Cedric Fisher: "earnestly contending for the faith."

The Cat that Leapt Well

It was one of those times when I wish that I had had a camera. But it was before smart phones and it was all over too quickly.

Cheryl and I were sitting on the back porch visiting with an elderly couple. It was a beautiful evening and our spot on the planet was losing its turn with the sun. Birds were everywhere, flitting, chirping, and dipping in the birdbath. The elderly gentleman loved and fed them daily. And the cat loved them as well.

He began stalking a small flock that had landed under a bird feeder. They were pecking furiously at the ground gathering up a final meal before roosting for the night. The cat was a very good stalker. Although the birds glanced nervously about as they feasted, he inched ever closer. The drama was intense.

I did not want the cat to be successful and was about to shout and wave my hands when I realized that he had set his mind on one particular bird. Fascinated by his choice I watched spellbound as he crept ever closer and then pounced. Success! As the little flock took flight the cat hit his prey with lightening precision flattening the bird.

However, there was no explosion of feathers, no death struggle in the teeth of the fearsome creature, and no smug look by the cat as he pranced away to enjoy his feast. No, but something much more amazing occurred.

When cat and bird collided the cat bounced back, shook his head several times, and staggered as he slunk off with an unhappy demeanor. When he glanced back at the fallen bird and contorted his mouth as if he were eating peanut butter, I erupted with laughter.

Apparently the cat in his intense desire to capture and kill one of the birds did not notice that the one he lunged for was a cement yard decoration. How his teeth and head must hurt! I cannot imagine the shock and the embarrassment, if a cat can be embarrassed.

Later that night I thought about how professing Christians often make the same mistake concerning the lures that Satan sets up. His deceptive devices are effective because they appear genuine and because we hunger for the real thing. That is the case with false revival. When the heretic makes exciting claims of great blessing, professing Christians do not hesitate to leap at the opportunity. But when they leap before they look discerningly, like the cat they end up with nothing of substance. They ran well, but were hindered from obeying the truth (Galatians 5:7).

Living bread only comes from God. People offering us their version or insisting that it can be obtained a different way and from a different source are deceivers. Solomon wrote about the results of that deception,

“Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” (Proverbs 20:17)

There is no revival without full surrender, and there is no living bread except in God’s presence. Deception is a road to emptiness. Looking to the mystics and other heretical invaders for fresh spirituality is like sloshing in a muddy field searching for a diamond. What we hunger for and truly need is not on the right or the left, and it is certainly not in the New Christianity and its mystical and even diabolical facsimiles of God’s truth. It is in the path that points straight to the throne of God. We have to discern our way through the maze of falseness and heed the Holy Spirit’s guidance, lest we leap at something better left alone.

5 Comments

  1. Ronald DeMitchell

    How true that is. Or we can also consider the mouse that blindly walks into the trap because it sees food, but it gets hurt in the end. Deception is also like rat poison in a way; it takes just a little bit to kill a rat. It’s in the food rats like, and that’s what makes it all the more dangerous to rats.

    In the same way, the whole church has gone into heresies. Only a remnant has recognized it for what it is. I wonder how we will recognize deception when the Antichrist arises if we can’t even recognize the obvious. Second Thessalonians 2 tells us that it will only get worse as a judgment for love of sin.

  2. Ronald DeMitchell

    I believ that the reason we are running after so many heresies is because we are not continuing to look to Christ the same as we did when we were first saved. Romans 6 talks about how we can have victory over sin so that we no longer have to obey it. We used to be slaves to it before we were saved, but if we could just get a revelation in the Holy Scriptures of Christ paying the redemption price so that he could redeem us, we are well on our way to victory. He did far more than just come to forgive us our sins; He came to set us free from the very power of sin. That more of us realized that victory today!

  3. Grace

    How simple yet profound God’s truths are when we are willing to be obedient to Him in all things!
    Thank you for sharing these thoughts. It is a blessed encouragement for the saints

  4. Ronald DeMitchell

    I should wonder about our fascenations with the universe as well. Could it very well be that we desire to explore the universe for all the wrong reasons? For example, if we desire to explore the universe for the purpose of finding life on other planets rather than seek the one true God as revealed in the Bible, we might wind up in a UFO deception where demons disguise themselves as aliens.

    When I was a kid, I used to delight hugely in the Star Wars movies. Those are movies that I watched over and over again, probably because I was searching for life’s deeper meaning in all the wrong places, sadly. But now I realize that unless we are committed fully to the Lord Jesus Christ, all our searching does no good.

    The most dangerous part for me still is following through on that commitment. If I do not read, study, or memorize my Bible on a particular day or have a time of prayer, that might be symptomatic of a lack of commitment on my part. All of you, please take warning from my situation, because even if we do all our Christian duties, but we are not fully committed to Christ, all of that will do no good, either now or in eternity.

  5. Anna

    Yes, they think they have the market and recipe on ‘revivals,’ only their revivals are apostasy! It is a golden calf festival revelry of sin, and they claim it is a ‘revival’! What a joke!

    To be honest, we all have the hills and valleys in our walk. But when we are feeling that lack of a fresh flow of the Spirit, we need to:
    1. Get on our knees and pray, surrender and submit to God, guard against spiritual attacks
    2. Ask God to forgive us and show us any hidden sin in our lives, to lead us
    3. Repent asap of any sins we are aware of
    4. Feed on His Word
    5. Serve and obey Him
    Without these things, no revival is possible.
    When we do all of this, the rivers flow, but if we don’t we shouldn’t be surprised if things are a bit stagnant. The Christian life is not meant to be lived in the bleachers, it’s not a spectator sport. We are called to follow Jesus, and that means to do stuff. He said if we follow Him, He will make us fishers of men. When I do these things (like evangelism outreach), the joy is filled to overflowing and I can’t praise and worship Him enough, and that’s before anyone even gets saved! It’s just a result of the obedience to what He wants us to do, and there is so much we can be doing to redeem the time. We are here for a reason; to serve Him, not to become Christian couch potatoes only concerned about our personal little ‘kingdoms’.

    Blessings!

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