The Ninth Commandment is: “Do not lie.” (Exodus 20:16).
My personal email was hacked last week.
It all started when one of the devil’s kids sent me an email masquerading as my email carrier. He/she was phishing and although I have never been duped before, this time I unwittingly took the bait and clicked the wrong button thinking I was doing what AT&T wanted me to do. In my busyness, I didn’t realize my mistake until the next morning when friends began texting me to tell me someone was using my email address to run a scam.
The scam? This liar tried to deceive people into believing that I was emailing them asking for a favor. The favor? This fabulist told a tale about me being out of town and needed to buy an Apple gift card for my nephew. This was the big lie. FYI: The devil is the father of lies.
When I was made aware of the scam and I immediately changed my email password blocking the perpetrator from further access and deleted changes made to my account. I have no way of knowing if their deception worked. But the damage was done.
I know of one person who was deceived and bought the gift card but thankfully called me before sending a photo of the card to the scammer.
I’m telling you this to warn you to not be deceived and to use this as an illustration.
Scam emails aren’t the only way Americans are being deceived. The god of this world (devil) is a deceiver and his kids don’t realize that they are busy doing his bidding. The Bible says, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
Notice that you and I have an enemy. He is fighting a spiritual war and the battleground is your mind. His weapons are lies and fake news. Victory for him is to keep you from the truth and keep your soul away from God.
How is he doing? Just watch the news, it appears that he has been very successful. What is evil is called good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20). And violence is rampant in America’s streets.
Look the only way to fight this war is with spiritual weapons: with prayer, with truth and with God’s word. Be confident. God is greater than the evil and will one day put a stop to this madness. In the meantime, we must be like Mark Houck (read The Federalist story below).
Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Thanks for reading and for your support. — Gary Varvel
