Be Real

Be cautious because there are plenty of beliefs about Jesus that are not real.

2 Peter 2:1-3  But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.

2  Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.  3  In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.

---

One of the most amazing things about traveling to Europe is to see their old castles and cathedrals that are made out of real natural materials. As an example take a look at the city of Oxford, none of the building materials are fake, most of our architecture is just a facade.

We live in a world where we are used to fake, plastic is used to replace all kinds of things, from building materials to body parts, we even have milk that comes from sources other than cows. With all of this fake stuff around it is easy to accept it all without questioning any of it.

There was plenty of fake in the Bible, from Abram lying about his wife being his sister (Genesis 12:10-13), Isaac tells a similar lie about his wife and then his son Jacob deceives him into thinking that he is actually Esau (Genesis 27:1-46) and then Jacobs sons hide the truth about what has happened to their brother Joseph. (Genesis 37:1-36) All of that deception is in one family in the first book of the Bible.

Ever since the original false teacher talked to Eve in the garden with his clever stories and destructive intentions there have been many more teachers of deception that have caused the fall of many. They slander the truth, seek to get into your pocketbook and they put the spotlight on themselves to feed their own ego. Some of them are like a snake but they can be like savage wolves or they may not look mean at all. (Matthew 7:15-23, Acts 20:28-32)

The apostles were God’s instruments to record His full and final revelation for us. The prophecies that they give us in the New Testament are the last revelation on God's timetable. There have been plenty of false prophecies since then and people that claim to have a vision from God. Muslims, Mormons and Seventh Day Adventist all claim to have a new revelation and the Jehovah's Witness claim to have another publication that must be used in order to understand the Bible.

Real Truth
John 14:6  Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me." John 17:3  And this is the way to have eternal life--to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the One You sent to earth.

By promising a new life of freedom, the false teachers deceive people just like water-less springs and rain-less clouds, they build up people’s hopes only to disappoint. The only real hope that we have and the only real truth that we can build our life on is to know the only true God and His Son Jesus. If you are trusting anybody else with your eternal destination then you are playing a dangerous game. 

Even if you are a child of God you have to be careful that you have a real perception of who He is and what that implies about our lifestyle. We can be guilty of conforming Jesus to our idea of Jesus instead of continuously digging into God's word to see the real Jesus.

Help me Lord to know you more and to have a better picture of who you are and how I can better look like the real Jesus.