Over the last month or so, I have been in discussions with an individual who had tips and ideas for me about publishing my next book. Like most people would be, I was thankful for the tips and ideas as they were reasonable and helped me see that there were other alternatives available. At first, I thought this was one of those conversations that would be over quickly but I quickly learned that I was wrong.

Over the days and weeks to follow, there were messages and voice clips from this individual about other ideas and work that he and some of his colleagues had done. This did not initially bother me as it seemed he was trying to help but the tips and ideas turned into discussions about certain beliefs, including religious, we both held. It didn’t take long to see that we did not have many beliefs in commons with the biggest exception being we both voted for President Trump.

His tips and ideas then turned into criticism and insults about my character and style of writing and while there is nothing wrong with constructive criticism as it has a way helping an individual grow but there’s a fine line between criticism and insults. Personally, I am the type of person that does not care what others think especially about my writings as my style has come together over years of writing including for educational purposes as well as personal and professional purposes. If someone does not agree with me, they are free to tell me why but explain to me and how me why rather than simply insulting me.

As a Christian, I am to look at the things above over anything here below and this is what I do. My first duty as a Christian and a writer is to make sure whatever I write is Biblically accurate. If it is not then I am going against everything that I believe and this is hard for the world to understand but Christ expects this from His children. Christ says in John 15:4 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”

As a Christian, I believe in that the Earth is only thousands of years old and there is significant evidence and reasoning to prove as such. Not everyone does and that’s fine. What’s not fine is to claim that a young Earth theory is not good journalism. As a graduate in communication, there are ethics you abide by including going to the source rather than relying on second or third hand gossip. In this case, we cannot do that but there’s nothing to suggest that the Earth is millions or billions of years old and methods like carbon dating is unreliable so to claim that a certain belief is bad journalism is a personal opinion used to insult an individual and an entire system of faith.

No, this article is not to share what I belief or to show the highlights of a certain conversation that took place but rather, to illustrate how the enemy, Satan, works. He uses people to try to get us stop working for God. One way that he uses people is to discourage us and this is exactly what this individual was doing. He had plenty of opinions but had no real meat. Whatever arguments that worldly individuals use to counter a Christian, eventually, God shows it to be either half true or completely false. Remember, Satan does use some truth and mixes it in with lies as few people would follow his instructions if everything was a lie.

This individual even began to stalk what I did including the ministry here. It was clear that he had very little of a life despite his claims of superiority over many. Lashon Bush and myself discussed this and blocked him after a small conversation as we do not want to invite Satan in as one he’s in, he will not want to leave. A few days later, he began to tag me in posts and challenging me to write certain stories.
After asking him time and time again to stop, I finally called him a coward and blocked him because Satan was working within this individual to try to take me away from my work and focus for Christ.

In 2 Timothy 2:15, we are instructed to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Simply, we are not to break up scripture but we are to handle it correctly which means we are to read and study scripture so we can comprehend it correctly. One of the most significant parts of this is to remain in prayer as this is our diligent service to Christ as we are handymen (or workmen) and in the Day of Judgment we will not be ashamed despite anything the world thinks of us. Please, I warn everyone to be careful of who you entertain as we never know when a demon is in our presence.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

–2 Timothy 2:15

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Written by Billy Ray Parrish

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