The Lies We Believe

Without satellite radio in my car when traveling away from home,finding radio stations is like spinning a roulette wheel. Once hit, thedigital scan locks onto the strongest signal, which may be country, heavymetal, gospel, talk radio, or Mexican polka. And so, sometimes reluctantly,I listen to the strongest, sometimes the only signal available. Life is likethis. We grow up listening to the strongest voices in our life. I remember afootball coach whose voice down the locker room hall caused middle schoolaged boys to immediately stand at attention, even in their underwear. Forall of us, there are strong voices in our lives which shape our thinkingabout life, the world, God and ourselves. One of my favorite poems is called“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost. In it, the writer describes his neighbor as“hiding behind his father’s saying “good fences make good neighbors.” Forsome of us, our fathers are the strongest voice in our lives and his wordsand actions have left deep impressions upon our worldview. For others, it’stheir mom or grandmother. I had a friend who was propelled through lifeunder the influence of a teacher who told him that he could be a greatwriter one day. Sitting in class day after day under the influence of thatshaping voice, he began to believe him.

* But there is another strong voice on the radio spectrum of lifewhich we too often listen too. In fact, he speaks through some of those verypeople most influential in our lives, but his intent is not for our good. InMatthew 4 the Lord Jesus encountered this fallen angel in the desert afterfasting 40 days. The purpose of the meeting was to test which signal Jesuswas most strongly locked on to and whether He would believe the lying voiceof the weaker signal. In telling Jesus to “turn the stones into bread” tosatisfy his hunger, Satan tempted him to believe that physical satisfactionwas his and man’s most pressing need. This is one of Satan’s most commonlies piped through every media portal in our culture, urging people tobelieve that life & happiness are found in satisfying their physicaldesires. “The body is preeminent” Satan lies, and so we are tempted to focuson the body’s shape through dieting, or look through cosmetics or clothingor hair styling, or age through surgery, or sexual gratification as the keyto our happiness. Jesus replied “man does not live by bread alone but byevery word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” It is the soul, Christdeclares, not the body which is the priority. “Dust to dust” goes our body,but the soul is immortal. With that priority Jesus forgives the lame man inMark 2 of his sins first, even though his friends lowered him through thethatch roof to have his legs restored. This Jesus also did, but afterestablishing the greater restoration needed, that of the soul over the body.“What does it profit a man,” Jesus said, “if he gains the whole world yetloses his soul” (Lk 8:26). We should care for the body that God has given usand for the physical environment that He has made man a steward of, but benot deceived by the lie that the body’s condition is the goal of life orGod’s design for us. By God’s hand we are physically satisfied, but only inGod are our soul’s fulfilled, the deeper desire all people have.*

In future columns I’ll come back to the other two lies in this Matthew 4passage crying out to us by Satan in our culture today and the strong Voiceof the Lord that gives a stronger and truer signal.