She preaches humility. With all her good intentions or maybe self-delusion, she goes about writing the most uplifting Christianese message one could possibly write but what’s truly inside a person’s heart comes out and cannot be contained. Her message of humility gets invalidated by the blatant self-promotion that is her ulterior motive with pictures that scream of narcissism. It’s obvious it is not really about the gospel she appears to promote, but rather, one for her ego, a rather extreme and sad motivation from one who would stop at nothing just to gain people’s approval.
If she truly lived what she preached, she could try to fool if even “the elect,” the discerning heart, who could not ignore the loud screams of her actions which counteracted her message, that of pride as she says to herself, “Look at me! Look at me! Not only that, I can make myself appear to be the woman of your dreams, loving, unassuming, and with godly wisdom too.”
Unbeknownst to her audience, she has a habit of grabbing content from someone else and making it as if they were her own words, yes, it is a shame, for a person to profess to know Christ and not be bothered by such a thing as plagiarism. It’s one thing about artists and painters replicating famous paintings and marketing it as such, what we know to be a deliberate reproduction with the intent known from the very start but being a thief of one’s thoughts and one’s nature, assuming a false identity, yes, that of an actor, playing the part of a Christian, (a very convincing one at that to the untrained soul), playing the part of a “spiritual” illusionist, a crafty operative in the adversary’s camp. Does that not bother her conscience? Why would it? If she were truly about promoting the gospel, I would not have been moved to write this post.
The illusionist is the reality of an unregenerate soul, one whose deliberate deception does not bother their conscience, an indicator of the absence of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. An ugly example of this was Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11,
“Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.”
Of course she knows she won’t drop dead (literally what happened to Sapphira) as she deceives her audience – some of which are Spirit-filled believers; she’s done it more than she can remember. Fortunately we live in the grace period, for the wheat and the tare to live side by side until the end of the age (Matthew 13:24-30). People can feign righteousness, but they can’t escape the overflow of what is truly in their heart. Reality is, people blow their own cover especially if their own actions testify against their message.
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.“
Matthew 15:8
Consider this post as a reminder that a life much longer than what we can now fathom awaits. Absolutely no one wants to spend eternity in a place of torment just for making people believe something they’re not. If the illusionist sounds a lot like you, and this happens to be your area of weakness, remember, you can’t fool the One who knows your beginning to your end. The good news is, Jesus Christ loves you so much. Repentance leads to freedom.
There is one final stage and there will come a day when the reel of your life will play.
“There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.”
Luke 12:2
[Image: Search Engine Result: Fotografía Sisyphus- Special thanks to the OP]