EVERYBODY’S TALKIN AT ME ~

One of the hardest things about being in prison for me was the lack of peace and quiet. When I got to the prison camp, I was assigned a “range” in which to do my time. There were four ranges in each of two buildings. Each range was basically one large open room housing approximately 150 inmates. Each “cube” was no bigger than a small horse stall wherein two bunkies lived together. Some of us, tongue-in-cheek, called them our cubedominiums. With cement dividing walls between each cube, if one were assigned a top bunk she could see the whole range, mainly all the other top bunkies. My bunky invited me up top to see what she saw. It was a morbid feeling because it looked like 100 coffins with bodies from that vantage point. That was a visual picture of a spiritual reality that broke my heart. I was so grateful to have been assigned a bottom bunk because there was an iota of privacy on the bottom bunk, even though anyone walking down the hall could see anything you were doing. When I was finally released, I did spend a great deal of time in my bedroom with my door closed because the quiet solitude there was refreshing after the prior four years.

Imagine, if you are able, 150 women of all ethnicities and ages living together in very close quarters. Imagine having a bunky who is as different from you as night is from day. She is young, you are older. She is in prison for a drug offense, you are in prison for a white-collar offense. She sleeps all day and stays up all night, you work all day and try to sleep at night. She believes she is a Christian because she reads her Bible and she self-identifies as a Christian. (Though prison was filled with almost every religion you could think of, there were very few lockers without a Bible on them.) With all our differences, I loved her. She cried like a baby when I left. We had some incredible discussions, and I pray with all my heart that the Lord saves her from His wrath and from herself. I felt this way for every single one of my bunkies, and I believe I had at least 11 of them over the course of 40 months incarcerated.

Amid 150 women talking, it is hard to hear yourself think. We were able to purchase a small portable MP3 player and buy music for it. Mine was filled with Christian hymns and music; at times it was my sole refuge as the only voice speaking truth into my life. I was grateful for my music as I walked around and around the compound, but I longed for quiet time with the Lord. I was also grateful for that absolute truth that held me firmly in a sea of relativism. Sunday mornings we had extra time before we were released for brunch. Most of the women used it to sleep in; so, for me, that was sacred time.  

You do not have to be in prison to have voices all around you screaming for your attention. People everywhere are loudly demanding their “right” to be heard. The world is full of chaos and turmoil as people look to man to fix the problems we face every day. Unfortunately, believers often get caught up in this. A question every believer should ask herself is this: Who am I listening to? Our thoughts and opinions are shaped by who we listen to, so we better be sure that who we are listening to is feeding our minds with the truth. Christian, we have no idea how much worse things are going to get in our country as far as being persecuted for our beliefs in Christ. If you were forced to endure isolation or separation because of your beliefs, would you be able to persevere and endure to the end?

Over the course of my lifetime as a believer, I have had occasions to interact with women who seem to be always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. This concerns me greatly. My passion is that women would know the truth that alone can set them free to walk firmly in the truth and in love. I am concerned that women are more drawn to light, fluffy devotionals than to solid Bible studies which equip and empower women to walk boldly in the truth, in a way that greatly honors the Lord.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:1-7)

No one could disagree that we are living in difficult times. Difficult means fierce or perilous, hard to bear, troublesome, or danger. It is used to describe the savage nature of the two demon-possessed men in Matthew 8:28. (See notes on this verse in John MacArthur Bible.) Pastor John also says that “such savage, dangerous eras or epochs will increase in frequency and severity as the return of Christ approaches.” Verses 12-15 says: Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.  Believers who know the truth may need to be reminded of what Scripture says, but they should never be surprised by the actions of evil men and the increasingly evil age in which we live.

In Matthew 7 Jesus keeps telling us that we will know false prophets by their fruit. He then goes on to give a grave indictment against those hypocrites who profess to come in His name but are really ravenous wolves. Yet, I hear women say things like: “Well, they quoted the Bible.” Or, “Well, it sounded right.” Not only men are called to be Bereans. We have a lot on our plates as women, not the least of which is raising our children who have very impressionable minds. Understanding the truth so that we are able to impart that truth to our babies should be the utmost priority for us. We feed them and take great care to do so, but if we’re not feeding them spiritually, we’ve failed at motherhood! You hear parents today say, “We don’t want to force our beliefs on our children. We want them to grow up to make their own opinions. This is the epitome of folly and foolishness! “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’  (Matthew 7:21-23) Lawlessness is knowing that God says one thing (the sole authority of what is right and wrong), dismissing it as truth, then going on to say, “I know that’s what the Word of God says, but I don’t believe that. My opinion is this…” Those who say such things are a law unto themselves. They are not believers who submit their lives to the Word of God.

We live in a narcissistic world that is focused on self-everything. And I don’t need to define the rest of these adjectives used to describe our society today. But notice that these are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Lawless men, even those who profess to follow Christ, live according to what ‘feels’ right. They say, “Just follow your heart.” That is one thing if your heart is submitted to God in Christ and you are being transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:1-2—Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. How do we show God that we love Him? He says that if we love Him we will keep His commandments. Our life will reflect one of obedience to Him. Those who are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God do not obey God in the Spirit but are in bondage to their own desires in the flesh. They are lovers of god…the god of me, myself, and I.

Secondly, they hold to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Christians are to avoid such men as these. They are to flee from ones whose teaching does not line up with their lifestyles. “Form” is outward shape or appearance. My attorney told me once, “A religious hypocrite is the worst type of hypocrite.” It was one thing we agreed upon. False teachers and their followers are concerned with what they look like in front of men. The only way they are able to keep up appearances is to tickle men’s ears by telling them what they want to hear, those things that are appealing to the flesh. This is how they get the desires of their own flesh met—the desires for money and power. Matthew 23 is the chapter where Jesus gives His most fierce diatribe against the false religious leaders of His day. They were viewed by the people as the religiously elite. Jesus called them out because He could see their hearts. He exposed them. What did they do in response? They had Him killed.

True Christianity gives the believer freedom to obediently walk in the truth. If they were true believers, the false teachers would have new desires and a changed life that enabled them to walk in the truth. Unbelievers are not able to do so.

For among these men are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:6-7)

This is where I want to begin tomorrow. But before I close today, let me ask you this: Do you know how to hear the truth? Do you know who you are listening to? Do you know what you believe? When your adult children come to you with arguments defending their position on what they believe but it is different than yours, do you know how to take them to the Word of God to have a loving discussion with them wherein you are both able to grow in knowledge, godliness, and love? Stay tuned.