Christmas has become more meaningful to me recently the past few years as I try to focus more on what Christ did for me through birth, life, death, and resurrection. I enjoy making gifts rather than buying, when possible. It allows me to pray for the person as I work through the project, as well as listen to worship music and/or sermons, podcasts, messages about the truth of scripture.
It was such a project I was working on that God again showed His infinite wisdom.
On this particular day, I’m not sure why I wasn’t listening to music or someone. At my kitchen table sat a project that would consume a couple of hours. Glancing over at the paints I had available, some were very questionable… I was doubtful the paint was going to cover the project I was working on. It was cheaper paint and watered down. Even so, I had a little bit of hope remaining…until I started painting.
You could see right through the paint…
*Sigh
Now, later on, as I got more familiar with the project and paint, I noticed putting a different, but still difficult paint, directly on what I was painting and edge the blob slowly worked better.
But the watered-down paint I first mentioned…it… needed help and a lot of layers. A LOT!
As I was working on this, I wondered if there was anything God could teach me about this project and paint that connected to Him and our life. Very kindly He provided and showed me again how in the simplest things there can be deep symbolic truth. Tonight, as I write this, I believe God added ironically enough, an “extra layer” of understanding to something I hadn’t caught yesterday.
What originally came to my mind was the importance of being coated in Christ. Paint will fill in nooks and crannies. It covers blemishes.
Jesus needs to fill our life, our heart, our mind, our spirit, and we often are leaky vessels. (Jeremiah 2:13) Unlike paint, we need renewal often. This is why we need to die to self daily. We can’t pick up our cross and drag our lust of the senses behind us. We become too attached to one, ultimately serving one master.
I meant for today’s illustration to be more positive, but the truth is there are a lot of dangerous teachings out there, and moments before I started writing, God revealed, I think, the true symbolism of the paint.
There’s weak paint and then there is GOOD strong paint, but both are paint and used for the same purpose.
Paint fills in nooks and it covers blemishes. It changes the outside appearance but the whole is still the same. The nooks are still there. The blemishes are still there. We just can’t see them.
Prosperity gospel, word of faith teachings, among many others appeal to many. They look good. They promise well. But they are blemished. Stains remain on garments, not washed clean. (Revelation 3:04) They are watered-down versions of the truth. Instead of the core being Christ, it is about self. (Self-gain is only ONE lie of deception, the legalism of scripture is still the self “gaining salvation”.)
There are some false teachings that, even for new believers, they can identify, however, there are some false teachings and teachers that only through the discernment of the Holy Spirit, no matter how mature the Christian, will we be able to distinguish the blemishes and lies.
Our own insight and knowledge is nothing. We need Christ to discern the truth.
I worked with three different types of paint. One that was really watered down, one that looked okay if a whole lot of it was used, and another that didn’t need help to look okay. It was sturdy on its own. False teaching is the same. Some we can identify by knowledge of scripture alone. But others will require us to wear the full armor of God and to know how to use the sword of the Spirit (scripture) correctly.
See, this gets a lot bigger from us being able to protect ourselves. We need to be able to discern the truth so we can pull others away from the deception as well. This is all about the glory of Jesus and helping others turn to Christ for salvation.
(NIV) Judge 1:23, “save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear–hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
Praise the Lord for what He can teach us from watered down paint.
Comment Below:
Have you ever struggled with a watered-down doctrine and didn’t realize? How did God help you identify it?
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P.S. to what I just said: The water wasn’t gone. They just hid it from view. They were keeping it hidden, unavailable, not accessible to the people. And, in place of the water, they supplied 4 different flavors of gum, the last of which was “Juicy Fruit.”
Juicy fruit gum – juicy – scandalous, titillating, spicy, exciting, sensational, succulent, pleasantly stimulating or exciting or erotic. Fruit – outgrowth, produce, byproduct, results, yield, harvest. Gum – artificial, fake, man-made, sham, bogus, flexible, changeable, variable. And, all this was to replace the water that had been cut off, i.e. that had been hidden from view.
This is about a false gospel being spread by fake preachers of the gospel who are smooth talkers and charmers, while the living water was being withheld and hidden from the people. And, this false gospel appeals to the flesh of humans, and it produces flesh, too, not the Spirit.
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Juicy fruit loses its flavor real quick, too. You always have to add another piece to keep the taste.
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Yes, that is true. Good insights, T. R. Thanks!
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😊 I’m glad God helps me with thinking through symbols.
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He does, absolutely!
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Thanks, T.R. I do love how the Lord speaks to us through our every day situations, much like parables. And, he speaks to us through dreams and visions, too, much in the same way, like parables, illustrating biblical truth in a way that is practical and applicable to our lives and to our world today.
I like how you described watered-down doctrine. I had an interesting dream this morning that goes along with that. In the dream there was a change up in who the preacher was. A new guy was now on stage. Before he got up there to speak, we were free to get water, but after he got up to speak, the water supply was cut off and all they were offering were sticks of gum.
Water is symbolic of the Spirit of God and eternal life with God, and gum is something that is artificial (fake, false, synthetic, man-made), which we were given to “chew on” instead. So, the Holy Spirit was cut off. It was no longer available for us to drink, but what was being supplied was a false, fake gospel of men. And, this is what we were being given in place of the living water.
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Oh, wow, what a parallel!
Gum makes sense too because we can’t digest it. It’s only meant to stay in the mouth not become part of us. The mouth, often, is where deception lies.
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Yes! Very appropriate.
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Wow! The way He teaches us lessons through & by simple things is amazing and I always look forward to those lessons! 😀 you know this post helped me recalled a vision God gave me with an empty jar that was being painted in front of me by unseen hands. When it was finished it looked so beautiful from the inside out but it was still empty on the inside. By the way this is just one part of the vision I recalled. It has more to it that was given from beginning to the end. I believe He allowed me to remember that part while reading the post to supply it’s meaning/confirmation. Blessings & more grace! 🙂
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Oh wow! I see the significance from the outside and empty inside.
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Yessssss!!!
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You have to know and study the real deal to spot a counterfeit!
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We do, and we need to pray daily for discernment.
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Absolutely!
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