Tag Archives: knowing the Truth

November 24; What Am I Doing Here?

II Thessalonians 2-3; Acts 18:18-19:46

Years ago there was a love guru named Leo Buscaglia. I was getting my degree in school counseling at the time when he came to our town for a workshop. Our professor encouraged us to attend and, in fact, a couple of my friends were star-struck by the thought of even being in the same auditorium with him. I had never heard of him before, but I got caught up in the excitement and anticipation of hearing something great.

I thought of that today when I read that there was a riot in Asia, started by disgruntled tradesmen who were losing customers in their idol-making companies because many people were turning from worshiping the pretend god Artemis and turning to Jesus instead.

So the CEOs of the idol industry, under the leadership of Demetrius, put their heads together. Their solution was to start a chant: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” It caught on.

The Bible tells us soon the whole city was shouting how great that pretend god was. The people actually captured two of Paul’s fellow missionaries and dragged them to the city officials.

But here’s what spoke to me today” “Most of the people did not even know why they were there.” (Acts 19:32b)

I felt the same way about ten minutes into Buscaglia’s lecture. Oh, he was a great speaker, a gifted story-teller, but his message was glaringly void of truth. As loving as it sounded, there was no depth at all because the love he spoke of was something he believed we all had within us, could tap into. He talked about a higher power, but it was obvious by what he said that he had no personal knowledge of the love of God.

I will say another thing that made me very uncomfortable that night was the adoration of the crowd that bordered on worship of the man. Even my friends were in awe and I remember one of them pushing her way through the crowd so she could touch him. What had I gotten myself into?

I guess I would encourage us all to be mindful of the voices out there that would draw us in, either by touching our emotions like what we read in Acts, or by half-truths, or ideas and philosophies which sound good at first glance. Before we mindlessly follow the crowd, maybe we should do some investigating. “Everybody is doing it” is a ridiculous reason for ANYTHING!

Jeremiah 5-6; You Can Believe What You Want To Believe

“How many times do I have to tell you…?”

I bet you’ve said that more than once in your lifetime. We humans can be slow learners. We humans don’t like to be told what to do. We humans like to do what we want to do, say what we want to say, live like we want to live, believe what we want to believe.

And we humans would be wrong to believe that’s ok,

God, through Jeremiah, gives His people repeated warnings. You don’t ever have to guess what God demands. He spells it out clearly. Then He spells it again.

But:

A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end? (5:30-31)

I read a thing on FaceBook this morning about prayer. It’s beautifully written and tells us prayer is thinking positive thoughts, it’s hugging a friend, or cooking a meal for someone, it’s when we say, “drive safely,” it’s “an expression of your silent being,”

Come on, people. Really? That’s just stupid. And stupid is contagious:

“DNA doesn’t determine gender.” “Homosexuality is not a sin.” “Abortion is not murder.” “Rich people are evil.” “God is love and accepts everyone.” I could go on but I’m getting angry,

You can believe what you want to believe. That’s your God-given ability. But believing something doesn’t make it true. There is one Truth. There is one Way. There is one God. That’s not something I’ve come up with on my own. It’s been true from the beginning.

You can believe what you want to believe. But your belief won’t change the Truth. Understand that what you believe will land you either in heaven or hell. There is no third option.

That’s the truth. And with Jeremiah I ask,

But what will you do in the end?

June 23 – The Bible

I Kings 12-14

How important is it that you spend time in God’s Word, that you read it, that you memorize it, and pray for understanding? I Kings 13 has that answer.

If you don’t know what God has said, you will believe anyone who says they’ve had a message from God. You’ll believe that preacher who uses verses to promote his lies. You’ll believe God gave someone an addendum to the Bible, and follow a new religion.

Now here is what God says about that. Just because someone says they’ve had a message from God doesn’t make it so. And if you believe the lie, you will be held accountable.

The prophet of God died because he fell for the lies of a false prophet. God didn’t overlook his disobedience, didn’t say his intentions were good, didn’t say he was sincere, or gave him a pass because he had followed God in the past.

And God won’t say that to any of us, either.

Many times in Scripture God has warned about false prophets. Do you know one when you hear one? They are out there. They are on our TV’s, in social media, they are bloggers, and some are standing behind pulpits in some of our churches.

You won’t recognize their lies if you don’t know Scripture. Don’t take anyone’s word for it, if you haven’t read it yourself. Don’t believe what I say, without reading the passages for yourself. Don’t assume your pastor is true to the Bible if you don’t know what the Bible says.

You have got to know God’s Word, the Scripture He inspired men to write so long ago. This Bible we hold in our hands is the only Truth that matters. Your life depends on your knowing it.