Sometimes a Bible verse I have looked at many times jumps up and hits me between the eyes. That happened with this week with this verse:

It's that word bewitched that woke me up. These were Christians in the city called Galatia. They were stuck in a huge tug of war between grace vs works, the Cross of Christ vs rituals of religion.

That was obvious. But wasn't obvious was the tug of war between God's truth and the demonic lies.

You have a lot of choices to make. I believe in human free will—your power to choose and how you use it—is one of the central issues in the whole universe.

In that free will, you have a wide range of options. Which direction will you choose for your life? Who will you turn to? Which way will you go?

God wants you to know that in this world with all its philosophies, and theologies, and opinions, and belief-systems, and world views... God wants you to know that many of these options are bewitching. God wants you to know that preachers and authors and teachers and yes pastors—when they do not derive their teachings from the written words and phrases and verses and paragraphs and books of Scripture—they are bewitchers. If we do not keep linking back to the Bible, the demonic realm will happily feed us lies.

1. The word used here (baskaino) is an ancient word, going back to Aristotle and Plutarch. Baskaino means to cast a spell over someone. It means to curse someone with sorcery or to give them the evil eye. It is the manipulation of demonic powers, luciferian powers, and evil powers to cause harm.

2. The great pastor and missionary asks them, "Who has bewitched you?"

3. Here is Jesus Christ, crucified—your salvation, your forgiveness, your redemption, your comfort—the living dying breathing
incarnation of true love... and by what sorcery would you be so spellbound that you would ever minimize him.

And there are three sure signs this has happened to a culture, a church, or a person...