Deception
2 : something that causes you to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid : trick
Has anyone ever pulled the wool over your eyes and you couldn’t believe that you had fallen for their tricks? Well, it happened to me just last night. A friend had sent me the wonderful picture that you see here. Along with this paragraph:
Bob Frew sent this out. "I took this picture on Interstate 20, traveling to Leeds, AL. It has given me strength in the times of trouble. I feel I should share it with the rest of the world. I hope it is an inspiration to you. It just goes to show what we already know...We have a God, and he's watching over us. I e-mailed this picture to News Channel Fox 6. I was contacted by Meteorologist James Spann. He said that this picture of the sky is showing up in all states and around the world. He wanted to know where I was from and where I took it. He saw a similar picture taken in Texas. He said this is amazing to him.”
My first thought after reading the information was “this is amazing.” I couldn’t wait to use it in my blog, but before posting it, I thought I had better do a little research. When you Google Bob Frew this picture and information does come up, however, when you dig a bit deeper, it appears that the exact same picture was used with the exact same story except name and location had been changed when appearing in other places. It seems that this was created in Photoshop in hopes of driving business to a particular website.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think that God is quite capable of designing the clouds to show His hands parting the sky, after all, He did it in the day of David (2 Samuel 22:10) and that He will return in the clouds some day. In fact I am sure that God has this world in His hands or we would have spun out of control a long time ago, but I do think this is a good warning for us as Christians to be discerning. If we believe every book that is written, every picture that we see or everything we hear on the TV we will be deceived around every corner for Satan is the father of lies and he will tell them everywhere that he can to try and destroy us and our witness. The “world” also wants us to look foolish, but through God we can prove them to be the foolish ones.
In Matthew 10:16 Jesus told His disciple that they were to be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. I believe that those instructions were also meant for those of us living today, therefore we must be diligent to pray that God will give us wisdom and discernment and the ability to test the things we hear, see and experience each day.
Philippians 1:9-10 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.
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