Truth Is

Truth is a temperate creature, or so it seems to us, people, humans I mean. It seems fleeting, inconsistent, or at best relative to our circumstances in life. Like beauty... it is often in the eye of the beholder.

The dictionary defines truth as......

a verified or indisputable fact.

Examples.....

Does life exist on other planets?

Did we form from a cosmic bang, or an intentional Creator?

Do I have purpose in life? Even in ourselves we desire confirmation of purpose.

David said, in Psalm 139.....

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 

So how do we get to "the truth"? Who do you trust for the truth? Jesus stated verily, verily (or truly, truly) about 69 times in the New Testament. In the life-quest for truth the question today is ....do you believe Jesus "is" the embodiment of the truth? I'm here to tell ya'.... there is no way you'll follow Him very long if you do not believe so.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father." (John 8:31-38 ESV)

Truth is ......we think we are free.

A popular movie epitomized the real human quest; the search for true freedom, who we truly are. The story demonstrated that the life we wake up to everyday is not "real". It's a cover-up for our real lives. The truth, in this case, was not nearly as attractive, but at least it was "real".

It seems that we are ok with a false-life, until it doesn't agree with us or turns on us.

Truth is ....we do not want to answer to anyone.

These Jews, to whom Jesus was speaking, knew their lineage back to Abraham, the father of their faith. They also well knew the truth of their bondage, slavery, in Egypt. They knew that God, through Moses, had freed them. How could Jesus speak of being "free indeed"? They thought they already were!

Truth is .....Jesus IS the truth

In his own skeptical quest for the truth Doubting Thomas asked...... "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." -John 13:5-6

In Christ-followship our search for "facts" will require "faith". Without it, there is no joy of living in Christ.

What Would My Kids Believe?

Ever have doubts about what you believe? What you think you believe? Are you unsure whether to even trust yourself about belief in this day and time? Ask yourself this simple question.....

 "What would I want "my" children to believe?'

If that seems simple ....well it has to be, coming from me. As a disclaimer for anyone who might run the train off its tracks ....I would caution that by no means should one formulate his / her entire system of beliefs on what they would have their children believe, but it does remove some personal bias from the equation and get ya' started on your quest. The courage of consequence typically only applies to self, so it is at least a bit of a measuring stick to help get ya' down the road of searching for the truth.

I don't believe that truth, itself, is so slithery as much as it is that we, instead, have a hard time displacing what we "want" to be truth. If we look through the lens of someone else,  we would care about, we tend to be a bit more deliberate in our thinking. In other words ....who wouldn't (..exceptions granted..) throw themselves under the bus in lieu of their own children?

And never underestimate child-like faith.

"Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

-Luke 18:17

Letters Home: Must Be Attitudes for Believers

"Being" Christian doesn't happen overnight. Neither a prayer nor lip service make an effective Christ-follower. A genuine confession, to God, that you are a sinner can "save" you, but that confession comes from the well-spring of either a heart broken by Christ, or for some other purpose. Only you and God know your heart. Now, this is not to say that anything other than humble-brokennesss won't produce a genuine life in Christ. God already loves you and desires that you be with Him. Once you've asked to be His ....He is overjoyed and faithful. But don't think that the Christian-life begins and ends there. God's plan is already mapped. You won't change that. However, God's plan for "you" is open to your influence.

My son is in the process of becoming a Marine. I am unsure if he went into this journey for the right reasons. In fact, had he known all of what to anticipate it is reasonable to consider that he would have changed his mind. Will this make him a lesser Marine? Is it more honorable had his heart already been fully aware? His mother and I can confirm, through letters home, even in doubts and unexpected scenarios and circumstances ....he is being strengthened and proven, and that again! His letters home reveal evidence of this "changing" occuring before his, and our, very eyes. It is a change for bettering him, humbling him, and yes... breaking him to a degree. He is seeing a bigger picture of life outside himself.

No differently... Paul wrote his letter to the Philippian church to encourage them; not with words that there is no battle, or there are no worries, or no suffering for Christ' cause ......but to encourage them that within them exists everything needed to live a full, satisfied, completed, un-regretful life as a Christ-follower.

