FROM THE TREE TO THE CROSS

Galatians 6:6
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

This verse may be confusing to some people because of the wording and context but what it means is simply this, do not be decieved by the people who go around preaching false doctrines (ie prosperity gospels) or manipulating religion or the bible to fit their agenda and take advantage of people that eventually turns them Into hypocrites or bitter victims and turns them away from God.

Those people will reap what they have sowed because God is not and will not be mocked, he sees all, nothing escapes his knowing, he does not look the other way and will not forgive a person who takes his name in vain.

Even though it seems like they are getting away with it and making a mockery of God and his son Jesus, they are not getting away with anything in the end because everyone will be held accountable for their actions and God warned them in Exodus 20:7

7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

The priests of the tabernacle and later the temple wore a turban over their head that had a small gold plate with the name YHWH, the name of the LORD written on it.

It was their responsibility to represent man attempting to return into a fellowship with God by being obedient to God and to teach his fellow man how to do the same,

Any form of perversion or misrepresentation of that simple duty would have been taking the LORDs name in vain and he would not simply be forgiven for doing so because not only did he corrupt himself but corrupted those who looked to him as a guide and teacher of the path and the way to God.

But anyone who is willingly decieved is just as guilty as the deciever himself,  so don’t fool yourself into thinking you can blame your selfish and ungodly behavior on someone else in the end.

Ezekiel 14 Now some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me.  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?

4 “Therefore speak to them, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols, that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart, because they are all estranged from Me by their idols.” ’

6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations. 7 For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the Lord will answer him by Myself. 8 I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

9 “And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the Lord have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. 10 And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired,

What God is saying to Ezekiel here is that there are many false prophets who lead the people astray and claim to speak for the LORD, so why should he even answer them when they ask for his guidance, and if a person is willingly decieved and gone astray and seeks from a false prophet a prophecy or sign to confirm that he is speaking from the LORD, if he is given anything to speak it will be as a snare and a trap to further give them what their heart desires instead of the truth from the LORD.

So let this be a warning to you to examine yourself and your path with God, because there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing out there, seeking to devour whoever enters into their trap.  

Satan, The enemy of God and the accuser of his creation, continually seeks to pervert the truth and the true worship of God by any means available.  One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is by using man’s own greed and pride against himself, so let’s look at the truth of the matter.  God wants all of his children to be taken care of, and he provides for them anything they genuinely need, but money and wealth corrupt all things, you need only look at what happened in the end to King Solomon as an example of this corruption, if the wisest king who ever lived was corrupted because of wealth how do any of us stand a chance.

To do well at a profession and make good money is not wrong or discouraged but to hord wealth and have excess at the suffering and expense of others is a false doctrine that can only turn people away from a true relationship with God.  The enemy doesn’t desire to turn people into obvious monsters because he knows that they would eventually realize what they have become, so he subtly gets you to turn away from God and towards other things just enough to make you ineffectual and complacent and even more a bad testimony to others who may be on the outside looking in so that they might see you as an example of the hypocrisy of religion and people who claim to be religious and care for their fellow man.

This is not applied to only the prosperity gospel, but to all religious institutions that allow the truth to be twisted and packaged in a nice shiny pleasing way so that those seeking for the easy and most self serving path of religion can choose it instead of the truth that can sometimes be hard and difficult.

So please do not allow yourself to be decieved by others who have twisted the truth and think they can mock God and get away with it, but do not decieve yourself into thinking you can blame them for your actions in the end either

Jesus spoke many parables about the seed being the word of God and the sower being the one who plants the word of God because he wanted everyone to see and understand that just as planting a physical seed reeps the reward of food
Planting a spiritual seed reeps the rewards of the spiritual kingdom in the next life
Just as man plants a seed and can not control when or how the seed sprouts and grows and produces fruit
So also is planting spiritual seeds and growing spiritual fruit, our only responsibility is to plant it and water it, it is entirely up to God and his spirit of when and how it will grow and become fruitfull

We plant spiritual seeds by speaking to our fellow men about Jesus and his life and sacrifice for us and that he only asked for us to in return for the price he paid for us, love one another and to be a humble servant to all who are in need without asking or expecting a reward.