Fool Me Once, Shame on You; Fool Me Twice Shame On Me

 

It is very hard for us to lift up our heads in confidence if we have been deceived.  We need to understand that we are engaged in a battle with the great deceiver.  He is smarter, has been around a whole lot longer, and can be very persuasive.  He can paint a rosy picture or a terrifying one.  He appeals to your fears and knows that your intelligence must come from the Holy Spirit, for without Him living in your life to give you discernment we are all potential prey to the liar and chief.  He is smart enough to not give away too much information just enough to hook you in and once you are there he determines that he can hold you because you feel too embarrassed about what you had come to believe.  

There are 74,000,000 citizens of this great country who were fooled.  To understand where the original lies come from we have to go way back many years.  Many years ago Fox news announced that it was "Fair and Balanced".  It neglected to say that about 80% of its "news" was opinion.  I can hear all of you in the background saying all news is fake.  Obviously, that cannot be true, although there are still people who believe that we never went to the moon and that the earth is flat.  We poopoo these beliefs saying no one could believe that way but there are those that do.  There are individuals in our society who also believe that a sign of Christianity is being able to handle a poisonous snake.  It is supposed to present how spiritual individuals are.  If the snake bites them, they fail the test.  

I watched in horror as thousands of people tried to destroy the seat of American's democracy.  My concern was that they even considered that as a way to take charge of our government.  I have done extensive reading and study of the way Hitler took over a wonderful democratic country.  He found that he could push fear and discord by bringing out one group that should be hated, the Jews and making his countrymen believe that they were trying to take over.  Hitler was full of the devil.  Lying spirits made themselves right at home in his mind and controlled much of what he said.  He would work up his audience repeating lies over and over again.  He appealed to fear that already in some sense existed in the population.  I was so shocked when I studied the decline of Germany to realize that it was a democracy.  He came into power in a democracy.  This is why I had such concerns about the way America was heading and may still be heading.  

It is easy to foment hate if it is already in the heart.  People, the poor white and black and hispanic have been passed by in this country.  For years women were not paid the same wages for a job that men were being paid.  It took fighting in the courts to get it changed but even so women are still thought to be incapable of doing the same job as a man.  I am going to tell a little bit of my own story here because I want the readers to understand where I am coming from.  

I am a minister.  I have Pastored three churches and been co-pastor a couple.  At a church, a large church I was on the staff.  The Pastor permitted me to preach on Wednesday nights or Sunday nights but not on Sunday mornings.  I couldn't understand why he did that.  At some point we had a conversation and I realized that he did not believe that women should pastor a church.  I did everything that he did.  I visited the hospitals, prayed for the sick, went to the church in evenings to counsel members who had problems. I spoke in nearly every group in the church.  I did weddings, funerals and whatever any other minister would have done.  I taught the sanctuary class.  Also, I was not paid a salary as the other staff but paid hourly and did not receive any pay for the hours that were after normal work time.  Now I cannot say that I was not hurt by this treatment.  I was hurt and I wept many hours to the Lord about it.  I prayed for an understanding heart.  The Lord revealed something to me that I still believe is profound.  He told me that even He could not violate someones beliefs even though they were wrong.  The belief is a paradigm.  It is a so strong that it is virtually impossible even for God to correct it.  The paradigm is an opinion that functions as a doorway to our mind.   Anything that does not agree with the paradigm is simply cast aside and not allowed to enter.  In evangelical churches like the ones I grew up in generally the Pastor and his spouse both preached and shared the duties.  

When I decided to pursue the ministry, I made an appointment with the sectional presbytery at that time.  I went to see him and the topic came up of ordination.  I did a four year study with a correspondence school affiliated with our denomination.  I asked what it would take to be ordained and he said "You probably won't be because you have to pastor a church for two or three years."  I quickly thought over the churches in our section and realized that there were no women pastors.  "I said, if God wants me to be ordained He will give me a church."  God did give me a church.  I was so appreciative of the opportunity to serve the Lord in this way.  I will always be grateful for the way the Lord opened and closed doors for me.  I believe that because of the Lord, I have been very, very blessed.

I have digressed with my story but I want readers to understand that we all have an ingrained belief system and for many, parts of it, are a paradigm.  This is a huge roadblock in trying to do things for the Lord.  It holds up so many plans that God has.  I believe that Trump appealed to that sense of being left out for many individuals.  People need someone to blame for their perceived problems.  Prejudices have been implanted in their minds long before they were adults.  These prejudices have prevented individuals from looking at the world clearly.  They are inflexible and will not welcome anything that violates their belief system.  If it won't go through the door, (paradigm) it has to be wrong.  

Trump has raised the dead with his hatred of everyone.  His spewing of hate and lies went through his crowds of like minded individuals.  His expression of concern about our country being taken over by immigrants was outrageous.  This country, sadly, has used foreigners to do jobs that citizens don't want to do.  The Chinese built our railroads, the African Americans kept food on our tables and clothes on our backs in the old south, the Hispanics work in our fields picking fruit and vegetables.  We would be in a lot of trouble if we had not had their assistance and sadly we mistreated these people and looked down upon the very people who made our lives easier by their hard work. The Chinese came of their own freewill but the African Americans were kidnapped and sold as slaves.  

Sadly, many of my friends and even children believe in this Qanon theory.  I really don't know what it is but it has put a wedge between us.  Anything that does that has to be from the liar and chief.  God does not sow confusion. God does not sow hatred.  God does not sow violence.  God is not in any of these systems that are trying to divide our country.  We always need to understand what God's heart is.  If God would not sow it, it is error and should be cast out.  Don't be hurt about what has happened.  Let it go.  I believe that God will give you peace.