1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

A doctrine is an established belief or rule. A doctrine of demons is one that demons created and established in a culture through teachers, politicians, and media. A major sign that we are in the last days is the proliferation of these doctrines that many are living by that are obviously wrong from a wisdom perspective and especially from a Biblical perspective.

I am surprised at how many Christian leaders, pastors, and Christian schools are parroting these rules today as truth. I guess a better word than “suprised” would be “alarmed.” The only way that they can do this with any degree of personal integrity is to declare the Bible null and void.

I have been making a list of these “demon doctrines” that are becoming commonplace and even standard rules for living life. One very common demon doctrine gaining ground rapidly is “ignorance is better than knowledge, ” which results in “truth being fluid.” It is a repeat of every kingdom and culture in history that fell or was absorbed by a competing culture. When the Kingdom of Israel fell in the Old Testament it was said that “everyone did that which was right in their own eyes.” “Right or Justice” was then determined by those who yelled the loudest, threw the biggest fit, created the most mayhem, and were the most ignorant of what was the truth.

Isaiah 5:20-21 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes And clever in their own sight!

Those who are following and serving Jesus as Lord of their life need to hold fast His Word, read it, study it, memorize it, and live it.

John 8:31-32 So Jesus was saying to those who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

The Lord’s truth will seem very bright and attractive when held in contrast to the blackness of “demon doctrines.” Though the world parrots these upside down and stupid doctrines, they produce nothing but choas and misery, and in the midst of the confusion and division many will look for truth and be attracted to your light if it hasn’t been dulled by the world.

As I have stated many times before, I have identified 26 character traits that I am constantly working on and evaluating myself on whether I am growing in each one of them in a balanced way.

I also do Bible studies on each one and buy books explicitly written about each character trait. I write about the individual character traits to better understand what they look like and how to personally grow stronger in them, and to teach others how to grow in them as well.

Even though all 26 are very important, a few are critically important, and one of those super important ones is humility.

Numbers 12:3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.

Psalms 25:9 He leads the humble in justice,
And He teaches the humble His way.

Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes dishonor, But with the humble is wisdom.

James 4:6 God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Here are some key principles of humility.

1. Humility is social. It is not a private act of self-deprecation—banishing proud thoughts, refusing to talk about our achievements and so on.

2. A truly humble person is confident, self-assured, strong, very competent, with a healthy self-worth. Humility is about the redirecting of our powers, whether physical, intellectual, financial or structural, for the sake of others.

3. Humility as a character trait is not so much how or what we think about ourselves, it is how we treat other people. Humility is the noble choice to forgo our status, use our resources and influence for the good of others before ourselves. A humble person automatically, without thinking about it, puts other people’s needs ahead of their own.

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;

4. We grow in the character trait of humility by choosing to act humble in obedience to God’s command in Philippians 2:3. We obey God’s Word by choosing to serve others whenever we are given an opportunity, whether we feel like it or not. We get opportunities to help people, to meet needs, to be kind all day long, but we usually are to busy meeting our own needs to take the time for others. When we make a determination to look for those opportunities we will grow in the inner character trait of humility. Like all of the character qualities, it begins with a choice, many choices, and then after time that is who we become as a person. It always starts as dry as dirt duty, then it grows to a habit, and then it becomes delight.

5. The cognitive choosing to obey God always brings His blessing of power and strength into our life.

6. The inner attitude of being arrogant in comparing ourselves with others automatically gets dialed down as we physically do things to meet needs for others. It is quite amazing how that works.

7. If you want to instill the character trait of humility in your kids as you train them plan times of need meeting activities for the elderly, the homeless, or other less fortunate people.

Proverbs 22:29 Do you see a man skilled in his work?
He will stand before kings;
He will not stand before obscure men.

Ezra 7:6 This Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given.

Certain basketball players are exceptionally good and are a key reason why their team wins games. I played golf this last week and enjoy playing, but I am not a skilled player like those playing in the Masters.

I have a goal to learn a new skill each year. Some of those skills that I have learned are relatively easy to get good at, such as making soap, but with others, I am barely competent even after years of working at them, such as welding, painting a car, and golf.

All skills have a process for becoming good. First you get instruction in writing, in video, or in person from someone who is good at what you want to become skilled at. Then you practice and practice some more, and then you get some inspection of your work, and then more instruction. The harder the skill is to learn the longer this process takes.

The desire to become exceptional at a particular skill drives the practice and the seeking of the knowledge needed to become skilled beyond merely competent.

Some skills are much more important in life than others and those same skills are much more difficult to become good at. The skill of leadership is so important to the success of any multi-person endeavor, and good leaders are rare. Parenting a child so that they grow up to be a champion is a skill. Being the kind of husband that makes your wife feel like a queen is a skill. Getting along with just about any person is a skill. Teaching the Bible so that it comes alive is a skill.

