The Peoples Devising a Vain Thing

What does this look like in our world today? And what does it look like in the USA where I live? I don’t have enough knowledge to answer the first question as well as I would like, but I do know that Christians are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ and for their testimonies for him in nations all over the globe. But the persecution of Christians can take on many different forms depending on where people are located throughout the earth. For not all persecution is physical. Much of it is intimidation.

In the USA where I live, physical persecution is not common, although I cannot say that it does not exist. The persecution here is primarily via intimidation, i.e. via shaming, mocking, rejecting, opposing, and casting aside as unnecessary and as unwanted all who stand on the truth of the gospel message, who will not compromise with the world, and who expose the fruitless deeds of darkness for what they are. For we don’t fit in with the modern notion of what it looks like to be a believer in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing here in the USA can include many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ and those who promote Jesus as Lord and Savior, and who push the need to believe in Jesus and to become a Christian. And there seems to be a huge push in today’s culture to believe in Jesus and to become a Christian. But there is a catch to it all. From what I have seen, most of them are not teaching the gospel of Christ but a gospel of man made to look good.

For the devil is very clever. So he created a Jesus and a gospel and a Christianity made to appear genuine, but altered to be more acceptable to human flesh and to the ungodly of the world. Therefore, he led many people who are professing faith in Jesus Christ to take many Scriptures out of context and to twist them and to make them say what they do not say if taught in the correct context, to make the lies he is spreading appear to be biblical truth, but they are not truth, but a mixture of lies and truth.

So, outwardly, we have the impression that this country, and other countries, too, are on fire for Jesus Christ, and that people by the thousands, and perhaps millions, are now believing in Jesus Christ for salvation from sin and for eternal life with God, and who are being publicly baptized with water in profession of their faith. And we are being given the impression that a great revival is breaking out because thousands upon thousands of people are gathering and they are singing songs of worship of our Lord.

Could some of this be genuine? Yes! But from all outward appearance, and from what gospel is being popularly taught these days, especially in these large gatherings, I would speculate that a lot of what is being made to look like biblical Christianity and genuine salvations and genuine worship of God is far from what the Scriptures teach if taught in their correct biblical context. For faith in Jesus must come from God, and it must be persuaded of God as to his holiness and of our sinfulness and of our need to die with Christ to sin and to now walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands.

We cannot just make a verbal confession of Christ as Savior and now we are saved and on our way to heaven. For if our faith in Jesus Christ is of God, and not of human flesh, it will result in us dying to sin and now walking (in conduct) in obedience to our Lord’s commands, in practice. And worship of God is not just singing songs of worship, but it is giving our lives to God as living sacrifices to God, holy and pleasing to him, in death to sin and walks of obedience, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as servants of the Lord.

But by the devil convincing the masses that all they have to do is to make a profession of faith in Jesus, in who he was/is, and in what he did in dying for our sin and rising from the dead, and that now all their sins are forgiven, and they are on their way to heaven, this is how the people are devising a vain thing, and many are taking their stand against the Lord by teaching lies as truth and truth as lies, and by turning many people to a false hope of salvation and eternal life with God, while hell and not heaven awaits them.

But Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

Words by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907
Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!


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The Peoples Devising a Vain Thing
An Original Work / November 19, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love