The Adulterous Woman From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Welcome to Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power! Thanks for joining me today for a little break. Grab your coffee and come on in. We are about to find out the common denominator of deception.

As we wrap up this detour, we can see through the eyes of our hearts that there are many examples, too many examples of deception, a sort of unawareness where truth leaks out of the soul and something else replaces it without even a conscious awareness and when that happens, it affects our attitudes, our actions and our abilities, rendering us utterly and hopelessly deceived.

So what is the common denominator? Well if we go back to this meeting that the Pharisees were having with the chief priests and the officers who confessed that they had never heard anyone talk like “this Man,” all I have to do is take a look around the room with the eyes of my heart wide open and my ears ready to listen and the common denominator swirls around me like a frenzied ghost. I can see it in their demeanor; I can hear it in their comments. In fact, it’s as though each one of the Pharisees is bound up in this common denominator like a mummy. And if I look at them as I rewind the tape on other scenarios of deception that have literally wrenched at my heart during our lifetime, those people are no different than these Pharisees for they wear the same garments of deception.

Plain and simple, the common denominator is pride and what’s in the middle of “pride”? I, I, I! I could never, ever claim to have the full view of the heart of the deceived; only God has that, but the one glaring thing that brings clarity to any and all kinds of deception is this thing called pride. The Webster’s Dictionary defines pride as inordinate self-esteem; proud or disdainful behavior or treatment. How ironic that I would return to this subject just after returning from a writers’ conference that has definitely taught me that I was there to continue the process of being emptied of me that He may write completely through me without any clogs of prideful or un-inspired text. Oh, that I would remember that deception sneaks in through the window of pride!

“Pride” is in the Bible 49 times and was used in the beginning by poets to refer to glory, but thereafter the majority of the uses of pride are negative in that they denote human pride as an antonym for humility and as in Proverbs, pride is put together with arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. The New Testament (Greek) translation says: pride is a swollen estimate of his/her own power and merits and looks down on others and even treats them with insolence and contempt. One who compares himself secretly or openly with others and lifts himself above.

These definitions bring clarity into this meeting with the Pharisees, Chief Priests and these officers, practically shining a light into their hearts revealing the source of their deception. And as the light moves into my world and the experiences I’ve had with deception, clarity comes, and I am at peace to pray for the veil of deception to be lifted and that truth would prevail sooner than later.

Keep these definitions in mind as we get closer to actually meeting The Adulterous Woman!

Anticipating the introduction,

Evinda