All those who become increasingly more skilled at what they are presently competent in, and are constantly adding new skills to their already long list of abilities have a number of things in common. They have an insatiable desire to learn more, and it seems that the more they learn the more they want to learn. They also are never content with their present level of competency in any skill, they always want to get better and better at everything. And most importantly they are humble enough to seek out those who know more than they do and are more skilled than they are, and to learn from them eagerly.

There are so many unskilled, low-skilled, incompetent, and barely competent people in the world today and it seems the percentage is increasing. It isn’t an issue of intelligence, it is an issue of attitude. Learning begets learning; learning becomes addictive, learning is extremely powerful in building our sense of worth and value as a person, learning adds a sense of spice to life that increase enjoyment, so just make a goal to learn one new skill and see what happens.

Our daughter Hanna, her husband Kyle and their three kids invited us to go with them this past week to Palm Springs. They were given a free week here so they rented a big van and we drove down with them, and are headed back home tomorrow. Kyle and I golfed, we all went to Sea World and got soaked at the dolphin show, road up this giant tram, and spent many hours in the swimming pool and hot tub. One of the golf courses was the most beautifully landscaped golf course I have ever seen. Lots of water with waterfalls, plants, flowers, trees, and sand, lots of sand. Many of the greens were islands with a bridge to it. Needless to say I lost a lot of balls in the water. It was a lot of fun to play, and because of the reduced tourist attendance there weren’t a lot of people.

I would have just as soon stayed home and painted my boat as to spend hours driving and all the time on the various activities that we did here, even with the gorgeous weather. But what made it special and very worthwhile was the time we got to spend with Kyle, Hanna and three awesome grandkids.

Healthy relationships that are abounding in love take work to establish and maintain, but they are the most significant source of joy in all of life. God is a Trinity of personalities and we are created in His image, we were created for loving community and family.

There are several key principles that get violated by so many families; first and most important is to forgive one another quickly of anything. That is absolutely the most critical of all principles. God blesses families and fills them with joy, but families with bitterness in them forfeit all of God’s blessings. The second principle is to always talk graciously to each other, always, always. The third principle is to always be thinking about how you could improve as a husband, a wife, a son, a sibling. We naturally think critically of our mate and others in the family on how they could improve, what they could do and ought to do. But instead, do what Jesus said to do, “take the log out of your own eye before attempting to take the splitter out of your husband’s eye.”

In our culture today “blaming and shaming” is what most do when relationships get strained. That is the guaranteed way to destroy your relationships with your own selfishness.

Jesus Christ says in the Bible, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to God except through me.” simply put Jesus is saying if you want to go to heaven instead of hell forever it will be by faith in Me, no other way. Two-thirds of the people in the United States don’t believe that, have never heard that, or just shrug their shoulders and ignore it.

Every one of those two-thirds will have a time in their life where they will wonder about God, heaven, life after death, and the possibility of hell. It might be during a severe trial in their life, or the opposite, a moment of joy and blessing, or a scare of death from sickness or a near accident. Whatever the reason, whenever there is even a moment of curiosity about God, Jesus, and life after death the wise person will seek answers and seek God.

Psalms 105:3-4 Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually.

James 4:8
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

We have a massive fear of death sweeping across our country and the world caused by media hype and government manipulation in order to control people. What people ought to be fearing is what happens after death. Death is an incredibly positive event as a follower of Jesus, but an incomprehensible terrible event if you are not in God’s family.

At a moment of curiosity choose to seek God. He promises that if you draw near Him He will draw near to you. Seeking God is simple; read the Bible, start with the gospel of John, attend a good church, talk to some Christians that you may know, and pray some simple prayers asking God to reveal Himself to you.

Don’t let Psalms 10:4 be a description of you, “the arrogant do not seek for God.”

I listened to the NCAA basketball championship game between Baylor University and Gonzaga University while riding in the car Monday evening with my son-in-law Kyle. He grew up in Northeastern Washington and has been a Gonzaga fan for many years. I am not a strong fan of Gonzaga, but I am an admirer of good coaching, and Mark Few has established himself over 21 years at Gonzaga as one of the best coaches in NCAA division 1 annuls.

They went on to the championship game unbeaten this year, and if they had won the championship they would have done what no team has done since 1976 when Bobby Knight coached the Indiana Hoosiers to a perfect 32-0 season.

I played basketball for a very small High School and two years at a very small college, but I remember those days well. The hard hours of practice as if nothing else in life mattered except winning basketball games. The ecstasy of winning and the agony of losing were the ultimate in emotions.

