Transformed by Grace: Guarding the Truth

In a world flooded with spiritual noise, discerning truth from deception isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. Titus 1:10–16 reminds us that false teaching isn’t new, and the stakes are high. Whether it’s ancient myths or modern-day scams wrapped in religious language, only God’s grace and truth can cut through the fog. Let’s learn how to guard the truth with discernment, courage, and lives that reflect the gospel we proclaim.

Read Guarding the Truth.

The Bible is not an Answer Book

 I love the Bible. 

In fact, I believe that people who follow Jesus should be readers and students of the Bible. In the Bible we discover God, His character, and His will. 

Without the Bible we would not be able to follow Jesus or be the people God created us to be.

Last year I lead Bethlehem Church through The Story to give us a good overview of what the Bible is about. One of the things I constantly talked about through that series is that the Bible is gift from God. In all the 30 sermons I preached, I said, “We need to read, study, meditate on, and pray the Bible to be good stewards of the gift God has given to us.”

Even though I have a high view of Scripture, I also understand that it has limitations.

As modern readers of the Bible, we often approach it as if it has the answer to all of life’s questions. That is a primary reason why we  read and study the Bible: to have all the right answers.

Instead of viewing the Bible as an answer book, we need to see the Bible  as a tool to help create a worldview. It may not provide the answers to all the questions asked in our culture, but it does provide a framework that helps us create a Christian worldview.

I have been pondering how we use the Bible the past few days for a couple of reasons.

1. BibleProject has a podcast series that looks at ancient cosmology. One of the key points in the series is looking at how the Biblical account of creation is in dialogue and debate with the other ancient creation myths. 

Many Western Christians, for the past 120 years or so, have used the Bible to provide facts and answers about the beginning of the universe. The problem is that the Bible was not written to answer modern scientific questions. It was written to give God’s people a particular view of the world and to combat the pagan religious views of their neighbors.

Therefore, we shouldn’t expect the Bible to give us definitive answers about the how and when of creation, but we should expect it to give us an understanding about who God is and why He created the world.

2. Preston Sprinkle wrote:

If someone experiences and congruent between their biological sex and their gender, which one determines who they are—and why? What does the Bible say about this question?

That’s the problem. The Bible doesn’t directly ask and answer this question. There’s no verse in, say, Leviticus 28 that says, “If thy gender identity does not match thy biological sex, then thine body is who you really are.” Or whatever. (There is no Leviticus 28, in case you are flipping pages to check.) But the Bible does say quite a few relevant things about human nature and the importance of our biological sex which will position us to cultivate a theologically informed and biblically rooted answer to our question. (Embodied, p. 63)

After doing lots of research, Sprinkle admits that the Bible doesn’t contain the answers to the questions surrounding the transgender conversation. You can’t compile a list of verses that deal specifically with these issues. 

Not only is this true for the transgender conversation, but it is true for many of the questions we have today. Our culture is significantly different from the cultures that the Bible was originally written for. We shouldn’t expect to to have answers to our modern questions.

Since the Bible is God’s gift to His people, we can expect that it will give us a proper perspective to see the world.

It is important to make this shift away from seeing the Bible as an answer book to one that helps us create a Christian worldview.

God did not give us the Bible so we can have all the right answers. 

Rather, He gave us the Bible so we can become the right type of people. 

If we primarily use the Bible to have the right answers, to win arguments, and to point out other people’s sin then we are using the Bible wrong.

The Bible should help form us into the people God created us to be. One of the ways it does that is to create a proper perspective for us to see the world.

Let the Bible form your worldview.

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Seek to Discover Jesus

Reading through the book of John it becomes evident that there were great disagreements about Jesus' identity.  This is even seen in the Pharisees. Here is a group that we generally talk about opposing Jesus, but the reality was that there was a disagreement about Jesus among them (John 9:16).

In John 10:19 we again see that people had a disagreement about Jesus: When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him (NLT). 

 

There was this disagreement, or division, because Jesus provided a paradox for them. 

On the one hand Jesus taught with great authority and insight. 

On the other hand Jesus did not obey the culture expectations of the day. He was not always a "good" Jew.

All these centuries later, people still have disagreements about who Jesus is. 

• Some want to classify him as a good teacher who was able to give profound spiritual insight. 
• Some may elevate him to the position of prophet, a man of God giving people a word from God. 
• Some label Jesus as a liar who led people astray. 
• Some call him a myth who never existed. 

