Deal with the untruth

“If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.” (John 8:31-32)

A disciple is a follower, for sure, but with the intent of learning from the master. I read lots of woodworking articles, observe how things are made, and yet I am not a disciple of any particular 'woodworking master'. I just do it for a hobby. Christianity is more than a hobby - it is us committing to serve the master (Jesus), sit under his tutelage, and take what we have learned to others so they can learn it, as well. Too many may view it as a mere 'hobby' - calling themselves 'Christian', but lacking any real life change, spiritual power, or deep knowledge of how God responds. 

Peter Marshall reminds us, "God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty." Discipleship doesn't assure us of any 'easy ride' in this lifetime. In fact, it may mean just the opposite, for this 'dying to oneself and living for Christ' is kind of difficult at times. It takes constant focus, unwavering attention to life's details, and a willingness to respond appropriately when the challenge to revert back to an old way of living exerts unending pressure upon us. Great blessing may just be all about the journey and not so much the moment. It may just be made up of a whole bunch of little moments where the disciple responded in faith to what he knew to be true.

Truth is a very freeing thing. Don't believe me? Try it! There is likely some 'half-truth' we have all believed somewhere along the way, only to come into greater knowledge at some point, having our minds blown for having believed the untruth so easily. Truth may be harder to grasp than untruth because it brings conviction. As long as we hold onto the untruth even a little bit, we will never be totally free to embrace truth entirely. The disciple commits to truth - whatever form it takes - no matter how hard it is to embrace. When he does, he is assured of life - deep, meaningful, purposeful life. Just sayin!

Tested and True?

In the past there were false prophets among God’s people. It is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. They will teach things that are wrong—ideas that will cause people to be lost. And they will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong. They will even refuse to follow the Master who bought their freedom. And so they will quickly destroy themselves. Many people will follow them in the morally wrong things they do. And because of them, others will say bad things about the way of truth we follow. These false teachers only want your money. So they will use you by telling you things that are not true. But the judgment against these false teachers has been ready for a long time. And they will not escape God who will destroy them. (2 Peter 2:1-3)

We are living in a time when believers are bombarded on all sides by one teaching after another - in media of all forms, in personal contact, and even from our public 'pulpits'. We must know how to evaluate the teaching of those we choose to listen to as wise students of the Word. We must learn to filter out the truth from the lie - God gives us the ability to do so, but so many choose just to 'blindly believe' all they hear and see. Understanding in the spiritual sense is never from a man's own understanding - it has come because God has granted that individual the wisdom to understand. We need God's protection over our lives in order to avoid falling prey to any manner of 'false teaching'.

Ideas that will cause people to be lost - those words really say it all. We would not believe an outright lie, would we? We might believe it if it was 'sandwiched' deep inside some truth from God's Word, though. That is how the false prophet works - he brings the 'untruth' with just enough truth that we imagine it must be true, as well. Eventually, that untruth will take us down paths God says we were to avoid entirely, but we were 'duped' into believing it was okay to travel them anyway. One thing about those who bring false teaching is pretty apparent - they 'use you by telling you things that are not true'. If we were to evaluate their teaching against truth in God's Word, we might find little bits and pieces of 'untruth' has been mixed in - muddying the teaching of God in small ways at first and then in bigger ways later on.

This is why it is so important for us to discover God's Word for ourselves. We must allow it to get into our hearts and spirits so we can recognize any untruth when it is cleverly masked within truth. God also gave us his Holy Spirit who will bear witness to truth but will also give us an uneasy feeling toward any untruth that we may encounter. When that uneasiness comes, we can either reject it and continue to just go along with the false teaching, or we can heed it, rejecting the teaching as unwise, unhealthy, and untrue. The Bereans were commended as those who took every teaching and compared it to the scriptures. They 'tested' the teaching they heard to see if it was true. We'd do well to do the same! Just sayin!

How to spot a counterfeit

If you were to tell me something today - something very important for me to remember - I'd do my level best to keep that foremost in my memory, rehearsing it until it was committed there. Unfortunately, if you were to just talk to me about something without really impressing the importance of it to me, I might not give it a passing thought again. I would just see it as 'information' shared, but not really see it as something I needed to hold onto very long. It was what we shared in the course of the day - something in passing - but it wasn't expressed to me in such a manner as to make me commit it to memory. Telling me what is on sale at the local grocer this week is only of use to me until the end of the week and the new ad being released. If I commit it to memory, it won't do me much good because it no longer applies - it was time-limited and specific to that store. When you tell me where you hide the spare key for your house in case I ever need to do a welfare check on you, that is much more important for me to 'hold onto' in my memory! When God tells us something - is it held onto, or do we let it just be passing thoughts that really never get committed to memory?

