Word of the Day - Truth

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

As followers of Christ, we should be pursuers of Truth in all aspects of life.  Webster defines Truth - as most often being in accord with fact or reality, or fidelity to an original or standard.  As Christians, our faith is founded on biblical Truth, the original standard, that Jesus is the way, the truth and the light and all Truth comes from Him and through the Bible – the Living Word of God.  The truth of the matter is that we have to fully accept God at His Word to know Truth in order to receive the full benefits of our faith.  We cannot believe some of what God says, we have to believe and receive all of Him and His Word and Truth.  As human beings this can be very hard for us because much of the Truth does not make sense or resonate with us, we simply don’t understand.   If you step back for a second and realize that God is God, the Creator of heaven and earth and we are simply people, His creatures that He made in His image for His purpose; it does not take long to realize that we may not understand many things of God because His ways are not our ways and His ways are higher and not fully comprehensible to us.Our foundational world view should be grounded in the Truth of the Word of God.  But we should not stop there in our desire to seek and know the truth.  In day to day living we have the opportunity to seek the truth or allow our culture and circumstance to paint a facade of what is real and true.  There are so many different forces coming at us each day that must be deciphered to stay grounded in the Truth.  We should be vigilant in our pursuit to know the Truth of the matter as we guard our hearts and minds from the lies of the world, which are so prevalent in our culture, media and day to day living. Richard Simmons in his book “Wisdom – Life’s Great Treasure”, emphasizes that an essential component of wisdom is our ability to see things as they really are and not as they appear to be.  Wisdom enables us to distinguish between those ideas in life that are true and those that are not true.  I would add to this that godly wisdom, which is developed through our knowing God’s word, gives us the ability to see things for what they really are.  In fact the case is made in Richard’s book that knowing and living in the Truth is “Key to a Healthy Life” in regards to our mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being and being healthy is very much correlated to our happiness and fulfillment in life.  Scott Peck, a well-known author who wrote the book “The Road Less Traveled , says that a key to being healthy in life is “being dedicated to the Truth”.  In fact he and many experts in the field of mental disorders correlate mental illness to our ability as humans to deal with truth and reality.  Essentially, mental illness is our inability to deal with reality and the truth so we create our own anti-truth that creates havoc and disorder in our lives.  Seeking, knowing and understanding truth allows us to live in harmony with reality and leads to health and wellbeing.If you believe that God’s Word is absolute Truth then you will know and experience the power and freedom in seeking, discovering and knowing the Truth.  God’s Word makes it clear that we live in a fallen world and have any enemy of our souls who is literally out to destroy us through perverting the Truth through lies.  The Devil is the father of lies and deception – anti-Truth.  “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies”  John 8:44  Our enemy desires to destroy us by keeping us in the dark and away from the Truth.  God came to bring Truth and light so we can overcome our adversary and be set free to live in the fullness of Christ and do what God has called us to do.  “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such thing”. Philippians 4:8So let’s seek the truth and speak the truth so we can know the truth and live in freedom and health?  This is “Life that is truly Life”.Have a great week!!!-Duane