Month: May 2021

Practice the Truth

~ mercyfortheday ~ Leave a comment

He said he felt sick to his stomach. Oh. I said. Are you not feeling well? Then he proceeded to tell me about an event his employer was planning for the community. This event was geared very specifically to support a group with a social agenda. And this man was sickened by the thought that his Christian employer might be getting involved with social justice issues that are not biblically based.

What does a person do? What does a believer do when they’re faced with a challenge such as this? When their employer, whether Christian or not, supports issues that go against the employee’s moral, ethical or biblical values. What do you do? How do you deal with that? How do you work within that system and remain employed? Do you keep the truth to yourself? Do you speak up? Do you build a campaign against the cause, creating your own cause? What’s the right thing to do? What’s the wrong thing to do?

How do we as believers today stand for truth at the risk of being canceled?

How do we speak biblical truth in a world that doesn’t want to hear it?

Have I now become your enemy because I am telling you the truth? Galatians 4:16

If someone shows no concern to submit to God’s commands, even— indeed especially—when these commands cut across our cultural ideas or our comfort, we must question the spiritual state of that person.

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As I was reading in 1 John last week, a verse jumped off the page at me. It said that if we claim to know Jesus but continue to sin, we are not practicing the truth. As believers, we must practice the truth. No matter the cost. To our liberty. To our status. To our career. To our livelihoods. Are we willing to pay the price if it comes down to it? It’s a sobering thing to consider. What would we rather lose, though? Every earthly possession? Or every eternal possession?

Our soul could be at stake if we don’t stand for the truth. If we give in to the lies that we’re being sold in social media, in the news, in Hollywood, in Washington. Where do we draw the line? What hill are we willing to die on?

Now we may not know what hill we’re willing to die on until we’re faced with it. And we may not know how we’re going to deal with it until that day comes. I totally understand that. Because honestly. I’ve not yet come to that hill in my life.

The question is. How do we as believers stand for the truth? How do we stand against certain social ideals that aren’t truth? They’re just others’ opinions, and those opinions are loud. They’re much more vocal than those who hold biblical truths but remain silent. How do we believers stand against those ideologies and maintain our Christian integrity? How do we maintain a strong relationship with God if we don’t speak up for his truths?

That’s the question we have to ask ourselves. How do we maintain that strong relationship with God, if we can’t stand for truth when the fight at this point in our culture may seem minimal? Our lives are not at stake. But at some point, our livelihood could be. How do we stand for that? How do we participate in the truth? How do we practice the truth without living a lie?

Because, the truth is, both sides believe they’re speaking truth.

Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. 1 John 2:6

We’re told we live in a postmodern world. That means that some believe truth is open to interpretation. Some view truth as a fluid, moving option. How can that be? How does truth change?

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 1 John 1:6

It’s known that some individuals and corporations bend the truth instead of practicing it. What a shame. Why is truth not applauded and rewarded? Why is truth something we try to hide these days? Why do we seek a convenient and comfortable truth, when it isn’t truth at all?

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a restaurant with a friend. We were having a great conversation, when we suddenly lowered our voices. We were saying words that might be offensive to our neighbors at the surrounding tables. And it dawned on us. Why should we have to lower our voices when we’re having a private conversation about our faith, about our beliefs, and even about politics? Why should we have to lower our voice in public? Why can’t we speak truth around others who may not agree? Because, perhaps, the table next to us might be speaking their beliefs. And they might be in disagreement with ours. Why can’t we sit table to table and speak in private conversations without the fear of being persecuted?

This is America. This is a free country. But we’re living as if it’s not. We’re living in fear. Fear can be healthy. But we need to stand for truth, regardless of that fear. Our faith is important. Our beliefs are important. Our politics are important.

I’ve been reading about Christians in the underground church in Communist countries. These believers, who have developed a strong faith in spite of horrible persecution in their home countries, continue to share the Word of God with unbelievers. Because in those countries, people are hungry for the truth. They want to know the truth, and they’re willing to learn it at all costs. By meeting in private homes. By going out into the forest with a few people to share the gospel and to fellowship and worship in private, secluded areas. Knowing that they could be arrested at any moment.

But they do it anyway.

They share the truth. They live the truth. Even with the possibility of being arrested, persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, drugged and brainwashed. They’re willing to lose everything, including their lives, to continue standing for the truth.

I don’t know if I’m that courageous. But I know that I need to be. I know that I need to be willing and able to stand for biblical truth with the realization that I could lose everything that is most important to me.

