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Sunday, June 2, 2013

‘Don’t Let your guard down’


‘Don’t Let your guard down’                           June 2013       Rick Godley

In football, the most glamorous position is usually the quarterback.   Yet, I’m sure to any quarterback you ask him what’s the most important position to him and he will tell you it’s his offensive line.  This essentially consists of a center, two guards and two tackles.  Of the 2 guards one seemingly has a more important role to play, that is to protect the quarterbacks ‘blindside’,   the side where is back is exposed to the enemy trying to infiltrate and sack and destroy him.  The position is not glamorous and folks rarely know your name, except when you make a mistake and it’s revealed to all that you go beat by the opponent.  It’s one of the few positions where you never see the action, your back is to the ball during the most critical moments of the play.

In boxing you’ll hear a coach scream at his fighter to ‘keep his guard up!  Don’t let your guard down!’  Why?  Because the fighter is both on the offensive and defensive at all times.  Trying to take out his opponent all the while protecting or guarding his head!    Letting one’s guard down in boxing could prove not only costly but maybe fatal!

So when it comes to our walk of faith you may hear, ‘what difference does it make’?  We just had a former Secretary of State use that phrase recently.    Likewise how many times have we had the ‘Don’t Judge-Me Card’ trumped down?   Does it make a difference?  I can be wrong in a judgment call and make amends, yet, like the offensive guard on the blindside of the quarterback, if I let my guard down, someone gets hurt and possibly killed.

Our adversary is seeking to steal, kill and destroy. What difference does it make?  It seemed to pretty significant to THE Quarterback, (The Messiah) in Matthew 24, when his team asked him 3 questions about the ‘end times’, when will it happen, what will be the sign and the end of the age?  The Messiahs 1st words out of His mouth ‘See to it you are not deceived/misled’.   Why would he say that?  Because not only can we be deceived and misled, that there is someone out there trying to do just that!
Then He goes on to explain it this way.  Visualize it with me, let’s say it is a football huddle, The Messiah is the Quarterback and everyone is looking at Him, and He’s says, many are coming on our team saying that ‘I am the Quarterback’, pointing to Himself.  He’s going to come in our huddle, team, wearing the same uniform on the outside, maybe with the #66, but not always!   That’s who we need to be on guard with!   And you still are wondering what difference does it make?

Adam was the 1st offensive guard!  The Creator created everything for him, food, healthcare, Life, retirement, a spouse to be fruitful with and if that wasn’t a nice package, Adam got to fellowship and walk and talk with The Creator!  What did The Creator ask Adam to do to maintain all of the above?   Gen 2:15, ‘  And יהוה Elohim took the man and put him in the garden of Ěḏen to work it and to guard it.’  Work the Garden and Guard the Garden.  What difference does it make if he didn’t guard the garden?    You get what we got!

When will we begin to keep our guard up?  Does it make a difference?  Obviously in the modern church world it doesn’t.   We have diluted and distilled ourselves down to insipidness by allowing any and all to come and not be on guard as even ‘Paul’ warned us with the same warning!   ‘Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.  I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;  and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.’; Seems like it made a difference to ‘Paul’.

Nehemiah warned us as well, keep your guard up and don’t let the enemy get in! Neh 6:1  ‘Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, "Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono." But they intended to do me harm.  And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?" And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.’  What if we had said to Nehemiah, what difference does it make?  Looks like they want to help, let’s let them.

Even the brethren in Acts didn’t let ‘Paul’ in after his conversion.  They tested the Spirits 1Jn 4:1  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.’  Act 9:26  ‘And when ‘Paul’ had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.’   Proving one can make an error in judgment and make amends, but let your guard down to the one who comes in as an ‘angel of light’ will be fatal.

1Co 15:33  Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals.”

It made a difference to ‘Paul’ when advising Titus; “For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers…. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”

Keep your guard up and contend earnestly for The Faith once handed down to the saints from The Beginning,  creeps and sneaks are always trying to get in!  Paraphrasing Jude, Jud 1:4  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, wicked men, turning the grace of our Elohim into lasciviousness, and denying our only Sovereign, and Master Yahshua the Messiah.”

 Mar 8:15  And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

Luke 12:1:  Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Mat 16:11  How is it that ye do not understand that I spoke it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?  Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.’

Gal 5:9  A little leaven leavens the whole lump.’

Does it matter, what difference does it make?   Depends on whose recipe you’re following?  A pure message of The Word or a mixed message polluted over time where one refuses to let go and be cleansed.   
Beware of setting your standard of ‘like minded believers’,  even the demons believe; ‘ you believe  that there is one Yahweh; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.’    You want to associate with like minded ‘behaviors’. 

Pro 30:20  This is the way of an adulteress : she eats and wipes her mouth and says, "I have done no wrong."  In other words you can almost hear her say, what difference does it make?

Now is not the time to play the ‘Don’t Judge Me Card’ cause it doesn't make a difference, we need to keep our guard up so we don’t get blindsided!   Then we will be in One Accord able to receive the power necessary to destroy the works of the devil and advance His Kingdom, and He will keep the corruption of Ananias and Sapphira out of the Body! 

I think it makes a Big difference.   Don’t You?


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