I don’t know if any of the previous meditations on truth were of interest to you. I found out today that, if nothing else, they were drill exercises for me for what I had to face today.
I had someone get into a discussion with me regarding their struggle to believe whether there is a heaven, a hell, a devil. He was also struggling to get his mind around who God is too.
I had to establish from the start whether we could both agree on what truth is. Threw in the whole law of non-contradiction thing; what truth looks like etc. Got him to agree with me pretty quickly on the fundamentals of the attributes of genuine objective truth.
Then went on to establish God has to be the source of truth. Covered some territory as far as God is Spirit, God is love, God is truth in the sense that these are attributes of Him as well as the source of our human experience of these things. In other words we only experience things like truth, love, a sense of righteousness, a source of moral integrity because God is the well spring of all of these things.
So then I went to John 14:6 and reminded the man of the scripture he had heard before. “I am the way the truth and the life.” Truth or not the truth; can’t be both. Lord, liar or lunatic.
Have you ever seen the Holy Spirit give an intelligent person a left hook? I did just then.
So once I got his attention there, we moved on to address heaven, hell, and the devil. “Okay. Now let’s talk about whether there’s a devil, a hell or a heaven”
“Jesus talked about all three” Once again truth or not the truth. Lord Liar or Lunatic. But only one.
And on the heels of that . . . MAN! . . . Did I feel God shout in my ear! "Bob remind him about what he already knew: Jesus was tempted by the devil right after He was baptized. They had a conversation! Does he exist or doesn’t he? Only one answer is the truth.”
Holy Spirit: right hook and upper cut. A stunned look and then there was almost a look of embarrassment on this man’s face.
My goal was not to upstage him, embarrass him or belittle him. I was only there to share the truth with him. I tried to keep a smooth energy level not take on an attitude of competitive debate, and remain a soft calm spirit to share these things with compassion.
I saw scripture quicken this man. We threw in the towel for the day; I trusted the Holy Spirit was going to continue to work on him because I could see he was familiar enough with scripture that the momentum was now going for him to rethink every thing he had doubted.
And what echoed through my mind as I processed the day was from John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
So you are probably wondering where the heck I got the title for today’s meditation. Well it’s like this. If we can’t accept the word of God as Truth, Jesus as truth, everything he said as truth, then everything in the Bible has open season declared on it. It will unravel like a chain stitched fabric. Everything fails miserably. Nothing is the unchangeable immutable truth anymore and we are left with no moral compass.
Further, the whole chain of not accepting God as truth his word as truth, His son as truth, all will eventually lead us to rationalize that there is no reason to even be decent or respectful toward one another because the snowball of disbelief in truth can run right over the 10 commandments and our sense of right and wrong.
New Living Translation of the Bible Romans 1:
18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
No Jesus, No Hope
Know Jesus, Know Hope!
Stay close to the truth, stay close to Him!
REG
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