Truth's Disappearing Act

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing!  The faithful have vanished from the earth!  Neighbors lie to each other, speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.  May the Lord cut off their flattering lips and silence their boastful tongues.  They say, “We will lie to our hearts’ content.  Our lips are our own—who can stop us?”  The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless, and I have heard the groans of the poor.  Now I will rise up to rescue them, as they have longed for me to do.”  The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over.  Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed, preserving them forever from this lying generation, even though the wicked strut about, and evil is praised throughout the land.  Psalm 12:1-8

It's impossible to come to a conclusion that truth is hallowed in 21st century culture.  Rather, we would be forced to admit (if honest) that truth is seen as optional, if lying brings you the resuts you’re after.  More than half of school children admit to cheating on tests; the key word being admit.  It doesn’t help that some teachers are actually promoting test dishonesty.  In Florida a cheating on tests scandal was recently uncovered, where teachers were rigging the tests to make sure more of their students pass.  The motivation is that teachers get bonuses ($25-$50 per student) for passing grades.[1]  While this is certainly not the standard, it shades public perception of the integrity of teachers holding their careers to a higher ethical standard.  But it does give one pause to recall James Russell Lowell’s famous quote:  Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.  Evil, as the Psalmist put it, is praised throughout the land.

There are plenty of examples of the prevaricating nature of our culture’s moral turpitude.  Election campaigns are battlegrounds no longer for presenting the genuine character of the candidates; they are all about pandering to the polls, and tickling ears.  It isn’t about presenting clearly an agenda of how the county will benefit from the course of action an aspiring office-holder will enact.  Rather, it’s a matter of hiding the true agenda, and how it will keep the candidate’s party in power, and line the pockets of those who got the candidate elected.  And if it takes a small white lie (or a big whopper) to get there, well, integrity is a little over-rated, and besides, the end will justify how we got there.

The Psalmist clearly states God’s agenda for that kind of forked-tongue, snakiness: 

The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless, and I have heard the groans of the poor.  Now I will rise up to rescue them, as they have longed for me to do.”  

For You Today

It isn’t going far out on a limb to say that the only way our nation’s young will get it, that truth is important, is if they see it in the generation that’s raising them, even when it hurts.  No, make that, especially when it hurts!  That’s the time the truth will really set you free.[2]

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Walk with Integrity and Truth, Whole Truth, Nothing BUT the Truth

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Teachers Caught in Test Cheating Scandal

[2] John 8:32

Bedrock Convictions

[i]

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

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.  Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.   Ephesians 4:21-24^(NLT)

Life that is lived without bedrock convictions is not life, but simply survival.  A cork can float on the roughest sea, its direction and destination will not come from within, but without. 

Values are part of bedrock convictions.  Values are the inner core of who we are.  A bedrock conviction is a value that has been molded and shaped by the belief we hold about that value.  In short, it is what we are, coupled with what we believe about what we are. 

If I hold a value about my health, a bedrock conviction would be a combination of the value of health, and the knowledge that eating balanced meals (not including okra) will facilitate good health.  If I do not eat right, my conviction is not bedrock, or absolute, it is only relative.  Actually, when our value and knowledge are violated by our actions that do not match up, it is this square peg in that round hole that causes the guilt we feel. 

I never have guilt when I eat squash or salad.  They inexplicably match-up with values held about promoting good health.  But when I eat a ¹/₂ pound box of chocolate cherries, whoa…what a conflict of values and actions!

Most people do not like bedrock convictions.  It is a whole lot easier (in the short run) to operate on your feelings (like the cork on the ocean).  When you have bedrock convictions, they will force you to make tough decisions.  Like the church usher who was standing near the last row of pews, talking to the man who, during the sermon, was seated with his drink in hand, and his portable T.V. tuned to the Brave's game, He said:  Ralph, ol’ buddy, sooner or later you are gonna have to make some tough choices. 

What is a Christian value?  It is a response to this life based on the character of Jesus Christ.  It is a standard taken from the position of the absolute authority of the Word of God.  It is what makes us Jesus people. 

I have been asked before:  Why all the fuss, ranting and raving about Christian values?  Why can't you Christians just do your own thing, and leave everybody else alone.  My values are not your values.  I will tell you why the fuss.  The world cannot survive on anything less than the values of Christ.  That is the way God designed it.  Hitler thought his values were best, and it cost 12 million people their lives.  Under Stalin it was 30 million.  Oppressive Red China's total is still climbing. 

