"Jesus... said to them: 'Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many." Matthew 24:4-5
I recently found a book entitled: A course in Weight Loss" It is about looking at the psychological & spiritual side of weight loss. It's composed of 21 lessons. I have been reading and doing them - and as of today I was on lesson 3. Lesson 3 consists of building an alter - a place where you place all your prayers & concerns to the Lord. A place where "if you bow down to God first, then it will become more difficult for you to bow down to evil" Seems good right? I loved that it was Christian inspired & quoted scripture though it was self-proclaimed as spiritual and not Christian.
The book mentions several times over that it is based from "A Course In Miracles". I bought that book when I was at Barnes & Noble. I wasn't even looking for it - it was actually there right in front. I thought it was serendipity. And you know how much I love serendipity.
I began to read like a maniac and as I continued.... it became, well, a little off. The writing perspective sounded like it was Jesus speaking "no one can come to the Father except through me"... "I have brought the Atonement for humanity".... ..
But then it will continue to say that like "I am the Son of God, you too are the Sons of God" ... "you need to find your Internal Being that is in all of you and follow it."
Ok, I am not God. I do not want to be my own idol. What the heck...
So I thought, hmm, maybe I'm reading into it to much. It's been awhile since I was in college - maybe it's a little advanced for me & I'm over-analytical. I continued. And it just got weirder.
I prayed about it. Is this for real? This does not seem correct. Something inside of me was telling me this wasn't good for me. Like it was leading me astray. But I wanted to keep reading because it did make valid and very good points. And then a thought hit me at work today. The devil knows scripture too. He quoted it back to Christ as a means of temptation.
So, I came home to google it. I know, you can't trust everything that's on the internet.
BUT - come to find, the writer of the book, who calls herself the Master Teacher (say what??) composed this book by writing down her "symbolic dreams" and the dictating voice she kept hearing.
Ok, I understand that on all levels of debate - one can argue the point that the gospel writers did the same thing. Yes, they did. But what they wrote did not lead others down a path of self endangerment. You can either take or leave what they say. They composed a biography of Christ's life and wrote philosophical statements that you could easily put into a "christian" fortune cookie. If you replace "Christ says" with "Confucius says", modern culture would follow it in a heartbeat & immediately place that little piece of paper in their wallet to continue to meditate on & hope for.
One thing that the author of this book says from her inner voice is that "sin does not exist. It is an illusion. There is no need to feel guilt because there is no sin. Sin does not exist. The problems that man faces are a result of separation from God. This separation is only illusion because it likewise does not exist. It is only a reality for those who believe they are not part of the divine."
So, I think the whole point of this note is of thanksgiving. I am thankful for the Lord, and my inner voice I call the Holy Spirit. I am thankful that little red flags went up in the soul & I was safe-guarded from a obscured truth.
"Many religions and philosophies have rays of truth in them -
but only the Church has the complete truth. "- JP 2
I am thankful for the "little red flags". Really, the last couple of weeks have been like I was sucked into this trance that I could not stop dwelling on. I was living on what these books had to say. It was all I could think about. How scary.....
Please thank the Lord for my red flags & pray for all those who are swept into half & false truths by people & spirits who cherry-pick the gospel for their own promotion of thought &/or purposes of leading others astray and use it so convincingly!!
