Hollow bunnies and solid food
By Elizabeth Prata
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be … 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3: 1-2,5).
As a kid on Easter morning in a secular household, it was all about the basket. The eggs, the chocolate, and toys. Even the fake green grass. Our baskets were always generously filled, and I especially loved the centerpiece of a large chocolate bunny on the mound of grass.
As a kid, if you see a 5 inch chocolate bunny you get very excited. You don’t think about how much to eat or not eat, you don’t think about the appropriate time of the day to eat it. You just rip the cellophane and chomp.
I remember being disappointed that the bunny was hollow. As a kid, I could not tell the difference between a solid bunny and a hollow one, they looked the same to my immature eyes. But when I bit into the ear it seemed to be a total gyp when it crumbled to bits because it had no interior support. The bunny had only a form of solidity.
We are told over and over in the Bible that the last days would be filled with deception, false pastors and false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, antichrists, false apostles, false doctrine … and are repeatedly warned not to fall for it.
How can we tell if a bunny is solid chocolate or hollow? Test by eating it, you say? Satan is poison, his deceptions are poison. Who wants to eat poison? Ingesting falsity for too long will inevitably pollute. As mature Christians, we must be able to discern and detect hollow Christianity and false teachers who only have an appearance of Godliness early on, before it permeates the entire congregation, or our own heart.
Are you a child in Christ, seemingly mature but having fallen out of the habit of testing the scriptures for yourselves? Have you lost the ability to test the spirits? Are you, yourself hollow? Professing a form of godliness but denying its power? Have you departed from the spiritual disciplines of prayer, reading the word, giving, fellowship, and gathering with saints for worship? Abandoning these will hollow youout.
Ephesians 4:14 tells us not to be babes. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
Pray for experience, wisdom, and discernment through a healthy relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Let us be mature, our faith be solid. We should not have only a veneer of godliness but be solid to the core, strong, with the interior support of the Holy Spirit. A counterfeit Christianity will reveal the person to be a child, rushing toward something that looks oh so good to eat but biting into the hollowness to be disappointed, but perhaps already hooked by its tastiness. Do not be a baby in discernment! Do not be hollow in faith!
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14).
The word of God is a sure way to stay close to Jesus and grow in faith to mature, solid Christians, who in turn extend a hand to new babes in Christ and help them along. And so it goes.
