Saturday, May 22, 2010

"The old prophet answered, "I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.'" (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house." -- 1 Kings 13:18-19

So who do you believe: your preacher or God? Sure. You just answered, "God, of course." Sure about that? Really? Do you take everything he/she says as being true or do you read the Bible and ask God what He really meant?

It's easier to let someone else do all the work for us. We can simply show up on Sundays and be told what God said. Someone else will tell us what He meant. We don't have to read anything. We don't have to think about what a Bible passage might mean to our life. We can simply go through motions and trust that the preacher or teacher or whoever else we're trusting to tell us the truth, is.

That's what an unnamed prophet from Judah did. He listened to God. He went to Bethel. He told the king exactly what God told him to say. He even left by a different road, again as God told him to do. But, you see, God also told him not to eat or drink anything.

Then the old prophet met him along the road. He told the unnamed prophet that he, too, had a vision from God. In that vision God told the old prophet to bring the unnamed prophet to his house and give him food and drink. The unnamed prophet believed the older prophet. It sounded good. Except the older prophet was lying. The unnamed prophet paid for listening to that lie with his life.

That's what we're talking about here. Our lives. Our souls. Our core belief in God. We can't allow someone else to tell us what God says. He has given us His Word. He lets us ask Him questions and He answers us. And, yes, He gives us wonderful teachers and christian friends and family who help us along the path to knowing Him better. But don't ever use them as an excuse or a substitute for looking to the source of everything for answers and guidance. God is everything. Follow Him first and only. Don't ever let anyone -- no matter how well meaning they might be -- lead you astray.