Last night my legs cramped throughout the night and it was very painful. I’ve been having leg cramps for several months now and my friends have offered every home remedy imaginable. The latest was someone telling me to drink kosher dill pickle juice and it would stop them straight away.
Yeah right… I’m not falling for that one.
In fact that reminds me of the time an employee and I went out of town to try and sell some software to a huge customer. In fact we were successful and I took him out to eat with me as a celebratory gesture. We each ordered an entire bucket of seafood which included numerous boiled shrimp. Incredibly my friend had never tried boiled shrimp, or for that matter shrimp of any kind. He looked at the shrimp and asked me what to do with the shell and tail. I looked at him and said, “You eat that portion John, it’s delicious. Just chew it up and it will release a flavor to die for”. I didn’t crack a smile as he bit into one and started crunch, crunch, crunching and eating that unpeeled boiled shrimp, shell, tail, and all.
He made a weird face as he tried to chew it, and finally I cracked up laughing and in short order tears were streaming down my face. Just then the waitress, whom we’d been bantering with earlier, noticed the melee and came over. She was the motherly type and had taken a liking to John and a disliking to me. John was a fragile looking, pitiful little guy, and just the type every mother would love, (and fiercely protect like a grizzly bear going after someone who messed with one of her cubs).
When she found out what I’d done with tricking him into chewing up shrimp hulls and tails, she lit into me and was slapping me about the head and shoulders and admonishing me like an enraged sow “griz”.
Of course just then John made a big deal about spitting out the half chewed shrimp as though he were going to puke, which just made me laugh all the harder and her slap me all the harder.
I was thinking this morning how this story is similar to satan. The Bible tells us that he is the “great deceiver”. In 2 Corinthians 11 it states: But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
This is predicted in Revelation in the End Times when he is depicted as riding a white horse deceiving those in the world that he can with false teachings. (It is no accident that he is depicted as being on a white horse – that of course is normally reserved for the good guys.)
He will take on the persona of an angel of light in order to deceive. Today we see a myriad of false religions cropping up and many churches have quit preaching the Gospel as being true entirely, particularly when it comes to the blood of Jesus being the only acceptable sacrifice and payment for our sins.
We are warned repeatedly to test the words emanating from the pulpits and elsewhere. The standard is God’s Holy Bible which is the inerrant word of God. Basically my advice in this regard is that if the Bible doesn’t say it, don’t believe it. If you haven’t read the Bible for yourself, then it’s very difficult to test doctrine as being sound. I can’t think of a better New Year’s resolution than to read the Bible in its entirety.
Don’t drink pickle juice or eat unpeeled shrimp when it comes to your eternal salvation.
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!
Galatians 1:8
Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.