In America, Mother's Day loses some of its luster when we remember the holocaust of the unborn millions.  This is not Christian values at work.  This is humanism, which says:  I do my thing, you do yours; if we agree, OK; if not, stay out of my way.  Communism could not survive humanism, and neither can America survive, much less return to greatness.

The greatness of our country is not in its' resources or economy.  Those are the by-products of the blessing of God, which comes from serving and following Jesus Christ - Christian values!

The apostle Paul shared Christian values with a church that needed a new compass – a Christian direction.  Over the next few days we will discuss the bedrock convictions that reflect the values Christians should hold. 

For You Today

A believer, a person who follows Jesus Christ, who hasn’t taken the time to settle deep down the values of Christ in his own life is a Christian who is cheating himself (and ultimately his service to Christ) immensely!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i] Title Images: By NASA HiRISE camera, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, via Wikimedia Commons

Truth Whole Truth Nothing BUT the Truth

(Note about The Pastor’s Points – the Bible must be taken on faith…reasoned faith to be sure….but, in the end, faith is a leap of the heart which is attached to an informed mind.  Faith is not scientific fact or mathematical equation.  These devotional writings are faith-based, and therefore rooted in Scripture.  They are meant to encourage your faith, grow your faith, and challenge you to live by that faith. 

But one thing is not intended – to give you faith on a silver platter, as if somehow you could read what is written each morning –take it like a “faith-pill”, and grow a belief system.  That is patently impossible – and that’s way beyond my pay grade as a writer anyway. ^{(For the source of faith read Romans 10:17)}

Faith is personal, and it is also a gift from God.  Every human being possesses – at the very least – sufficient faith to recognize the truth of God as our Creator, who is due our worship.  We have His image stamped on our souls! 

That image has been corrupted by sin, but it nonetheless calls to us from within, that we seek to find the God whom we have distorted and seems out of reach.

With that in mind, let me suggest that you read these devotional thoughts like you take a vitamin supplement – to assist what your body is already doing.  If, in your heart you have chosen to take the “faith-leap” and accept Christ’s Word as truth, that is your main diet and hope.  This devotional is simply another fellow-disciple’s look at how the diet of God’s Word works for him.  Take the supplement or not – but never lay aside the main meal!)

The “Heart” of God’s Word ^{Psalms 119:160}

If “the heart” of a person is centered in something (a boyfriend, drive to become rich, being valedictorian of the class, building the perfect ice cream sundae) it is certain everything else – thoughts, words and actions will follow the heart’s desire. 

So it is with God’s Word; its heart is truth.

Everything about the heart of the Word of God begins in truth…absolute truth.  The Psalmist called the Word of God “eternal”.  That means “no beginning, no ending”.  

So truth is true – whenever, and under whatever conditions exist.  It is never relative to circumstances or the thoughts of man.  One scholar’s exposition of the Psalm text is:  And all these, thy words endure for ever. They are true, and ever will be true.[i]

True is always just true.  (If you accept the premise of “God” in the first place, then His word is absolutely true, or He is not God.)

But “truth” in our culture is always relative – never absolute.  That’s so strange in a country with a foundational document which declares, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.  “All” sounds pretty “absolute” to me.

Now, that presents a problem for the Christian who is trying his best to live in the world, but not be of the world.^{(James 4:4)}

Our culture’s reasoning and truth-seeking have degenerated over the years; now we have what John Calvin called the appeal to custom against truth[ii].  We went from God’s immutable, undisputable truth to…. “Well, that may be true for you, and I’m glad for you, but it’s not my truth”.  Some truth is not so “self-evident” today – the distortion of God’s image grows; eternal truth has been ripped from God’s hands, and now belongs to the created beings!

Ready to Swim Upstream Today?

Take your stand with truth today. 

Truth… Whole truth… Nothing BUT the truth!  So help us, God!

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[i] Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Old Testament, STEP Files Copyright © 1999, Parsons Technology, Inc.

[ii] John Calvin, Institutes of Religion, Preface address to King Francis, Illustrations Unlimited, James Hewitt, 1988