People are still divided about who Jesus is.

Since I claim to follow Jesus, it is important that I understand who Jesus is to the best of my ability. 

Now, I admit, it is easy, even by looking at the biblical account, to create Jesus in my image. To make a Jesus I am comfortable with, who will support my agendas, and promote my worldview. 

 

Even within the Church there are many different ideas of who Jesus is, how he lived, and what he taught.

This means we need make an effort to discover who Jesus is. 

• We need understand the culture in which Jesus lived which provide much needed context to his teaching. 
• We need to seek to hear his teaching through the ears of his intended audience.
• We need to learn why see his miracles and ministry through these first century eyes.

 It is easier to engage the Gospels, as well as the whole of Scripture, at just the surface level, as we look for those eternal truths to apply to our lives. But, I have come to believe that we miss much of the truth God has for us by not digging deeper into the text. 

People will always be divided over who Jesus is, but that shouldn’t keep us from the responsibility of doing what we can to discover the Jesus of history. 

I believe that when we commit ourselves to such a study we will be blessed with the gift of getting to know who Jesus is and all that he has done for us.

We Need to Discuss Truth

 

This tweet from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is true. 

Lies are contrary to the truth and are not just mere opinions.

As a Christian I want to seek, believe, and even defend the truth.

Here is the thing, it isn’t always easy to tell what the truth is.

For example, I like to say that love is the central command of Christianity and the resurrection is the central truth of Christianity. 

I believe the resurrection of Jesus is true and not a lie. There are different pieces of evidences that I use to support that belief. 

Yet, there are very smart people who will offer their evidence on why the resurrection never happened.

In other words, there is a difference of opinion when it comes to how we arrive at something being truth or a lie.

I bring this example up because I think many things within the realm of politics fall into this same sort of category. When trying to arriving at what is true, we have to discuss our perspective about why we believe something is true or not. 

It is not good enough to simply declare something to be true or false. We need to be wiling to share our thoughts and listen to why someone else believes what they do.

To simply declare something to be true or false causes dialogue to end and division between people to increase.

Here is another example.

On Wednesday, January 6, 2021 a violent mob stormed the Capitol Building in Washington D. C.

That is a statement that virtually everyone would agree to be true.

What isn’t agreed about, and the areas of opinion that should be discussed are: 

1. Whether that mob was incited by President Trump? 
2. Was it an insurrection or coup attempt?
3. What defines someone as a domestic terrorist?

Here is my point: Our different perspectives give us a different understanding of truth. If we are truly committed to truth then we should be willing to hear those different perspectives.

This is precisely why freedom of speech is such an important part of life. It allows us to dialogue with one another. It helps us refine our arguments and beliefs. It gives us a chance to demonstrate why certain things are lies.

A major problem we are facing in the United States is the inability to really participate in the process of free speech. We want to be able to say what we believe the truth to be, but we don’t other people to respond with their perspective. We would much rather stay within our own little echo chamber, having our world view confirmed, than stepping outside that bubble and having it challenged.

We need to be brave enough to have civil conversation with people, seeking to understand why they believe what they believe, rather than just declaring the other side is lying and walking away. 

The true benefit found in the freedom of speech is the opportunity to point out the inconstancies, errors, and false beliefs the other side has. It gives you the ability to answer those who promote a different ideology than you do and make the case for why your beliefs are true.

This is such an important freedom, and skill, to have.

War for Truth

 I recently saw the following on Facebook:

"We're losing the war for truth. There's no bigger crisis for media, politics and society than the growing number of people who don't believe facts and verifiable figures. If we don't collectively solve this, we are all screwed."

Truth is important. 

People, and I think Christians especially, should strive to be on the side of truth.

Yet, that goal is not always as easy as we make it out to be. I believe we need to think about how we come to know truth. 

Ask yourself the question: “How do I know my beliefs are true?”

For most of us, what we believe to be true we have received second hand, from a source that we trust. The problem really isn’t a “war for truth,” but a disagreement on what sources can be trusted. 

Let me also say I dislike the use of the word “war.” We tend to use this word to show there are two distinct sides that are at conflict with one another. So we have things like the drug war, the war on poverty, the war on Christmas, and the war on Terror. On the one side you have the “good guys” and on the other side you have the “bad guys.” 

Do you see the problem with this belief?