Saturday Gonzaga won the quarter final game against UCLA with a 30 foot last second three-point shot. I imagine that the emotions Saturday night were off the chart for everyone on the team, especially the starting point guard Suggs who made the amazing game winning shot.

But Monday night after losing by an embarrassing 16 point margin to Baylor I can’t imagine the pain they must be feeling as their dream of a National Championship and a historic undefeated season came to a crashing end.

I have had some major dreams in my life that died. I remember that as I was mulling over in my mind the pain and disappointment of those unrealized dreams that I knew that I would recover and get over it. I also knew that I would not let the failure deter me from pressing on to some even bigger dreams in the days ahead.

Many people never recover from a crushing disappointment or failure in life. The pain was so intense that they choose never to put themselves in that kind of position again, and never aspire to do anything great with their life after that.

When we get to heaven we will see clearly and we will realize that the effort to win, the diligence to accomplish significant things with our life, and the sacrifices we made to change the world were what shaped and made the character that we took with us to heaven. The pursuit of dreams is what God uses to make us like Himself.

I am a believer in eternal security, that is if we are genuinely born-again into God’s family we are secure, we will not lose that salvation. But I am also a very strong believer in the reality of pseudo-salvation, where a person thinks they are saved, adopted into God’s family but aren’t really.

I am not a proponent of overemphasizing our security to the point that we never question the validity of our salvation. I overhard a conversation between two people which began with one of them wondering if they were really saved based on their recent binge on sin. The other person said “sure you are, don’t let the devil try to get you to doubt your salvation.” I thought to myself, “I am not sure why the devil would do that, it seems like he would be doing the exact opposite!”

If someone wonders about their salvation to me, I don’t talk them into believing they are really saved, I lead them to Jesus again, and have them walk through the steps of faith again. If their name is already written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, recommitting their life to Christ will just solidify it in their own mind.

One of the reasons for a pseudo-salvation in many is because of an incomplete presentation of the gospel that they responded to. I hear over and over the phrase, “invite Jesus into your heart”. The gospel is (1) Jesus is God, infinite, Almighty God, equal and one with God the Father. (2) Jesus emptied Himself of all that He was as God and became flesh, just exactly like us. (3) As a man Jesus live a perfect and sinless life. (4) Jesus was nailed to a cross and while He was there God the father took every sin I ever committed and put them on Jesus, and looked at Jesus as if He actually committed all of them, and then punished Jesus in my place, He died on that cross for me. (5) And then 3 days later Jesus rose from the dead, and is alive today.

There isn’t a single element of the gospel in the invitation to “invite Jesus into your heart, ” and it is certainly vague theologically especially to kids. It is the truth that sets us free, not a sincere feeling.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Matthew 7:23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Can you imagine standing before Jesus at the end of your life thinking you were going to be spending eternity in heaven and hear Him say these words. That would be a shocker for sure. There will be no second chance, no reprieve, no parole. In light of the consequences it would probably be a good idea for all believers to ask themselves if hearing Jesus say, “depart from Me” is a possibility for them.

2 Corinthians 13:5-6 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?

Being a Christian doesn’t mean that we are perfect, but it does mean that we want to be, that when we sin, there is guilt, grieving, a godly sorrow. Casualness, complacency, and comfortablness with our sin because, after all, we are forgiven is a sure sign that we may hear those shocking words at the end of our life.

Part of the reason for pseudo salvations is because we have interpreted “believe in Jesus” as giving mental assent to historical facts, like believing in Abraham Lincoln.

Believing in Jesus is personal and relational. I believe that He is God, that He loves me, that He wants me to be with Him forever. Believing is understanding that I have a major problem that keeps me separated from Jesus and that is my sin. I believe Jesus died for me, personally, He was punished for my sin in my place because He loves me and wants me to be with Him forever and was willing to pay that price. Because I truly believe in Him, I love Him and want to please Him with my life. Is that true for you?

Patty and I have been married for almost 52 years. I have divided our marriage in two parts, before Google maps and after Google maps. Before Google maps we would often get into a fight when we went on a trip or went to a location that I wasn’t familiar with. I would get lost and Patty would nag at me to stop and ask for directions and I would refuse, sure that I could figure it out on my own. At some point her frustration would boil over and she would say loudly, “why can’t you admit you are lost!”

When I talk to people about trusting in Jesus as their Savior so they can go to heaven instead of hell when they die, I get all kinds of resistance. I have come to the conclusion that people have this independent, I can do it on my own, pride that keeps them from trusting Christ. The first step to being “born again” is admitting that we are lost and can’t save ourselves. God requires perfection if we insist on earning our own way into heaven, it only takes one, little sin to disqualify us.

It is so hard for people to admit they are lost and can’t do it on their own, but until they do there is no salvation and when they die God will say to them, “depart from me” into that place of torment forever.