What Do You Think You Know?

Seems to me that words are seriously devalued by the torrent of them that floods over us. Opinions are freely mixed with fact. Any user of the Internet has learned, hopefully, to look for source before repeating some wild story that shows up on their Facebook page. Our media often confers authority on those marginally qualified to opine by seating them at a table and pointing a camera at them. Somehow, even after all these years of the medium, we have not fully grasped that being ‘on TV’ does not make someone smart, right, or reliable. One author sees television as the ‘triumph of spectacle’ replacing literacy with illusion.

This trend has invaded the Church! Oh, yes, the message of the Gospel has always been hindered by people whose talk is far better than their walk. When Paul sent Titus to Crete to put the Christian church in order there he told him to look for leaders who could sort out the truth. "He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain." (Titus 1:9-11, NIV)  In our time, we have multiple messengers who bring a “Christian spectacle” into our homes via media outlets, people who are just good talkers speaking empty words and often with a profit motive.

I believe we are living in time when Paul’s warning is being fulfilled. He said "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4, NLT)

The fact is that our Christianity must be grounded in truth that will, in the honest seeker, transform life! We must ‘work out’ our salvation, wrestling to understand ourselves in the light of the Scripture that we come to know by the work of the Spirit and within the holy gathering of the Church.  There really is no such thing as ‘your truth and my truth’ though we love that phrase.  We have our individual experiences, to be sure. We understand the world we are a part of very differently, given those experiences. But, the Truth is always true and does not change with time, era, or culture.

The foundational Truth we receive is Jesus Christ.  When we believe that He is God come in flesh, that Jesus showed us the Father, died for our sins, was raised to life, and will come again – our lives begin to take new direction and purpose. "Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes." (Ephesians 4:21-23, NLT)  Instead of wasting vast amounts of time and energy arguing about secondary convictions, we need to be those who proclaim the heart of God’s good news – Jesus Christ, Savior, Lord, and coming King.

Christian friend are you being duped by spectacles that masquerade as ‘worship?’ 
Are you being taken in by good talkers who offer empty words that offer a kind of ‘faith’ that does not demand submission to Christ Jesus as Lord?

Is your religion shaped by loving Jesus with ‘heart, soul, mind, and strength’ or by some other ‘truth?’

In the flood of words, of opinions that are sold as facts, may we desire to know the Truth and the One who is Truth.

Here is a word from the Word. Meditate prayerfully on this declaration.  Make it the cry of your heart. "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:7-11, NIV)
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Be Thou My Vision

(a beautiful old Irish hymn)

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

Be 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

Riches I heed not

Nor man's empty praise

Thou mine inheritance

Now and always

Thou and Thou only

Be first in my heart

High King of heaven

My treasure Thou art

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