Consider this tweet:

No seriously, when you think you need to “deprogram” friends and neighbors because they don’t think like you, you have lost the chance to have a civil conversation. 

You can’t take the moral high ground if you want to cast other people (people who are often friends and family) as your enemy. No meaningful conversation is going to come from that.

After all, who gets to decide what is true and what is not true? Why should I accept your version of truth?

Everyone believes they know what the truth is, but their versions of truth differ because they have chosen to trust different sources for the information that makes up that truth.

Again, this is the key issue: “What sources can I trust to provide me with true information?”

While you may trust what is printed in the newspaper or is on the evening news, not everyone does.There is a significant percentage of people in the United States who believe they cannot trust what comes out of the corporate press. 

Last month Michael Malice tweeted:

If you don’t understand that the corporate press, the source of information many Americans trust, has lost the trust of many other Americans, then you are going to see this as a “war for truth.” 

It is not. 

Therefore, rather than treating it like a war, we need to have a discussion about why we trust the sources of information that we do.

Why would some Americans not trust the information offered by the government and the corporate press?

Thaddeus Russell tweeted this:

This is just one example of why many people don’t trust the same sources of information that you do.

The problem isn’t that there are Americans who are ignoring “facts and verifiable figures,” rather the issue is that they don’t think those facts and figures can be trusted. In other words, it is less about the information, and more about the source of that information.

So Michael Malice’s question is a good one: “What can the corporate press do to regain the trust of the public?”

Rather than starting a war, maybe you should ask that simple question first.

Perception and Truth

In our search for truth it is important to recognize that most of our beliefs that we hold on to as truth are just our interpretation of the data that we have. 

I am not saying that truth doesn’t exist or that it is impossible to discover truth, but I am saying that truth isn’t as objective as we sometimes would like it to be. 

We realize that two people looking at the exact same data can come to two different conclusions. 

Some of that is based on first principles, for example, believing in God is going to shape our interpretation of the data about the origins of the universe.

Some of that is based on our experiences, for example, whether you have a positive or negative experience with church growing up is going to shape your opinion on the importance of being part of church family as you grow older.

This is what Erwin McManus wrote in his book Soul Cravings:

In other words, for something to make sense to us, it cannot remain outside of us. We do not simply study information and then come to a conclusion; we absorb it and come to a personal interpretation of what is real.

I was listening to a lecture in which the speaker referred to studies in neuroscience that describe the process from which the human brain gathers and holds information. He explained that when the human brain absorbs information, that information is one part data and six parts emotion. Now that’s a fascinating thought--that everything we remember is wrapped around everything we experience. When you reflect on this, it makes perfect sense. (Meaning; Entry #12: It’s All in How You Look At It)*

What Erwin talks about here explains why, for most people, their relationships with the fathers affect their view of God. 

It also accounts for people who leave Christianity after a personal tragedy in their lives. Their view of God and the Church affected by their experience.

In the United States there is a significant amount of people who are not buying the version of truth being offered from the corporate press and politicians.

Why are they skeptical?

They are skeptical because they believe they have been lied to, overlooked, and stabbed in the back by these people who now say, "Just trust us." 

When we remember that perception is reality for people, it should not surprise us that there people who do not hold to your version of what is real. Their experience is leading them to a different conclusion.

It really doesn't matter how many experts, studies, and facts we believe back up our point-of-view because another person will put all of that through their filter of experience and emotion. This is why facts are weak persuasion. 

All of us like to believe that we rational and that the beliefs that we hold we arrived at through following the facts. The reality is that the majority of the time we arrive at our beliefs for emotional reasons and we use facts to justify our positions afterwards. This is why these facts seem so obvious to us.

If we want to change someone's mind the best thing to do is not to throw a bunch of facts and figures at them, but to offer a listening ear and show that you understand what they are saying. Without listening and seeking to understand other people there will be an ever growing divide between people who hold different points-of-view.

* Soul Cravings is a book without page numbers. For reference I provided the title of the section and the entry number and title. I believe the McManus discussion on truth is worth the price of the book.

Be Humble and Pursue Truth

This tweet has been with me all the way through this year. Those closest to me know that Tom Woods has been a big influence in my life for the last decade (I discovered him sometime during Ron Paul’s 2008 Presidential run), mainly through his daily podcast.

As a person who strives to be a life-long learner, what Tom encourages people to do has been a goal of mine. I realize that the knowledge that I have is only a tiny drop compared to the vast amount of information that is in the world. It would be arrogant of me to approach life with the assumption that all my beliefs are correct. 

