Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

The little boys turned up again this morning. They are always happy to be here. And Bimbo is so happy they’re here he can hardly contain himself.

I need to make tracks on my work with the big deadline coming up for delivering this project—this Saturday. Still lots to do.

What tracks to you need to make today? You’re probably so busy making them you won’t tell me. Oh well.

May your tracks be blessed today.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Deception, in simple terms, is being made to believe something as true that is not true. When a person tells his neigbor a lie, and the neighbor believes it as true, the neighbor has been deceived. Consider self-deception. That’s when a person tells himself a lie “with a straight face”—and he believes it! That’s crazy—but very common. Indeed, it is a component of the NATURAL SIN NATURE. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Perhaps the most critical form of talk in the world is SELF-TALK. And it’s really not that difficult to figure out what kind of SELF-TALK many people have been engaging in, even if they don’t tell you the same stuff they’ve been telling themselves. For example, when you see a young guy with expanded ear lobes, hardware in his eye-brow and lip, baggy pants barely staying up with underwear showing, wearing an over-sized cap backwards, covered with tattoos, smoking a cigarette, and drinking a beer, you know right off at least some of what he’s been telling himself. They have been telling themselves some form of, “Bizarre is the in-thing. And since you want to be in, you must choose to be bizarre and do everything you can to conform to bizarreness. After all, your self-esteem is dependent upon peer-esteem. Your happiness and fulfillment in life has nothing to do with being wise and right. That would risk your being different—maybe even persecuted and/or rejected. It has everything to do with being accepted and feeling cool.” He has not a clue that his freedom to be cool is actually bondage—more deception.

I suppose I could be judged as judging. But I don’t think it’s being negatively judgmental any more than David is doing in the FOCUS VERSE. He identifies the SELF-TALK of a person who refuses to honestly examine the evidence that points so extravagantly to the Creator. He tells himself a whopper of a lie—“There is no God. So there is no need to be concerned with accountability to Him”—and he believes it. He has not a clue that his quest to be free from accountability to God is actually bondage—more deception.

Here’s more SELF-TALK David speculates from Psalm 10. Describing the “wicked man” (10:2), “He says to himself, ‘Nothing will shake me; I’ll always be happy and never have trouble’” (10:6). Oh, really? We’ll see, won’t we? “He says to himself, ‘God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees’” (10:11). Are you sure? How do you know? “Why does he say to himself, ‘He won’t call me to account’” (10:13)?

Notice the positive use of SELF-TALK that David puts forth in Psalm 15 to describe those made acceptable before Holy God. Among other qualities, he “speaks the truth from his heart” (15:2). That’s critical. It’s impossible to be honest with yourself while you tell yourself lies. And to ensure telling yourself the truth, because our NATURAL SIN NATURE will always tell lies, tell yourself God’s Word (John 17:17). It’s of huge benefit (2 Timothy 2:15; 3:16-17). Honest SELF-TALK is also presented as the first piece of equipment for a victorious believer—“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist” (Ephesians 6:14).