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Moses and the Golden Calf (Painting by William Blake) |
Some may talk the talk, and even walk the walk, but have they strayed from the path of enduring faith?
If you profess to be a Christian, ask yourself this question: “Are you merely religious, or are you truly born again?” Joseph Mattera lists a number of ways that people tend “to deceive themselves about their faith.”
These include the following: going through religious motions but lacking “inner transformation,” viewing baptism as an endpoint rather than as a progressive beginning, feeling near to God but not actually with God, dabbling in spiritual gifts without developing spiritual fruits, railing against God rather than conversing with God, reciting prayers rather than taking them to heart, and mistaking idolatry for love.
Mattera concludes: “You can be sincere – and sincerely wrong.” Beware the self-deception that threatens “a believer’s walk.”
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