Timothy 4:1-2
Dr. Ergun Caner, President of Liberty Seminary, recently spoke in a
devotional where he discussed the memory of a college roommate who, in a
lame attempt to make himself impressive to young women, would
continually fake a British accent. He was from Newark, NJ. Apparently
the accent extended only beyond the men's dorm. In the dorm room,
however, the young man spoke with his usual, nasally, "Joisey" brogue.
The dorm mates would try to dissuade the young man from speaking thus,
but to no avail. However, the fake Brit accent drew the attention of a
young coed, and they went out on a couple of dates until it blossomed
into a serious romance. The British accent grew stronger the whole
while until one day, the young man's girlfriend invited him to meet her
parents for dinner, which he happily obliged, and looking forward to
meeting them.
As they sat at the table together, the student noticed that her father
spoke somewhat differently than his daughter. Apparently, the girl did
not tell her boyfriend that her father, though a resident of the states
for almost three decades, was from Wokingham, England!
"What part of England did you say you were from?" asked the father,
curiously. He had detected some variance of the dialect, "Because I
can't decide if you are South African, Welsh, or from New Zealand?" The
young man excused himself, pretended to go down the hall to the
bathroom, and walked out the front door instead. He never returned to
the table for dinner- nor did he return to campus. In fact, no one
seems to know to this day where he is!
For your reflection today I would have you ponder this thought:
"Dishonesty is the father of all self-hatred." It is true. When we
lie, or deceive, what we are saying is that we have no respect for
ourselves, for if we did, we would not have to lie, cheat, steal, or in
any other way deceive. We say we are too dumb or stupid to know how to
achieve something worthwhile or honestly. We initially think we are
smarter than the rest for the short-cuts that we take until we realize
that we have not fooled anyone but ourselves.
We seem to encounter more lies and more falsehood than in any other time
in recent history. Paul warns us about this phenomenon in I Timothy 4:-
"Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart
from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of
demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared
with a hot iron." (I Timothy 4:1-2 )
The desire to impress- to become someone that we are not, is as old as
Satan himself. He is not called the "father of lies" for nothing. In
his own pathetic ploy to rebel against God in heaven, Lucifer deceived
himself into thinking that he could ever do God's job better than He did
it, much less become like Him. Being cast out of heaven, he deluded
himself into thinking that he really matters, and that he can live out
his quest for attention and prestige in each of us. We think despise
people who are better than we are, when we really just hate ourselves.
And when we try to deceive others, we also try to deceive God.
Rid yourself of the father of lies and all of his notions. Begin loving
yourself and appreciating yourself as the person God loves and created
to be unique and significant. When you care about the truth enough to
speak and to live the truth, you love yourself. Have a blessed day!
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