When I was 25, I had opinions, hard edged, certain of my grasp of ‘truth’ about many things. Age and experience has revealed to me that I my certainties were born more of ignorance than information! As I became an older man, I realized that life is complicated, that context is powerful, that there are many more shades to our world than black and white. My youthful ignorance let me condemn those with whom I disagreed in church doctrine, allowed me to judge those whose behaviors did not line up with my ‘morality,’ and made me something less than wise or winsome in too many situations that now fill me with regret and sorrow. I was often too ready to use ‘truth’ like a bludgeon rather than allowing truth to bloom like a beautiful flower. Truthfully – at this state of life I am more convinced of some things than ever and less concerned with needing to be ‘right’ about so many other things.
Some might accuse me of having lost my convictions. That is
not at all the case.
More than ever, I am convinced of the importance of knowing
the Scriptures as our revelation of God’s will, of the critically important desire to love the things of the
Spirit in every moment, and the joy found only when our hope is anchored beyond the edge
of time in the eternal life God gifts to us.
And, I am unyielding in my embrace of the fact that God
created us to know and do His will in this world. But, the best thing I know with certainty is this: Jesus
loves you and me!
The Truth is much debated in our world, isn't it? Some insist that each person
constructs “his own truth” based on world view, experience, training, available
facts, and emotions. In one sense they are right! The world looks very
different through the eyes of people of different cultures and religions but perspective
is not necessarily truth. Some object, "but it is true to
me!" Believing something to be true and the actual truth are not at all
the same. I know a man that insists that men never walked on the moon, that the
lunar missions of NASA were a great hoax that the American government put over
on the world. He is convinced of this 'truth' and he is wrong! His sincerity is
admirable, but the facts simply do not support his assertions.
The Truth is grounded in God. He cannot lie, does not deceive, and is
the Truth. Those who would know and live in truth will start with Him. Eugene
Peterson writes about that with these profound insights:
"First, God. God is the subject of life.
God is foundational for living.
If we don’t have a sense of the primacy of God,
we will never get it right, get life right, get our lives right.
Not God at the margins; not God as an option; not God on the weekends.
God at center and circumference;
God first and last; God, God, God."
The person who refuses to accept God as the Source will become a victim of vanity and that pride that inevitably accompanies it. The Psalmist declares, "The fool says in his heart, "there is no God!" (14.1) The proud heart that insists on doing life ‘my way’ by ‘my rules’ with ‘my truth’ will drift in seas of relativism less and less discerning of real purpose and meaning. Paul asserts that "God’s eternal power and character cannot be seen. But from the beginning of creation, God has shown what these are like by all he has made. That’s why those people don’t have any excuse. They know about God, but they don’t honor him or even thank him. Their thoughts are useless, and their stupid minds are in the dark. They claim to be wise, but they are fools." (Romans 1:20-22, CEV)
From the assertion that God is the Creator, the Scripture
moves to the assertion that Christ is the Full Revelation of God! John writes, "The
Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the
glory of the only Son of the Father. From him all the kindness and all
the truth of God have come down to us." (John 1:14, CEV)
Do you know the Truth?
Have you received Jesus Christ, who is Truth personified, as the way, the
truth, and the life?
Meditate on this word from the Word today.
"(People) perish because they refused to love the truth and so be
saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will
believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the
truth but have delighted in wickedness. But we ought always to thank God for
you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be
saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the
truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the
teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." (2
Thessalonians 2:10-15, NIV)
Humbly thank God for the Truth. Trust Christ. Admit what you do not
know, what cannot be known by inquiry alone. Then, invite the Spirit to open
your mind to the Truth that God loves you through Christ. From that foundation,
you will grow in your knowledge of the Truth, and through all the changes of
life, the shifts in human knowledge, you will be able to say, "I know
Whom I have believed, that He is able to keep that which I have entrusted to
Him for that Day!" Amen
(Video of this blog at this link)
_______________
Be Thou my vision
O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me
Save that Thou art
Thou my best thought
By day or by night
Waking or sleeping
Thy presence my light
Be Thou my Wisdom and
Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee and
Thou with me Lord
Thou my great Father
I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and
I with Thee one
High King of heaven
When vict'ry is won
May I reach heaven's joys
O bright heaven's Sun
Heart of my own heart
Whatever befall
Still be my vision
O Ruler of all
Eleanor Henrietta Hull | Mary Elizabeth Byrne
© Words: Public Domain
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