Over the years as I have read books and listened to lectures, sermons, and podcasts my beliefs have shifted and changed. Sometimes the change has been drastic such as going from conservative Republican to a Ron Paul Republican to a libertarian and finally to a anarcho-capitalist/Christian anarchist. Some changes have been more subtle like moving form a staunch young earth creationist view to being open to other possibilities. 

The apostle Paul in Romans wrote: “ Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2, NLT)

God transforms us through the renewal and change of our thinking (see also Philippians 4:8 and Colossians 3:1-4). The thoughts and beliefs that are rolling around in our heads and hearts effect everything else about us. They form the structure of our worldview and they guide our actions and emotions. This is why God needs to change our thinking before transformation occurs in our lives.

Followers of Jesus also need to be confident that all truth is God’s truth. This means we want to be on the side of truth, whatever that looks like, because we know all truth comes from God. This gives us the freedom to admit that we might be wrong about things and to re-examine what we believe.

I will offer one bit of advice here: In our pursuit of truth we need a bedrock truth that is able anchor us in faith. Otherwise we are in danger of believing whatever sounds good to us.

For me, and I think for any follower of Jesus, that bedrock belief needs to be the resurrection of Jesus. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 wrote (1 Corinthians 15:14, NLT), “And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.”

Because I think there is credible evidence to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, I secure my hope there, and let that be the foundation of my worldview.

As we enter the last month and half of 2020 may we set our faith in Jesus and allow God to guide our thinking, so our lives can be transformed.

Growing Compassion

 

One of the marks of Christian maturity is an increased capacity for compassion.  The longer we follow Jesus, the more compassion we have for people. This compassion even extends to people who are in bad circumstances caused by their own choices.

When I was younger it was easy for me to judge people who were enduring bad circumstances in their lives. 

“After all,” I reasoned; “if they would make better choices they wouldn’t find themselves in that circumstance.” 

Compassion was absent from my heart. 

Over the last several years God has transformed my heart. Rather than blaming people for their difficult circumstances my heart breaks for them. I realize most of the time they are in those circumstances, not because they want a difficult life, but because they don’t know there is a better way to live.

As Matthew put it: they are “confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

I don’t want to diminish the responsibility each of us has for the choices that we make. I do want to point out that the choices we make are hardly ever black and white. Most of the time our choices are the result of a complex mixture of experiences, emotions, and environment. 

The reality is that all of us make decisions based on the information that we have.

1 Peter 1:18 (NLT)

For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 

This has been a key verse in understanding the choices people make and one of the reasons I have more compassion for them.

People live the way they were taught to live. The choices that they make sense to them in the light of what they know.

 Imagine how your life would be different if you were raised differently. Things that seem to be “common sense” may not even be known to you. 

Peter tells us that much of the world, instead of inheriting a life of faith in Jesus, they inherited a life given to them by their ancestors, a life that is empty. It is not their fault, it is simply the hand that they were dealt.

On top of inheriting an empty way of life, many people struggle with habits and addictions that are difficult to break free from. Again, it isn’t necessarily their fault. They may want to get out, but they are trapped in a prison of their own creation.

In a real sense people are victims of outside forces. 

When we read the gospels it appears that when Jesus looked at a crowd of people he didn’t see dirty rotten sinners; instead he saw people who were being victimized. Rather than condemning them for their choices and sins, Jesus showed them compassion and understanding. That is not to say that Jesus accepted their sin or acted like it wasn’t a big deal, but it does show that Jesus, the one person who could sit in judgment, chose to extend help to them.

There is a shift in our thinking that we need to make.

With the Bible in our hands it is tempting judge people with God’s truth, rather than to help them out of love. 

Jesus condemned the Pharisees for doing this very thing. They focused on people’s sin and did nothing to help them overcome it. 

This is a danger we need to avoid.

To have a knowledge of God’s will can lead us to believe that taking a stand for God’s truth is the same as doing God’s work. 

In Revelation 2:1-7 Jesus told the church in Ephesus that they were in danger of being shut out of the Kingdom because of their lack of love. The Ephesians were known for standing up for the truth, but somewhere along the line they had lost their love.

We have to be on our guard so that doesn’t happen to us. Truth shouldn’t overshadow our love.

