{"id":301,"date":"2013-07-31T19:02:04","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T00:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=301"},"modified":"2014-07-31T15:08:50","modified_gmt":"2014-07-31T20:08:50","slug":"insidious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=301","title":{"rendered":"Insidious"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe lamp of the body is the eye, if therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!\u201d<\/em> Matthew 6:22,23<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a little wary of listening to people who talk as if the devil is a silly buffoon. He is an ancient and scary monster who is no one to be trifled with. And he is the most subtle of opponents, always coming at you sideways. Out of view. Always trying to flank. Always using trickery and slight of hand. Always deceiving. Always.<\/p>\n

He is in fact defeated. Like Polonius in Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet<\/em>, in an honest moment Satan might say, \u201cOh, I am slain!\u201d Perhaps he said it at Calvary, when he understood too late the plan of God. Certainly he said it when Jesus showed up at the door to his lair, keys in hand.<\/p>\n

But for the moment, though down, he is not out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m concerned Satan is trying to neutralize great truths by pulling our focus from where it should be. Subtly. Insidiously.<\/p>\n

If you go through the gospels with an eye toward focus, you can find Jesus talking a great deal more about it than just the verses from Matthew above.<\/p>\n

Take sowing and reaping, seed time and harvest. It\u2019s true we reap what we sow. The Bible unequivocally states it (2 Corinthians 9:6). The world around us shows it, literally in farming and figuratively in philosophy. Some call it Comeuppance. Some call it Karma. But everybody believes it.<\/p>\n

Some Christians, quite a few of us, focus great effort on sowing in order to reap a harvest, and Jesus had something very specific to say about that (Luke 6:35). I heard a minister say it plainly, \u201cMaybe your faith has been focused on your own needs\u201d. And he was compelled to quickly add, \u201c\u2026not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that.\u201d Really? Is there not?<\/p>\n

At what point will we be sufficiently prepared, positioned, equipped, prayed-up or prosperous to focus our faith outwardly rather than inwardly? I would say probably never. It seems innocent enough, for sure, to better ourselves, to actualize our potential\u00a0and be all that God has made us to be. We have been born (again) with great expectations. But the definition of insidious is operating or proceeding in an inconspicuous or seemly harmless way but actually with grave effect. The grave effect is that we never shift our consciousness or our conscience away from our own lives.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a church in Albuquerque, and I used to visit their services when I was working there. I don\u2019t remember the church\u2019s name or the pastor\u2019s, but I do remember this: He brought a message one night that deepened my understanding of faith. He testified that he was working full time but he felt called to ministry, to pastoral ministry. So he began to reach out to people by faith the way a minister would. To pray with them. To testify to them about Jesus. The Lord prospered his efforts and by the time I visited their little fellowship they were growing and giving.<\/p>\n

Faith acts\u2026outwardly.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s working, it looks like love.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.\u201d<\/em> Galatians 5:6 (Amplified)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Melissa Kay Simonds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe lamp of the body is the eye, if therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Mo02-4R","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1033,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=1033","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":0},"title":"Unpacking Prose","author":"lsimonds","date":"July 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\"...I asked novelists...what it felt like when they went into a novel. 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We used to take a magnifying glass, usually one that came from a box\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2002"","block_context":{"text":"2002","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1600,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=1600","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":2},"title":"The Long View","author":"lsimonds","date":"May 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\"There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.\" Proverbs 14:12 NIV Begin with the end in mind. It's common advice for crafting a story and even better advice for crafting a life. 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Frankly, these thoughts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2015"","block_context":{"text":"2015","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=39","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":4},"title":"Imitation of Life","author":"lsimonds","date":"March 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cIn Him was life, and the life was the light of men.\u201d John 1:4 \u00a0I have heard that someone once tried to fasten a boutonni\u00e8re to the lapel of the famous evangelist Smith Wigglesworth, which the preacher vehemently refused.\u00a0 He said he didn\u2019t want that death, that dying flower, on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2004"","block_context":{"text":"2004","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1578,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=1578","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":5},"title":"Nativity with a Capital N","author":"lsimonds","date":"December 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,And deep darkness the people;But the\u00a0Lord\u00a0will arise over you,And His glory will be seen upon you.The\u00a0Gentiles shall come to your light,And kings to the brightness of your rising.Isaiah 60:2-3 About a year ago, I was having my hair done, watching the young people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2020"","block_context":{"text":"2020","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}