Influencers Weekly Devotional

Go With ME   Embracing Our Sacred Responsibility

Sound Doctrine

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." 2 Timothy 4:3-5 (NIV) Recently, I have been made aware of the need for God's men to understand what sound biblical doctrine looks like. I have also been awakened to the fact that deceptive practices by false religions and cults are very good at appearing, at first blush, to be sound. But when you get past the rhetoric, the deceit, and, worst of all, the diversion from biblical truths, they can be spotted. However, if we are not established in what sound doctrine looks like and are not able to discern right from wrong doctrine because we are not familiar with God's Word, we can be led astray. Men, it is promised in Scripture that these deceptive practices will increase more and more before Christ returns, and we must be prepared. After this past week, I am even more convinced of the need for discipleship in the Body of Christ, especially for the men. Allow me to share with you what happened. In NWA, some of our men are deeply committed to prayer, and as a result, we gather monthly in a beautiful place we have named "Field of Prayers." As word got out about what we were doing, we had visitors who came, and we welcomed them. Two men, in particular, joined us who were involved with a ministry to men incarcerated in the local jail. They are good men, with a good heart, and have good intentions. One of the men is a relatively new Christian, even though he is in his 50’s. He has zeal to serve the Lord and is evangelistic in his work. When we finished our prayer time last week and were leaving, he gave us some printed material and said he wanted us to know what he was doing with the inmates. Most of the time I do not have the time to read such material, but, for some reason, I did. I discovered it was propaganda from a well known religious cult. The literature started friendly enough, but as I read closely, I saw "pre mortal existence" mentioned. I also read them saying that there is not one God, but three, as well some other "markers" of this false religion. It was a message deceitfully embedded in the material, just like a virus gets embedded in a computer and confuses the computer. Likewise, false doctrine such as this can be sneaked into an unsuspecting group of men and create confusion and casualties. Needless to say, I was deeply concerned for several reasons. First, I wanted to get to the bottom of the intensions to see if these men were a  part of this false religion and if it was their objective to convert our men to this cult. Next, I wanted to establish in everyone's view that Influencers is not an ecumenical organization that embraces all religions and promotes harmony with all beliefs. The fact is we are emphatic about the purity of the faith, and we hold on to sound doctrine. As a result, some actions have been taken to make sure there is no doubt about where we stand in our beliefs. I ask you to go to our website and look at our "Beliefs Statement," under "Who We Are." You will see a clear doctrinal statement that is derived from biblical truths. CLICK HERE TO GO THERE NOW. Concerning the man who distributed the material, I spoke to him and discovered that he is not with this religious group, and he was unaware that their message was embedded in his material. He shared that the men confined in the jails and prisons are hungry for material to read, and he had to put it together as quickly as possible. He had downloaded the material from the internet and simply didn't read it closely enough. Needless to say, he was deeply concerned and made immediate changes. This man has the right heart and intensions, so we will resource him with safe websites from which he can secure sound biblical information and with men who will provide him wisdom derived from their immersion in biblical truths. In addition, we want to get this man into a Journey Group, where he can be provided a process that will help him learn to self-feed on God's word and be trained in how to understand biblical truths. I said that I came away from this experience even more convinced that discipleship in God's Holy Word is of paramount importance for Christian men. Although I have not had many face-to-face confrontations with false religions that knock on our door, I have had enough to be convinced that it is my time in God's word that has kept me from being sidetracked. Memorizing key scriptures has undergirded my ability to respond to be a witness to the person trying to propagandize me. God's word is the "Sword of the Spirit," as mentioned in Ephesians 6:17. This is an offensive weapon in spiritual warfare, as evidenced by Jesus when He used it when being tempted by the devil. We should also learn to use it, so we can stand strong against the wiles of the enemy and his helpers. Men of God, I think the most powerful warning about what we are seeing today with the false religions and false prophets comes from the Bible itself. Let's let Apostle Peter's warning speak to us: "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them –bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping." 2 Peter 2: 1-3 (NIV) Holding on to God's Word, Rocky TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THIS DEVOTIONAL, CLICK HERE