Compassion, which is a form of love, needs to be mixed with truth. It is the mixture of  truth and love which gives us the ability to influence the people in our lives. Our care and compassion opens up people’s hearts to receive the the truth. 

 The example of Jesus is that he led with compassion. Jesus loved people through healing and helping them. Not only did he demonstrate compassion, he always told them the truth. 

Truth is a lot easier to take when you know it comes from a person who cares for you.

Jesus looked at the crowds of people and He saw people who were lost and with no way to find their way home. What these people needed was a person to show them the right direction, not lecture on how terrible it is to be lost.

As we look around us we realize that the number of people who need help are more than we can help by ourselves. What can we do? 

If we are going to show compassion to the world we have to pray. Prayer gives us a  proper perspective on life and the world around us. It also helps us to align our hearts with God’s heart. 

In our prayers we need make a request: workers for the harvest. There is a shortage of leaders who are able to show the lost the way home.

Compassion is not just reserved for our prayer life. Compassion needs to be a key characteristic of our lives. Jesus lived in such a way to show the people around him that he knew the Way they were to travel. 

As Jesus’ followers we have that same responsibility of living our lives in such a way that it demonstrates a better way to live.

To live like Jesus means we need a change of perspective. Instead of seeing the people as dirty rotten sinners we need to see them as lost travelers trying desperately to get home.

Or better yet, a field ready to be harvested and brought home.

The Most Amazing Truth

Here is the most amazing truth that I know: God loves you!

Take moment and reflect on the reality that the Creator of the universe desires to have a relationship with you.

Not only does God love you, but He is willing to do whatever it takes to be in relationship with you. We can be confident of this fact because of the life and death of Jesus.

I know for some people the truth of God's love seems too good to be true. They don’t “feel” God’s love in their lives. Instead their lives are full of hassles and problems. In their minds, the presence of difficulties are evidence that God's doesn't exist.

I wish I could help them see that this is not true!

God loves us, and His love is all around us.

Now you may wonder how I can write about God’s love as if it were right out there within our reach.

That is because it is.

Rebecca St. James once wrote, “I really believe so many times God ‘calls out’ to us through everyday things and through His creation, and yet we don’t hear because we’re too busy or distracted.”

God’s love is seen in many different ways, but too often we miss it.

We miss it because we are either looking for something that God’s love isn’t, like a perpetual warm fuzzy, or the realities of everyday life have distracted us from what God is doing in our lives.

Remember: Just because you don’t “feel” loved by God doesn’t mean that God’s love for you isn’t real.

I know God’s love exists and I know that He loves me.

The evidence of God's love for me is found in the love of my family and friends.

I have found proof of God’s love for me through times of prayer, worship, and meditation.

God’s love has been revealed to me in the peace and confidence that I have in my life.

I can see God’s love everyday as I walk among His creation and marvel at what He has done.

All of this pales in the light of the great revelation of God’s love: Jesus.

Remember the apostle Paul's words from the book of Romans:

When were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:6-8; NLT)

You know why Jesus’ death is the great demonstration of God’s love?

• God is under no obligation to save us. There is no force outside of God that dictates that He has to save human beings. To save His creation is God’s choice. He saves us because of His character.  It is God's mercy, grace, and love that compels Him to save us rather than condemn us.
• God doesn’t need us. Humans do not fill some need God has for companionship. God, being three in one, has all the companionship that He needs. It is His faithfulness to creation and His desire for us to experience true life  that moves God save us. His love is totally unconditional. His love is not based on who we are or want we have done for Him, but based on His desire for people to experience what is best.
• God experienced pain.  This flows from the previous two. Saving us was not something God had to do, but it is something He chose to do. That choice involved a great cost. Our salvation involved real pain.  Pain that exceeded the physical pain of crucifixion. It appears that as Jesus took on our sins, he was separated from God. We will never fully understand the love it took for Jesus to go to the cross.

Does God love you?

He loves you more than you can imagine.

It is experienced everyday we walk with God. It is seen in creation, in our families and friends, and in circumstances as we surrender to God's will.

But that is the key.

If you are missing out on God’s love it is time to surrender your life to Him.

When you love someone you have the hope that they will respond to your love.

Rejected love is always painful.

The same is true for God.

God loves you, but for you to fully experience that love you need to surrender to Him.

We don't experience all the love another person has for us until we enter into a relationship with him. This also applies to God. To fully experience the love of God we have to enter into a relationship with Him. We do that by surrendering our lives to Him.