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are. 1 Peter 5:8-9

We as believers in this country have had it easy for so long that we don’t know what it’s like to risk everything for our faith. Our churches don’t know what it’s like to be shut down. Our pastors don’t know what it’s like to lose their livelihood and be at risk if they preach a strong biblical message.

I fear that day is coming for us. When I see young children and new babies, I wonder if they are the generation who will be put to the test. I wonder if they’ll be the ones who will be persecuted and imprisoned and tortured and beaten and drugged and brainwashed because of their faith. Oh. I hope not. I hope they don’t meet that type of persecution. But as I look at their parents, I pray that they are strong in their faith today and are teaching their children the Word of God. I pray that they are teaching their children how to stand for truth, how to identify truth among the lies, and how to speak the truth. I pray that those parents teach their children to stand strong and to be bold, regardless of the cost. And I pray that they will realize the cost is worth it to stand for Christ.

I don’t know when that level of persecution will begin for us. I pray that we are prepared and ready. I pray for strong Christian parents to teach their children biblical truths and to engrain it into their hearts. And to have the biblical stories interwoven into their childhood memories, so they can pull out those biblical truths when they need them most. My prayer is they will be unopposed as they stand for truth. May God be with them and help them.

May God help us all.

Made to Last

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Mental illness. We either have it or we don’t. Right?

I recently came across a thought that perhaps everyone suffers from some form of mental illness. Then the very next week, I sat with a couple friends. And one of them said that very sentence. Everyone probably suffers from a mental illness.

I don’t know if it’s actually true or not. But I wouldn’t be surprised.

Physical illness. It’s a fact that everyone will suffer from a physical illness during their lifetime. That’s typically what ends most lives. So we must be aware that we most likely will endure pain and suffering, at least for a season.

Spiritual illness. Some don’t ever stop and consider that they must care for their soul. The one part of each person that will live forever. The soul will live for eternity. And each of us has a choice as to where our soul will spend eternity. Heaven or hell.

Let’s think about this.

God created our human bodies. He created us in his image. What does that mean? After all, he doesn’t have a human body. He can’t die. He is perfect. He has always lived and will always live. He created the entire universe and everything and everyone in it.

Being made in God’s image means that we are made to be like him. We were created to be a visible likeness of God. God is invisible, and we’re his visible representative. How well do we represent him?

In whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? Job 12:10

These human bodies that God created are finite. They won’t last. Oh. Some bodies have lasted over one hundred years. But that’s not so typical these days. Our bodies will break down. They will fail. Organs and limbs and parts slow down or stop working. Our five senses may become distorted.

These bodies were created to house our true self. Our soul. Our spirit. Our physical bodies are temporary shelters for the part of us that will live for eternity. It’s hard to grasp. We spend so much time maintaining this temporary shelter. We trim and we fatten. We color and we bleach. We strengthen and we weaken. We breathe in and we breathe out. We grow and we shrink. These physical bodies. We think they’re so special. But the special thing really is that they’re not meant to last forever.

Oh. These bodies are a work of art, all right. The Master of the Universe created these mortal bodies to serve him while we are on this earth. He didn’t plan for them to last forever. He has a permant body planned for each of us, if we surrender our lives to him. A new body will be given to us in the far future, when he creates the new heaven and the new earth. So for now, these bodies are the only ones we have. Let’s care for them.

These temporary shelters of our soul will fail. Our hearing will diminish. Our eyesight will dim. Our muscles will atrophy. Our steps will falter. Our minds will fail. But our soul will live on. Just as our physical bodies are mortal, our souls are immortal.

All the while this is happening, we must be strengthening our soul. I have to ask myself. Do I make sure I spend as much time strengthening my soul as I do strengthening my body? I feed this temporary body fruits and veggies, among other things. What do I feed my soul? Is my soul diet filled with junk food? What do I fill my heart and mind with? Do I ever trim the fat from my unhealthy soul? Do I exercise my soul? The part of me that will live forever. How healthy is my soul?

