Deception surrounds us, confusion muddles our thinking and distorts are judgment. Who can we believe? We can believe Jesus, but believing Him isn't the process of adding a new thought or idea to our web of confusion, but allowing that truth to clean out our minds and replace it with a firm foundation of truth.

God does not ask us to live by standards shaped or propagated by human means. Instead He asks is to obey Him in faith and not worry about what our obedience may look like in the eyes of others.

Our part in God's story is to wait, cry out, walk alongside Him, allow Him to move us and change things around us, and not get in the way of what He is working out, which in a self-help/self-made/self-promoting society is very counter-cultural, but required if we don't want to miss out on God's amazing work in our lives.

"We have to get out of our minds that our walk with the Lord is equivalent to skipping through a pastor a beautiful wildflowers and instead except that it is a hard, yet rewarding, climb to a magnificent summit."

These days we don't have a group of "old women" sitting around and sharing juicy gossip in the town square that can pull us away from our pursuit of truth, but we are surrounded by the same type of stories on just about every media source we can tap into with the touch of a button.

As Christians we are to live in love, and our primary place to express that love of God is within community. This is where love should be bursting at the seams, but that love should not be void of truth.

"... it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him." Hebrews 9:27-28. Have you ever wondered what awaits you once you die? If your only reference is cartoons or comics or simplified Bible stories then your facts may be a little askew especially about the account you will give at the time of judgment.

"... to which of the angels has He ever said, 'Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?' Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to render service for the sake of those who inherit salvation?" Hebrews 1:3-4. Have you ever considered, that has a child of God, you are constantly surrounded by angels that have a sole purpose, of ministering to you?

In our human state we're easily trapped by temptation and that is why Jesus, in His wisdom, showed us by example how to partner with God to stay on track and fight these temptations with the word of truth.

"... Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, 'God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.' But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are stumbling block to Me; for you or not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's.'" Matthew 16:21-23. God's interests at first glance seem harsh and unrealistic but that is only because, just does peter, we are looking at the circumstances his interest create short-term in this world, not the long-term implications of the plan and its eternal significance that goes beyond our comforts, which is usually the chief driving force in our lives and thoughts.