I realize that this is hard to do. We don't want to give up control of our lives or be committed to the will of another person, but that is what is required of all lasting relationships. Love will always move us to care more and more for the other person, which will cause us to sacrifice on their behalf.

The most amazing truth in the universe is that the Creator of the universe loves you.

When we grasp that reality, how can we not seek to love Him back?

God loves us.

His love is all around us, calling us to accept Him as our Father and Lord.

You can choose to see God’s love or you can choose to ignore it.

You have the choice to either reject or accept His love.

The choice is yours.

I urge you to accept this amazing truth and make the choice to love.

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Truth and Right Living

Following Jesus is more than having correct doctrine about God. Having knowledge of God is not the same thing as having a relationship with Him. A person can know the Bible, but be far away from God.

I don't want to make Bible study seem unimportant. Study is a very essential discipline in the process of spiritual formation. It is crucial that we have an accurate understanding of what the Bible says. Reading and studying the Bible is the main way God guides our lives. Therefore, correct doctrine is very important, and correct doctrine begins with the Bible.

The Apostle Paul wrote this to Timothy; Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers (1 Timothy 4:16; ESV).

What we believe about God matters! Remember, it doesn't matter how sincerely we believe something, if that belief is not true, then what we believe is wrong. Our believing something sincerely doesn't make that something true. The Truth that Christians believe must be rooted in Scripture. The Bible reveals to us the truth we need for life. Part of Christianity is about knowing the Truth.

Yet, we know following Jesus is more than just knowing Truth. We have all witnessed people who knew God's Word, but lived as if it wasn't Truth. Truth without appropriate action makes no difference in our lives. Think back to what the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:16. He told us that there are two areas of our lives that we need to watch closely: what we believe and how we live.

The problem many church families in the United States are facing are people who have access to the Truth, but choose to ignore that truth so they can do their own thing. These people claim Christ, but they pick and choose what they want to believe so they can live life on their own terms. They are neither watching their doctrine or their lives closely.

This damages the witness of the Church because the World looks at “Christians” and see them living like everyone else. The World doesn't see the love, the gentleness, the peace, the hope, the forgiveness, or the self-control that should be visible in the life of Christians. Instead the World sees hypocrisy, jealousy, bitterness, hatred, greed, and the list could go on and on. In the end the World looks at the Church and sees a reflection of itself.

See more at Paul's Ponderings: Knowing Truth and Living Right

 

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We Need to Live the Truth

For those who follow Jesus the purpose of truth is to spur action.  If we are not acting on the truth that we have learned then we are not really following Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus requires action and not just the acceptance of a list of facts.

Perhaps this is where we have to take a hard long look at our lives.  It is easy to debate with people about what the truth is, about facts and figures, but it is hard to live out the truth that we know.  A person who has had a heart attack knows that it is best to change his eating habits and exercise more, but it is hard to do.  Knowledge doesn't translate into action.  That is why faith without works is dead, otherwise it would be knowledge.

Knowing and debating is easy and living out what we say we believe is hard, but what is going to have more impact on the Kingdom of God?  William Barclay wrote, "The world is full of talk about Christianity, but one deed is worth a thousand words."  Are deeds, the way we choose to live, make all the difference.

I have been around long enough to realize that while intellectuals debate the average person is forgotten.  This is not to say that the work of the scholar and the apologist is not important, because it is and I love to hear what those people have to say, but more often then not those things go over the head of the average person.  The average person wants something that makes sense of their life right now, and too often the intellectual doesn't have it.

That is why it is so important for us to live the truth.  Our lives provide the context of what it means to live a life of faith and to follow Jesus.  It will make people stop and wonder, and a few will even begin to desire the type of life that we have.

Peter wrote:

Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ (1 Peter 3:15-16, NLT).

When we live the truth not only will people be drawn to Jesus, but they will also be open to asking questions.  That is when they are ready to receive the truth that we have for them, until then they are interested in whether or not following Jesus works. May we live lives that show the world that it does.
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God Sanctifies in Truth

Experiencing God's Truth

Created to Crave: Part 2

Everyone Craves


One of the most obvious soul cravings our society experiences is the craving of intimacy.  We want to be known.  This is why social networks on the Internet are so popular.  Even behind the mask of anonymity we want to be known.  So often we feel hampered about being our true selves in the real world because we fear we might be judged, so we hide parts of our lives.  We do our best to fit into the mold society, whether it is a social or a religious mold.  While we may be hiding but our hearts are crying out: Know me!