Paul was imprisoned at least twice for his belief and servitude to Christ. He ultimately died as a result. He was imprisoned for things such as exorcising a demon. This "hostility" toward him as a Christ-follower was not such that he could write his senator of a gross injustice nor would it be on the evening news. No, his only real option was to live "through" the injustices. And "how" he did that was key to Christianity.

"I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ."

-Philippians 1:12-13

Do folks know you're a Christ-follower?

Will you take ridicule for being a Christ-follower?

Will you take, even, inconveniences for being a Christ-follower?

We must be ON-TRIAL CHRISTIANS.

"And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear."

-Philippians 1:14

How do unbelievers act when around you?

How do you respond to their actions?

We must be ON-PURPOSE CHRISTIANS.

"Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. To Live Is Christ Yes, and I will rejoice,"

-Philippians 1:15-18

Do you "own" your faith?

Ultimately, being Christian is not about "you". It benefits you, and that is God's desire. But if we view our Christianity through the lense of our own benefit we can only live a taker's life in Christ. Viewed through a lense of being willing, and ready, to suffer for Christ ...God can "use" us.

We must be ON-DEMAND CHRISTIANS.

More Than I Deserve

The longer I live (..I turned the corner on 41 a couple of days ago in fact..) the more I am reminded of the seemingly simplistic reality that people just need the Lord Jesus. I know.... terribly un-original isn't it; even cliché? I'm not doing, living, or preaching to be profound, nor original. As I turn on the news, or listen to human beings right in our communities turn toward the logic and sway of the world, as it desperately tries to solve its own problems, I am ceaselessly, and desperately, though not yet despairingly jerked back in my memory to the words.... "trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do mot lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

It seems the further in our own man-made holes we get ...the more fervently we clamor and claim.... it's not so bad here in the hole. This is just how it is. This is just who we are. Maybe it's just easier to wallow in the mud than to clean a shower stall. Either one is a bath I suppose. I'm beginning to conclude that if I am not seeking Christ desperately, then maybe I'm not seeking Him at all. Do we "really" want the truth? Without pulling out the... "woe to me, a sinner" card ....I keep praying and living ..knowing that very statement is truer than true about me. I read a Psalm this week....

 "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;" (Psalm 103:10-11)

WOW!! While me being a lowly sinner may be a truth ....even truer is that a redeeming, a loving, God "chose" not to deal with me according to my sin. Whatever I "deserve" is not part of the calculation of my worth, my value, to my Father and Creator.

To God be all glory!

Steve Terrell

grace alone

www.reclaimchristianity.com

Christ' agenda for special interest groups

Everyone has an agenda these days. I guess that has always been true. Lately in the news special interest groups work to promote their agenda. Not a question of right or wrong. Nope...... the agenda itself is the issue. Words are spun to meet the needs of a party's interest. Words redefined, or attempted, to meet our own needs.

What was Christ' response to special interest groups, and their agendas? All three of the synoptic (similar) gospels demonstrate examples of special interest groups and the agendas they strive to uphold. In contrast, and as affirmation of Him being who He claims to be, Christ had / has a slightly different agenda.

"One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, "Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?" And they could not reply to these things." -Luke 14:1-6

The legalizers had, in previous encounters with Jesus, accused Him of breaking God's law of how to act, and what we do or do not do, on the Sabbath. If you say this is like telling Col. Sanders how to fry chicken ....you'd be right. But that is the problem; these Pharisees didn't believe Jesus was Lord, Messiah.

Jesus' question / challenge simply proved that they, and we, dumb faith in Christ down to a legalistic maneuver. If there are rules, they exist for our ultimate benefit, though it so often appears not for our short-term benefit.

Good news is... we all have common ground with Christ. While our agenda is about "us". His agenda is, too, about us. Don't make what God intends to be for your benefit into something to try and gain His favor, or morph it into something evil. That is, by definition, blaspheme. You already have His favor .....or He wouldn't bother with benefiting you. He said clearly.... "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Thanks be to God.... we all belong to Christ' group of special interest.