There is a whole world of untruth that exists, and each day it is working to draw us into its ways so that with each person it lures away, it increases its perceived legitimacy by the sheer number of people it calls its own. To be drawn into this world that lures with false comforts and compromises is remarkably easy, since it preys upon the very weaknesses that we struggle with and uses them to further weaken our efforts to resolve them. This is the seduction of untruth and sin in the world.
Our Lord tells us plainly, that if we desire to be close to Him, that we must keep his commandments. These very commandments are more often than not at odds with the promises of the world. Yet when we cleave to these commandments and do our best to fulfill them, we are infused with the Spirit of God, and something amazing happens – our lives are living reflections of Gods will, and testimony to others of His plan all of us. For this reason, we are then targets of those who seek to draw people from faith in Christ. We conflict with their plans, and we are seen as intolerant or even hateful by those who have been seduced by the ideologies that profess what appears on the surface to be kindness, tolerance, and acceptance of all. Yet not really all, only those that will succumb and agree with them unreservedly.
Our Lords plan for each of us involves sometimes struggle as refinement of our faith, it involves patience with all, and love of all, even if we do not agree with what they profess to believe. We hold fast to Gods teachings out of love for Him, yet we show love for those who do not. We speak what we know to be true, for the good of anyone who is within hearing, rather than cave into socially acceptable dialogue that is filled with falsehoods that sound pleasant but rob us of the ability to lead others to truth. We do not preach at people, but we do not shy away from telling the truth and stating our beliefs. We live our lives according to those beliefs and do so with the aid of the Advocate that Jesus promised to send us, and that will remain with us. This Advocate Spirit is hated by the world, and so we too who are infused with it, will often be hated by the world, yet we still will respond with love, and will take strength in the knowledge that this has been foretold to be the way of things, and that Gods plan fully accounts for all of this. Not a hair on our heads is ever forgotten or unaccounted for by God, and those He loves go nowhere without his watchful gaze.
The Deacons Bench 