The Deceitfulness of Sin

Greetings sister saints!
I hope you are standing strong with your Ephesians 6 armor on, against the fiery darts of the devil who wants to seek and destroy.

Today I have a sad story and a warning that I hope strengthens you.  See that picture above?  That's what happens through the deceitfulness of sin, one little compromise here and one there and look what happens.  

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:13 


The woman in the picture and her family used to belong to a religious body that was not fully biblical and when they left that body, we rejoiced and tried to help them but they refused and went on their way.  We quickly saw, within weeks, the slow fade.  Brother James warned them but they didn't heed it and now we see this. It's so sad because they have children that they are teaching the wicked ways of the world now. I could describe it to you but it's not the same as actually seeing it, the descent right into sin.  

For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2 Peter 2:20 

It's hard to see that sisters, and we have to see it often in our ministry.  Not always that fast and drastic but enough to see where people are heading and no matter how we try to warn them, they don't listen.

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 
Ephesians 4:18-19 

I share this because I care, and I want to show you a real life example of what can happen when you allow a tiny bit of compromise and how it can cascade into what you see there.

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 
1 Corinthians 10:12 

Don't think that such a fall couldn't happen to one of us who are walking in the truth.  We've seen it and it never happens overnight.  (Unless a person was a total fake and that doesn't last long before they are revealed.)   It's a slow fade...

A sister will be born again and zealous to be obedient to the Lord and runs forth with the Spirit of the Lord inside, pressing her on to overcome all that will come.  Then it happens.  The pressure form a husband, children, parents / family, friends, job, persecution, lonliness etc slows them down and instead of looking to the Lord for truth and following it, they stop and look around.  They don't see many others in full obedience and they allow satan to put that question in their mind...

Genesis 3:1 
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

"Hath God said?" 

Or in today's language,

"Did God really say...?"

"Does the Word mean that?" 

"Do we really have to do that?"

"You think God will send you to hell for one little thing?"

One little doubt like that can start an avalanche of compromise and sin in the heart.  That's where it starts, in the heart, and eventually it grows into external actions as a result of the sin working inside.

We watch people that run away from truth and try to warn them when we see that fade but they are blinded and deaf of hearing, looking to do what is right in their eyes and the end is destruction.

Let's use this family as an example.  When they left, we saw a little compromise in their life in the manner of some of the things they were doing. I expected her clothing to change (as the group she was with required a standard type of dress that looks biblical but not biblical to demand women to wear) and it did, but not in a biblical manner. The clothing became adorned just a little here and there until it was fashionable and of the world.  The headcovering disappeared, the makeup and jewelry returned and the ways of the world were welcomed in their life. I could be here all day sharing the examples we've seen but I don't think I need to.

Over and over again we see it happen and when we reach out to help, we are called legalists, judgemental, hateful, pharisees and all the other ones you probably know.  It isn't long and the end is destruction and we shake our heads in dismay at another one (or more) that satan got ahold of.

I want to go back to something about her clothing so I can clarify.  You can see by her picture she is biblical looking. Now had this family left that religious body to pursue more truth, she could have changed her dress so as not to remind her of the group they used to belong to. She could have worn a different headcovering, shorter sleeves, not restricted to dresses but could have worn skirts and shirts (there are many different clothes a godly woman can wear, we are not all to look the same) and in doing that, she would have been biblical.  But she went all the way to the other ditch and is now fully immersed in the world (as are her husband and entire family.)

I know some of you reading this are convicted because you may have started out strong and over the years have compromised here and there, doubting the severity of God's Word, trying to crack the door open for yourself or for someone else to get in to have fellowship with....

My heart is grieved for their souls because they are either on or heading toward the wide road and I'm saddened for the glory of God and the blood of Christ that has been trampled upon by many of them.

If a sister comes to you and tries to show you something, don't let your flesh get involved and istead seek to see if what she is saying may be valid.  Examine your life (as we all are to do on a constant basis) and see if we are wavering here and there even if just a little bit.  Maybe we aren't and we should thank that sister for loving us enough to put herself out there to try to help.  Maybe we are and needed to hear it from someone to pound that conviction a bit deeper within us.  

In this age of the great falling away, the saints are scattered all over and the long distance relationships can only go so far.  We can't make it to be something it's not so we do the best we can to know, learn about, watch, share, love, encourage, warn etc each other as we go about our lives.  

I take great solace knowing that anyone we have encountered has been loved by us, taught the word of God, looked after and we've tried to pull them from the flames.  I can relate to Paul here:

For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. [30] Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. [31] Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
Acts 20:29-31 


Many warnings have gone out and along with it the tears of seeing the demise of those claiming His name, but the Lord knows who are and will be His and we just keep going about our works, doing what we are to do and being who we are in Christ, helping those along the way.

Hold fast sisters, don't compromise lest you too have taken away what you have. 

In fervent godly love,
Sister Deb

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