Erwin McManus in his book Soul Cravings wrote about Kurt Cobain:

“In the opening page of Kurt Cobain’s journal, he writes, ‘Don’t read my diary when I’m gone. OK, I’m going to work now, when you wake up this morning, please read my diary.  Look through my things and figure me out.’ 

“Kurt’s life tragically ended at the age of twenty-seven.  Ironically, the name of his band was Nirvana, the Hindu name for paradise.  The same artist who penned the song “Come as You Are” in the end never found what he was looking for, never found the help to figure himself out. 

“I think we’re all more like Cobain than we would care to admit.  We’re struggling to figure ourselves out.  We’re all afraid to expose our souls to those who might judge us, and at the same times, we desperately need help to guide us on the journey.” (Cravings)

We long to be known and to be loved.  In fact I have witnessed people do very destructive things in order to satisfy this craving and in the end they just ended up with more pain and more rejection.

Another craving that has become so very evident the last few years is the craving for significance.  We want our lives to count for something and to have a purpose for our lives.  When each day is a struggle to survive this craving is kept at bay, but when a person lives in an affluent culture like we do we begin to think about why we are here: What is the purpose of my life?

One piece of evidence for this craving was the success Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life.  The year that The Purpose Driven Life came out it was the second best selling book of the year, behind Harry Potter.  That is phenomenal success for a non-fiction book! Non-fiction just don't sell at the same rate as fiction. People are hungry to discover purpose and to add meaning to their lives.

Another piece of evidence for this craving is how this younger generation’s primary goal in life is to become famous.  They have bought into the lie that in order to do something significant they have to have their face on TV screens and magazine covers.  We are driven to make our lives matter.

A third soul craving that we have is the craving for meaning.  Perhaps this craving can be best summed up in the question: Isn’t there more to life? Not only do we want to find our place in the world but we also want to figure out the world in which we live.  You can achieve great success and still wonder: Is this all there is?

Every belief system out there, from atheism to Christianity, seeks to make sense of our world.  We want to know the truth about things.  We are troubled by the reality of evil in this world as well as about the randomness of life. Our hearts break when we hear about another person with cancer, another natural disaster that kills hundreds, or another madman with a gun who slaughters people he never met.  What is the meaning and purpose behind all of that?  Is God really sovereign? Isn’t there more to life than eating, drinking, sleeping, and work? Is it really true that all we can be certain in this life are taxes and death?  What is the purpose of all of this?  Our hearts are crying out for answers.  We crave to know the truth.

How can I know Truth?

One of the questions that haunts my life is: How do we come to know and understand truth? Jesus told us in John 14: 17 that the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. If we are to take Jesus at His word (which I think is a good thing to do) then we are incapable of understanding truth, that is all that Jesus embodied in Life and the doctrines He taught ( This definition of truth comes from Paul Butler; The Bible Study Textbook: The Gospel of John Volume 2, p. 55) apart from the Holy Spirit working in our lives.

That doesn't mean that we don't have a part to play in discovering truth. In John 8:31-32 we read about Jesus teaching a crowd. Butler in his commentary describes the crowd as:

a group of the Jews here at the Feast of Tabernacles who had, in some way, manifested a superficial belief in Him. They wanted to believe in a Messiah, but not the Messiah. They were willing to follow, fight or die for a temporal King, but they would have none of a spiritual King who demanded sovereignty over their motives and deeds. They would gladly serve Him with their lips, but not their hearts. (p. 54)

This was not the most sympathetic of crowds. They were willing to listen as long as Jesus told them what they wanted to hear. So we see this crowd turn from belief to one with murderous intentions (see John 8:59). It is in this context that Jesus makes this statement;  "You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32; NLT).

First I need to point out that a disciple of Jesus is first and foremost one who obeys His teachings. This is why in the teaching of the Final Judgment (Matthew 25) God separates the redeemed from the unredeemed based on their actions. A true disciple of Jesus will live out the teachings of Jesus.

This ponder was motivated by the simple word "and".  It seems here that Jesus is saying that through our obedience we gain a greater understanding of truth. Without obedience we cannot hope to know truth. Obey Jesus and know truth.

Aside from intentional time of reading and studying Scripture, our part of knowing truth is found in obedience.  Only through obedience do we experience God's truth as a reality in life. If we want to know truth then we have to actively obey Jesus.

Why would this be the case? I would imagine it has something to do with throwing pearls before hogs (Matthew 7:6). If we are not going to obey the teachings of Jesus that we already know then we are not going to obey a new teaching or truth that the Holy Spirit desires to reveal to us. Such a teaching would be a waste on us.

So the question we need to consider is: Am I doing my part to know truth? If we are struggling to hear from God it maybe because we are unwilling to to do what He has already told us to do.  Obey and allow truth to move from your mind to your heart.

Daily Thought: Love the Simple Truth

TRUTH, not eloquence, is to be sought in reading the Holy Scriptures; and every part must be read in the spirit in which it was written. For in the Scriptures we ought to seek profit rather than polished diction.

Likewise we ought to read simple and devout books as willingly as learned and profound ones. We ought not to be swayed by the authority of the writer, whether he be a great literary light or an insignificant person, but by the love of simple truth. We ought not to ask who is speaking, but mark what is said. Men pass away, but the truth of the Lord remains forever. God speaks to us in many ways without regard for persons.


THOMAS À KEMPIS, The Imitation of Christ, Logos Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: Ushering in God's Promise

When you ignore problems, you relinquish a place of truth.  When you ignore obstacles, you communicate a lack of confidence that God can overcome obstacles that have debilitated or even paralyzed God's people.  Identifying the clear problems is not expressing pessimism or negativity.  It is not judgmentalism or condemnation. It is standing to face whatever Goliaths stand before God's people and speaking with confidence about a future gained after Goliath's defeat.  Identifying the clear problems is the beginning point of spiritual warfare in leadership.  It gives the spiritual leader an opportunity to call God's people to prayer and usher in the promises of God, promises of a future and a hope.

Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force, Thomas Nelson Publishers (2003), p. 191

Linkage: Speak the Truth

One of the realities about our identities in Christ is the fact that we are His ambassadors.  What this means is that everything we say and do is done as the representative of Jesus Christ.  That should be a sobering thought for each of us as we consider our actions and language and what they reveal about what we believe about Jesus.

That is why I think it is so important for us to ponder these words from Eleanor Daniel in this article published by the Christian Standard.

I have a confession to make. Some days I wonder why I even bother to teach the Word of God to others. I’m not sure they take it in very seriously. 

I’m not talking about teaching the Word to unbelievers. It often takes a long time and a lot of effort for them to come to belief in the Lord and to submit to him. Rather, I’m talking about good people who have been Christians for a long time and who, by all expectations, should demonstrate markedly different behavior than nonbelievers. Nor am I talking about gross sins. 

No, I’m thinking about those who profess to love others and often show it in practical ways, those who claim a deep commitment to Christ and yet gullibly swallow rumors, especially those on the Internet, without question. I’m referring in particular to those who pass along gossip and untruths on the basis of something they have seen on the Internet or on television, or heard on a talk show or other presentation—never once taking the time to check the veracity of the claims.

Continue to read Speak the Truth—Even on the Internet.

Daily Thought: The Queer Twist of Reality

"Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd.  It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect.  For instance, when you have grasped that the earth and the other planets all go round the sun, you would naturally expect that ll the planets were made to match—all at equal distances from each other, say, or distances that regularly increased, or all the same size, or else getting bigger or smaller as you go further from the sun.  In fact, you find no rhyme or reason (that we can see) about either the sizes or the distances; and some of them have one moon, one has four , one has two, some have none, and one has a ring.

"Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed.  That is one of the reasons I believe in Christianity.  It is a religion you could not have guessed.  If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up.  But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up.  It has just that queer twist about it that real things have."

C. S. Lewis, A Year with C. S. Lewis, HarperSanFrancisco (2003), p. 27

Daily Thought: Jesus Comes for Sinners

"Here is revelation bright as the evening star: Jesus comes for sinners, for those as outcast as tax collectors and for those caught up in squalid choices and failed dreams.  He comes for corporate executives, street people, superstars, farmers, hookers, addicts, IRS agents, AIDS victims, and even used car salesmen.  Jesus not only talks with these people but dines with them—fully aware that His table fellowship with sinners will raise the eyebrows of religious bureaucrats who hold up the robes and insignia of their authority to justify their condemnation of the truth and their rejection of the gospel of grace." ~ Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, p. 23