied playing along, but then she sighed.

There was a knock and I let Devin in. He was wearing a bright green, long sleeve athletic shirt. When I saw him the other day, he was sporting about a three inch chin beard. Now he was clean shaven. With his clown and demon tattoos covered, it was like looking at his brother Dirk.

Both twentysomething men were good looking guys with fox like features and sandy blonde hair. However their personalities couldn’t be more different. Devin was charming, chatty, and known to be a wild womanizer. Dirk was a few years younger than Devin. He was quiet, reserved, and a deacon at Cotton Creek Cove fellowship. Unlike his philandering brother, Dirk was devoted to his young family, his wife Amy, a toddler daughter, and infant son.

“Devin, have you met my daughter Sevenia?” I asked.

“I think we’ve met,” Devin said with a wolfish grin as he offered his fist. Sevenia tapped her fist against his in greeting. “You’re the chick that the mother of my child calls the girl prophetess.”

“How is Lexi?” Sevenia asked.

“Feisty as ever,” he laughed. “I asked her to marry me and she said no.”

“Yes, I remember her telling me about your proposal when she was pregnant.”

“Some prophetess you are,” Devin smirked. “That’s ancient history. I proposed last night, and once again she gave me a flat out no. Didn’t even consider it. Not even a hmmm, let me think. Gee, you’ve financially supported our daughter, stopped chasing skirts, stopped drinking, stuck by me when I was a whacked out nut case. Oh well, can’t accuse me of not trying to do the right thing.”

“By whacked out nut case, are you referring to her demon possession ordeal?” my daughter asked.

“Ah, you are a prophetess after all,” Devin grinned.

“Look, for one thing I never claimed to be a prophetess,” Sevenia said calmly. “For another, you don’t seem to know the difference between clairvoyance and prophecy. One is of the devil, while one is from God.”

“Devil,” Devin snorted. “The biggest scapegoat in human history. The ultimate avoidance of human responsibility. Oh, the devil made me do it.”

“Devin,” Sevenia said cautiously. “One of Satan’s biggest tricks is to get people to believe he doesn’t exist.”

“How can there be a trick from something fictional? Mythology don’t you know.”

“So, what do you think was going on with Jesus in Matthew chapter four?” Sevenia asked.

“Enlighten me,” Devin replied as he spread his arms. “What was going on with Jesus in Matthew chapter four?”

“It’s where Jesus was in the wilderness forty days and forty night tempted by the devil,” Sevenia explained.

Devin cackled so strangely that I felt the hair on my neck prickle. “He was probably hallucinating.”

Sevenia had a baffled expression on her face when she asked, “You don’t believe what the Bible teaches is true?”

Devin winced and waved a dismissive hand. “I mean no disrespect to the Bible, but even the New Testament is two thousand years old. I mean come on. Truth is in experience.”

“Well,” Sevenia said gently. “I mean no disrespect to you, but the Bible being two thousand years old is what makes it so amazing. Not only that the truths it teaches are still relevant today, but the prophecies have almost all been fulfilled. We are now sitting on the cusp of the rest being fulfilled right before our eyes.”

“Whatever,” Devin responded. “All I know is my life the last few weeks has never been better. I’m so filled with spirit, I haven’t even desire drink or nicotine. Why I haven’t even… Well, never mind that. And it’s all thanks to Dalial.”

“Who’s Dalial?” my daughter asked.

I didn’t like the look that came into Devin’s eyes. I felt a chill go up my spine. I clearly understood my error in getting involved with him. I should have heeded my daughter’s warning. I should have never interviewed him for my podcast.

“Well, let me tell you, little lady,” Devin drawled, followed by that wolfish grin of his.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 7)

“Swear not at all.” Matthew 5:34

Even facts may be so stated as to convey a false impression.

Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight. Truth is of God; deception, in every one of its myriad forms, is of Satan.

We cannot speak the truth unless our minds are continually guided by Him who is the truth.

“Resist not him that is evil: but whosoever smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39

The whole earthly life of Jesus was a manifestation of this principle.

Through the prophet Isaiah He says, “I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.” “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” Isaiah 50:6 and 53:7.

From the cross of Calvary there comes down through the ages His prayer for His murderers and the message of hope for the dying thief.

The Father’s presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was Jesus’s source of comfort, and it is for us as well!

“Love your enemies.” Matthew 5:44

Jesus would have us understand how tenderly the heart of God yearns over them. He teaches that God cares for every lost soul; that “like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.” Psalm 103: 13

Every morsel of food, EVERY MOMENT OF LIFE, is a gift of love. A gift from God.

While we were yet unloving and lacking in character, “hateful and hating one another,” our heavenly Father had mercy on us. “After that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” Titus 3:3-5

His love received, will make us, in like manner, kind and tender, not merely toward those who please us, but to the most faulty and erring and sinful.

The children of God are those who are partakers of His nature. It not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God. It is LOVE, a LOVE that embraces all of humanity.

Even sinners whose hearts are not utterly closed to God’s Spirit, will respond to kindness. While they may give hate for hate, they will usually give love for love. But it is only the Spirit of God that gives love for hatred.

To be kind to the unthankful and to the evil, to do good hoping for nothing to gain, is the insignia of the royalty of heaven, the sure token by which the children of the Highest reveal their high estate.

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Mathew 5:48

God does not employ compulsory measures; love is the agent which He uses to expel sin from the heart.

The life of Jesus is made manifest “in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11). Thus we will be in harmony with every precept of His law.

“The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7

Through love “the righteousness of the law” will be “fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:4.