The soul of a human is the only part that is made to last for eternity. We feed our soul by building faith. We must guard our soul from Satan’s advances. He’s out to get our soul. We must fight for the health of our soul by digging deep into God’s Word. We must refuse to give ourselves over to Satan’s control. We must surrender to God and not give Satan a fighting chance. Oh. He’ll fight all right. But eternity is a long time to spend with someone who hates you. Jesus loves us. Spending eternity with him will be heaven on earth.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17

Empty-Handed

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It hit the headlines last week. The divorce of the millenia. One of the wealthiest men on earth and his wife of 27 years are divorcing. Oh. It wasn’t a surprise to him when she filed. It had been in the works for some time. Apparently. She met with divorce attorneys two years ago. Perhaps it took that long to divide the wealth they had amassed over the years. But at some point, long before the d-word ever came up, they had put in motion the separation plan. The backup plan. The disaster recovery plan that apparently couples think they need. But then again, when you’re talking about that much money and that much property and that much wealth, maybe a plan should be in place. I don’t know. That won’t ever be my issue. And I hope and pray that the d-word never comes out of my mouth as a threat or a promise to the man I vowed for better, for worse, till death us do part.

But now they’re divorcing. They’ve been living separate lives for awhile. He told his golfing buddies that the marriage was loveless. What does that even mean? How did it become loveless? Doesn’t a marriage become loveless when love is forgotten? When acts of sacrifice and forgiveness, when the sharing of ideas and plans, when the thought of being one is pushed aside? Did they not put as much time into their marriage as they put into making money? Over time, the marriage became loveless.

If what I’m reading in the news is true, the marriage started out on rocky ground. He had the gall to ask his wife if he could have a weekend each year with a former girlfriend. Who does that? That must have started the marriage off on the wrong foot. Why a wife would have allowed that is beyond me. Perhaps she had her own secret requests. That hasn’t come out in the tabloids, but other news have come out about his secret desires. His other women. I guess it’s safe to say that money doesn’t buy happiness or faithfulness. Is it true that the more you have, the more you want?

Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

When we have conquered our financial and business goals, what other goals are left to conquer? Oh. He’s purchased the bulk of private farmland in this country. He has ownership in a couple of fake meat companies. He wants humans to stop eating beef. He’s willing to fork over money to try an experiment to block the sun. He wants us to become a cashless society. Meanwhile, I ask, will he continue eating beef while he is demanding that the rest of us remove it from our tables and diets? Will he vacation at the beach after he blocks the sun? Will he wish he had a wad of cash when his digital currency fails? Will we who have not amassed fortunes be used as pawns when we’re expected to do his bidding? And he calls only the marriage loveless, as he’s trying to control the rest of creation? Who does he think he is?

Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

He is not God. Oh. He’ll face God one day, and he’ll give an account for all his actions. He’ll give an account for all those weekends with his mistress. He’ll give an account for trying to stop the sun that God created. He’ll give an account for all the money he’s made. Sure. He’s become a philanthropist. Because what else do you do with money that you don’t need. That you can’t spend on your own, because you already own so much. You already have the best of everything. And you vow not to leave your self-amassed fortune to your children. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, but aren’t his children more important to him than other people’s children? Sure. His kids have had the best advantages. The best of everything. I’m sure they’ve attended the best schools. I hope for their sake that they can do well and live the lives they’re accustomed to. That sure would be a drop in status and comfort if they can’t, if that’s important to them.

What about the mother of his children? Apparently, she’s appalled at some of the people he associated with. What was it that turned her to the divorce lawyers? I don’t need to know. Personally, I don’t want to know. It’s none of my business. But when you’re already so well known for your billions and for your donations, I guess it’s only appropriate to be knows for your failures and flaws, too. Because they won’t stay hidden forever. We can try to hide our failures and flaws. Our mistakes. Our annual trysts. But there’s one who’s keeping record of all that. And he doesn’t miss anything. He. Doesn’t. Miss. Anything.

And we live our lives as if no one knows the things we do or say or think. We live as if we’re immune or exempt from God’s judgment. We can fly under the radar for awhile. Sometimes. At different times in our lives. But we never fly under God’s radar. Someday, we’ll be seen on judgment day. It’s an important day that people choose to ignore. Or maybe they don’t know that a judgment day is coming.

Perhaps this man who’s gained so much and given so much also has much to lose. If on his judgment day, the right choice on his part was never made. That act of humility and repentance for his sins. If that was never noted in his life and written in his record. If all his sins have not been wiped out and erased, then all the wealth you can afford. all the houses. all the women. all the inventions. all the plans and dreams and schemes. all the philanthropy. will be worthless. They won’t matter. Because you can’t take any of that with you to eternity. Those things won’t impress God or change his mind. In eternity, you will stand bare before God.

We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us. Ecclesiastes 5:15

So that’s what he has to look forward to, just as you and I do. It seems a little daunting. That day of reckoning. Because we all will be humbled as we are made to recall all of our good deeds and evil deeds. Good intentions and evil intentions. Good words and evil words. They will all be on display. Not for the entire world, but between us and our Maker.

