The Deceptive Channel

Galatians 6:3-5

“For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.”

My dear friend Bob the barber would often say in jest, “I do not have to worry about being a has-been, because I’m a never was.”  Now the statement was far from being true, for he was very successful.  But for years I took that statement to heart, not about my barber, but about myself.  You remember Channel One, the deceptive channel controlled by the one Jesus talks about in John 10:10, that voice that sounded like my own would often tell me I was of no worth, was a poser and a failure, as a man, husband, and it would be how I was remembered.

I must say that voice drove me to work harder than others with greater talents, for I needed to be of worth, but it often reminded me that any moment someone with a better education and skill set would be my replacement.  This happen for the first three years of my 3M employment, and then one day, a very bad day, no sales for most of the month, I heard from Channel Two, the Spirit of Truth, and it told me I was of great worth, and that God had gifted me in the area of sales.  I listened to that message over and over, and accepted it as true, for it was, I was no longer a never was but a somebody, with the gift of selling.

But then another area I was not prepared for happened, Channel One began to tell me I was the best, and in came pride, and pride will blind you to many sins.  If only my pride would have let me share this with one of my brothers in Christ, maybe they would have directed me to Isaiah 5:21, “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight.”  And they may have asked me to give thought to 1 Corinthians 3:18-21, “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,” (1 Corinthians 3:18-21, ESV) If you skip down to verse 22b-23, it reads; “all are yours, and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.”

I’m now in my seventy’s and have been in Christ for 44 years, but for much of that I had no grasp of what it meant to have Christ as my life.  I am learning to examine myself, as instructed in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.  Test yourselves.  Or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice