Finding Truth

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Monday, September 9, 2019

I am writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you soon, so that if I am delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God.  This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth.  Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith:

Christ was revealed in a human body and vindicated by the Spirit.  He was seen by angels and announced to the nations.  He was believed in throughout the world and taken to heaven in glory.

Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.  These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead.  They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods.  But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth.  Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks.  For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer.        1 Timothy 3:14-16, 4:1-4

Booker T. Washington, American author, educator, and advisor to presidents in the late 19^th/early 20^th centuries once said:

“A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority.”[2]

Washington was the major leader in his day of the African American struggle for civil rights.  However, his statement is timeless, much broader than ethnicity.  It is highly relevant in a day when truth has taken a beating in every area of life – politics, business, family, marriage, and even the church.  At times getting at the truth can be hunting for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

The apostle Paul dealt with enough of this problem to be our leader through the vast haystack of lies in contemporary culture.  Self-promoters on the religious front of his day had twisted enough of the gospel to make whatever praise for themselves served their selfish plans to become prominent and powerful.  Paul flatly stated that they had forsaken genuine truth in favor of following deceptive spirits, taught by demons, and had given their consciences over to the death of hypocrisy and lying. 

(Wow!  C’mon, Paul, shed that nice-nice talk; tell us what you really think!)

Truth is that which stands the test of time and Heaven.  Faddish movements come and go like Isaiah’s withering and fading flowers and grass; the truth of God’s Word will endure forever![3]  One of the reasons we are encouraged to search the Scripture is the sure guidance we will find towards truth. 

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.  John 14:6

One day the religious leaders came to question Jesus, to trap him in a way that would discredit his message.  Jesus unloaded on them:

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life.  But the Scriptures point to me!  Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.  “Your approval means nothing to me, because I know you don’t have God’s love within you.  For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and you have rejected me.  John 5:39-43

For You Today

Finding truth isn’t easy among all the false advertising, bluster of politicians, hyperbole of liars, and, not least of all, misleading from the pit of Hell.  But God’s people have the very source of truth at their disposal…prayer in the name of the One who IS truth!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Pixabay.com     Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] Quote and Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

[3] Isaiah 40:8