So as I think about this man, some of his life that he thought was hidden is now being made public. Should he have been a little more cautious, a little more careful, a little more selfless? Some people say he’s selfless, because of his philanthropy. Philanthropy is one thing. Good morals is another. But he will stand before God. I’m not his judge. I don’t want to be his judge. My prayer for him is that he gets right with God and he bows to the Creator on his own will, before there’s no choice but to do so.

God Speak

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Let your conscience be your guide. They say. But should you?

Our conscience is our inner sense of right and wrong.

I’ve often wondered how God speaks to us. There are many different ways He speaks to us. And I know I’ve said that God speaks to us through our own conscience. But then, in the back of my mind, I wondered is that really true? Is our conscience from God? Do we get cues from God through our conscience? I wasn’t really sure about that.

But then earlier this week, I was reading my Bible. And this verse jumped out at me.

They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. Romans 2:15

This tells me that God created my conscience. He shapes my conscience if I allow Him to work in my life. The only way that my conscience will continue to be pliable is if I seek truth. By seeking truth, regardless of the cost, my conscience will be nudged in a way that lets me know right from wrong. My conscience will let me know if I have wronged someone through my words or actions. If I continue to follow my own path, I have exchanged my will for God’s order for my life. Is that what I want?

Romans 2:16 says a day is coming when God through Jesus Christ will judge everyone’s secret life. That means my own thoughts are known by God. And that if I have evil intent in my heart, but I don’t speak it or act on it, I still will be judged on it. Because from the heart, the mouth speaks. From the heart, the hand acts. What is within me comes out. My conscience can be the red flag that speaks up. In a sense, to say hey, wait a minute. You were wrong to think that. You were wrong to say that. You were wrong to do that. So my conscience plays a huge part in my relationship with God.

If I allow God to continue to speak to me and to work in and through me, my conscience has to be very pliable and moldable. My conscience is not my God. It’s from God. He made my conscience to know right from wrong. And if I make it a practice to lie. To gossip. To slander. To judge. To blame. To hold grudges. Bascially, if I make a practice of sinning, my conscience will harden. My conscience will be corrupt to the point where I don’t recognize evil as evil. Because over time, it will seem good to me to put down others. To slander others. To point the finger of blame at someone else when I’m the guilty party. When I’m the one who says those wrong things or untruths about someone else. My conscience won’t even move. It will be so stiff as a board that it will not recognize the truth. So the health of my consicence is the thermometer on my relationship with God. It shows how close I am to Him or how far I am from him.

Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. 1 Timothy 1:19

Now I may be a sensitive person, and my conscience may nudge me very easily. Even if I’m not a Christian. There are good people who aren’t Christians. There are concientious people who know right from wrong and choose to do right. But if their sins haven’t been forgiven, they aren’t Christians. If they haven’t asked God to forgive their sins, they aren’t Christians. Yes, they have a conscience but that puts them in a different category. They’re good people. Good people aren’t always Christians.

We need to be moldable. We need to regularly read God’s word. We need to demonstrate that God’s law is written on our hearts. So our consciences will let us know when we are doing right and when we are doing wrong.

Let’s listen for God’s voice. Let’s stop and wait for that nudge of our conscience to let us know if we are on the right track or not. Or if there’s something we should be doing that we aren’t. Sometimes we don’t do the things we should. Our conscience will let us know that. Because we know right from wrong. At the end of the day, we know right from wrong. It’s our choice what we do. It’s our choice what we say. It’s our choice what we think. We are moldable. We are made in the image of God.

Have we become so dull as people that we can’t recognize wrong when we see it? When we hear it? When we think it? Have we become such hardened people that we don’t want to know the truth? That we don’t want to hear the truth? That we don’t want to think the truth? When we read something, can we separate the truth from lies? If we say something, do we recognize if we’re lying or if we’re speaking truth? When we see an act, do we recognize it for truth or for lies?

Have we become so dull that we can’t separate truth from evil? What have we gotten ourselves into if we only see wrong as right and right as wrong. If we see only lies as truth and truth as lies. How have we gotten this far from God? Can we get back to him as a nation, as a people, as an individual? We need to fall on our knees and repent. It’s not too late yet. But there’s coming a day when it will be too late.

Let’s not wait.

Our actions are our outer voice. Our conscience is our inner voice. Since we are created in the image of God, we have an inner law that guides our conscience. We have a moral law within us that will either accuse or excuse our moral choices. Perhaps it’s time to perform a checkup on our consciences. How we would rate?

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. Romans 8:5-8