I ponder every morsel of wisdom from you, I attentively watch how you’ve done it. I relish everything you’ve told me of life, I won’t forget a word of it. (Psalm 119:15-16 MSG)

God asks for us to ponder his Words as wisdom we will never really find anywhere else. He also encourages us to consider his actions - to pay attention to the ways he works, the timing of his actions, and the specifics of his movements. Why? He wants us to be able to recognize counterfeit "truth" when it comes along! He wants us to be so familiar with him that we don't get caught up in anything that is only 'partial truth'. Those who work with the Department of Treasury will tell you they didn't take courses on how to spot 'counterfeit' monies by studying the 'fake' bills - they studied the real until they became so familiar with all the aspects of the 'real one' that they can easily spot a fake! The more we study God's Word, combined with the observations of how he moves heaven and earth to accomplish his purposes, the more we will be able to spot the 'counterfeit' as it comes along!

When we 'relish' something, we are saying there is sufficiency in that 'something' to satisfy us - it meets our desires. The more we come to appreciate his Words as more than just 'good advice' and really count on them as life-sustaining, the more we will find our desires begin to change. What once we found satisfaction in pursuing just doesn't impress us with that deep sense of satisfaction any longer. We recognize those things have been 'counterfeits' of the very real life-giving, life-sustaining truth we are now surrounded by when we embrace his truth. We understand there was an element of truth in everything we embraced previously, but it wasn't 'totally' or 'thoroughly' accurate. Much of the 'truth' we come to believe in life is because it was taught - either by example or in some form of instruction. Imagine how we feel when someone comes along and shows us an even better solution to that problem in life - the 'truth' we were using over and over again in our lives becomes apparently 'deficient' in potency. We take up the even 'greater truth' we now see and understand - using that truth to solve the problem moving forward.

In God's kingdom, truth doesn't change. It remains the same, but our appreciation for it grows over the course of time. We begin to realize we have bits and pieces of 'counterfeit' truth influencing our lives and we don't want to keep the 'counterfeit' any longer. We yearn for the real, trustworthy, and reliable truth. We lay down the counterfeit for the real. Why? The 'real' has more value than the counterfeit, doesn't it? We know the counterfeit only 'looks real', but it lacks something - it won't accomplish what is needed in our lives. We need the 'real' if we want to see change be real and lasting. The counterfeit might get us by for a while, but eventually it will be exposed as only partially 'true' by the results it produces within us! Just sayin!

Don't hammer that screw

If you ever have a hard time understanding some spiritual truth, or truth in general, you aren't alone. There are hundreds and hundreds of us in the same boat! We are always on the lookout for the next scam these days, simply because the untrue has become so prevalent. We find it has become insanely easy to sway people into buying a product, or in believing we mean the best for them if they will just give us a little bit of their time and money. The truth is in there somewhere most of the time, but we just have a really hard time seeing it. No, Microsoft has not employed hundreds of people to call our homes from unknown numbers to tell us they have detected something terribly wrong in our computer because of messages it has been sending them! No, the IRS is not about to issue a warrant for our arrest for tax fraud. No, the city of New York is not in possession of warrants for outstanding crimes we have committed and we don't need to contact the 'unknown' caller to pay those fines! These are scams. The truth is there, though  -  someone wants our identification, access to our personal information, and/or our money! That is the truth! Truth might attempt to evade us, but we have something to help us uncover it - the Spirit of Christ within!

The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:14 MSG)

Capacity for truth is all we need. Capacity is created when the stuff that no longer needs to occupy space is removed. Believing all manner of untruth only takes up valuable space that truth is just waiting in the wings to occupy! The moment we invite Christ into our lives, there is an open invitation for his Spirit to begin to uncover those pieces of untruth we have embraced and that continue to bombard us for 'space' in our lives. The task then becomes the letting go of those pieces of untruth or the resistance we apply to keeping them out in the first place! Spirit is known by spirit. We need a lot of help in this matter because we find it a whole lot easier to just accept stuff and not put it to the test, my friends. The more capacity (room) we create for truth, the more we will be on solid footing in our lives. Truth isn't just 'nice stuff' - it sets us on solid ground and helps to guide our actions so they produce right outcomes. Christ knows we need this 'solid footing', but he also knows we sometimes need to understand where the 'footing' has not been laid quite correctly. 

One of things I think we resist a little is letting go of what we have come to trust in, although faulty and a little less than reliable at times, whatever it is 'works' at least some of the time, so we hold onto it. We don't want to release it for the total truth because we already have a 'workable solution' to some issue in life. Let me just say I can hammer in a screw if all I have is a hammer, but the threads of that screw aren't meant to be 'driven in' with the force of a hammer. The 'bite' really is firmest when the screw is pushed in with the circular motion that follows the direction of the threads! The threads make a bite into the wood and then there is a connection that is smaller and firmer than if we had hammered it in. The hammer caused the screw's threads to create a much larger hole than intended, leaving the 'connection' much less secure than it should be. The hammer accomplished the work, but not one that will last the test of time and trial!

When we let go of what works some of the time for what will work time after time into eternity, we are making wise solutions. When we empty out to be filled, we are operating in wisdom, for we know God intends to pour in his spiritual truth wherever there is 'capacity' created. Just sayin!

Meat anyone?

You may have heard it said that people will believe anything they are told. Sadly, this is often the case as it comes to what we believe about our faith. Some never really go to the Word, examine it for themselves, and see if the "truth" they are hanging their hat on is really the truth at all!  Jesus often commended those who tested their faith by examining it against the Word. The Apostle Paul commended the Bereans for taking his teachings right back to their homes, discussing them with each other, examining the Word they had been given up to the time of the New Testament church and then throwing out anything which didn't line up.  I kind of liken this to chewing up the meat, discarding the bones and grizzle, and then allowing the meat to provide the nourishment we need to grow.

Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk! There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.  (2 Timothy 3:14-17 MSG)

Paul told Timothy to be on his guard because he would encounter those who would attempt to exploit the faith.  In other words, they would use the teaching of the Word to exploit their followers - telling them just enough truth to get them to buy into their schemes.  This has been the sad course throughout all of time - for in every untruth there is just enough truth to get us to "buy into" it.  If we know this up front, we might just approach "truth" a little differently - not always believing just because it comes from a "reputable" source.  The important thing to keep in mind is our ability to take any portion of teaching we are exposed to and then go immediately to the Word, relying upon the Holy Spirit to either confirm or deny it.  This is why it is so important for us to have a solid set of core values - things we have learned from the Word which help us have a "measuring stick" whereby we can even begin to see if teaching measures up.

One thing you have heard me say over and over again - you cannot take scripture out of context.  In other words, you need the entirety of the Word to evaluate the teaching you hear.  This very idea is what is missing in so many cults or religious organizations today.  There is the "element" of truth, surrounded by just enough "untruth" so as to dupe folks into believing a lie.  As long as the truth part is there, people will follow - expose the untruth and people are less likely to "drink the Kool-Aid", so to speak.

According to Hebrews 4:12-13, the Word of God is a pretty powerful tool in the hands of anyone skilled in its use:  God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God’s Word. We can’t get away from it—no matter what. (MSG)  Truthfully, the only "impartial" tool we have for evaluating truth is truth itself!  Opinion will always steer us wrong, for opinion is based on what we "feel" rather than what we know to be true.

The only way for the Word to be effective in keeping us safe is for it to get into us.  In other words, we need a regular and consistent intake of it in order to develop some "safety" in how it is we make our choices in life.  Guard rails on a windy road are there not so much to allow you to bump off them and stay on the road, but to remind you of the dangers of getting too close to the edge.  The Word is like that when it has a place deep in our core.  It reminds us we are getting too close to the edge and pulls us back to center again.

All the scripture wasn't written just to have a record of God's work throughout time.  In fact, it was written for us to have a perspective of God's love, his mercy, and his work of grace in the lives of those he calls his own.  It is written for our learning - to give us right perspective.  Apart from getting into the Word, we just go along on a course which is haphazard and rather riddled with wasteful activity.  The Word refines us - freeing us from whatever is not worth holding onto in life.  Maybe this is what the Bereans had learned - to let go of the stuff which really doesn't matter and to hold onto the truth because of what it gave back into their lives.

I don't know about you, but whenever I get into the Word long enough, my rebellion begins to show up pretty plainly.  The things which cause me the greatest amount of struggle seem to surface.  Why is that?  It is the "job" of the Word to expose these areas - it is the "work" of the Holy Spirit to show me how God wants to change them.  Just sayin!