Speak the Truth in Love

 

Speak the Truth in Love

 “Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?

That is a good question today! Truth seems to be a rare commodity these days. Not only is truth seldom found but so few care about the truth. We are inundated with lies from politicians, social media, the news, educators and even so-called scientists. These last days are not only marked by deception, but lies, falsehood and fakeness have seeped into every aspect of life. In my seventy years of life, I do not remember such a time when we have lived in such an artificial world where truth is no longer important.

We heard a few Years ago the term “Fake News.” It was at first laughed at and scorned, but has now been shown ironically, that Fake News is true. Mainstream media has been caught in so many lies from faking Hurricane winds to covering up political shenanigans to just lying about daily events. No one seems to trust the news anymore. I completely quit watching the news over a year ago when I saw how they were all repeating the same speaking points when they supposedly were all independently owned news organizations. It was as if someone wrote the script and mailed it out to all the news media and they all had to say it verboten. The bias was substantial and no longer objectional.

Fake News led to False conspiracies, only for those conspiracies to be proven true later. The pandemic proved to be a scam in so many ways. Scientists like Fauci and the NHO and CDC lied about masks, vaccines, lockdowns and natural immunity and only later did we find the truth but by then it was too late. First, we had to trust the news, then they said “Trust the science” only to find not only was the science wrong but the so-called scientists never agreed with each other. The bible says about so-called learned men that they:

"...are ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” 2 Timothy 3:7

A new term has popped up everywhere in this generation specifically concerning the manipulation by the Government. It is “False flag” A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. Our President constantly lies and his party blames everything on their opponents, Both parties cannot be honest about their actions and intents so they lie and blame others, People no longer trust their government because so many who govern are fake and have no respect for the truth.

“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight!” Pro. 12:22

We see technology moving to the fake side now too. AI is Artificial Inteligence. It’s name alone tells you that it is fake, not real-artificial” AI is now making fake art by manipulating millions of images into random composites and calling it AI Art? And now fake videos are popping up that are so real they can make a president look like he is saying the opposite of what he believes. They just did this with an Obama video with voice manipulation and realistic computer-generated video. These are known as “Deep fakes”. You can now pay and get a realistic avatar of yourself and with AI learning your speech,you can manipulate the avatar to say anything you like. Scary.

ChatGPT (Chat generative pre-training Transformer) is the newest thing. Type in a question and let AI search its vast databases and not only will it answer your question, it will write a movie plot for you, create a book outline, write a commercial script for you and more. High schools are going back to paper tests, in class with no cell phone use because students have been found using ChatGPT to do their tests. College students have been cheating by using ChatGPT tp do their dissertations

Everything seems fake today People are deceived by fake genders that do not exist. They believe men can have babies and that the earth is flat and aliens are real. No wonder people think that God is fake and Satan is real.

Scientists and educators have helped convinced the world of the lie of evolution, while declaring that God is a myth. They have convinced people that abortion is removing unwanted tissue and not murdering an innocent life. But the scriptures say:

”For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Romans 1:18 

Deception and confusion have led many to say as Pilate did

“What Is truth”

Again, the Bible has the answer:

"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

First of all, Jesus is the truth.  There is no lie in him, no fakeness. He is genuine and when Pilate asked the question, the truth was standing right in front of him!

Secondly, Truth is revealed by God not man.:

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” John 16:13

Thirdly, The Truth has ben revealed to man supernaturally through the Bible:

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:17

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

Christians know the truth, have the truth but need to spread the truth to the world in order to set people free from the fake, the false and the unreal. Satan is the Father of Lies but Jesus is Truth. While we are yet in this world let us continue to shine the light of his truth in this dark and foreboding world!

 

Better to Give than to Receive!

 

Better to Give than to Receive!

Many people came to Jesus and asked for healing. Nicodemus came at night and asked for knowledge. Some came asking for fish and bread. But one woman came to Jesus asking for nothing. Rather she brought Jesus something. She brought him a little alabaster box. What could the King of the Universe need with a simple box. Yet the box contained a very expensive perfume, and she began to anoint his head with this costly perfume. She was mocked for this act declaring that she wasted it when she could have sold it and given the money to the poor. But Jesus said that she did a good thing in that she was preparing him for his burial! In another passage it says that she not only anointed him with perfume, but she washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. She did not come to Jesus to ask for anything. She came to give him worship.

While many people come to Jesus to ask, few come to Jesus to give. Asking cost little but giving may be costly. We are called to give Jesus a surrendered life. Often, we must give up our will to follow his. The disciples had to give up everything to follow Jesus. It can be costly to give our hearts to Jesus, but the rewards are eternal.

            There is nothing wrong with asking Jesus for our needs or help or guidance or anything in his name and He is pleased when we do so but how much more is he delighted when we come to him and ask for nothing and simple come to give him worship.

Ten Lepers came to Jesus asking to be healed. They cried out “Master have mercy on us!” He did and he sent them to the priest. As they went they were all healed but one of them came back and “with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet giving Him thanks” Ten asked but one came to give. He gave Jesus the only thing he had… thanksgiving and praise!

Ask but do not forget to return to give thanks. He blesses us constantly and it is only fitting that we give in return the only thing that we can, worship in spirit and truth. Our worship is as incense and perfume to the Lord. He is worthy!

 

 

Victims or Victorious

Victims or Victors

“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God, in Christ Jesus concerning you” 1 Thess. 5:8

 

When I was young, I was bullied by kids at school and then bullied by my brothers at home. I rarely made lasting friends because I moved about 10 times before I got out of high school. My pre-teens were rough because I came from a family of 9 kids and we were very poor, and the kids made fun of me because of the old, wrinkled hand-me-downs I wore. I rebelled and became a hippy became a rock drummer and got into drugs.  But at 17 I got saved and became a Christian. Things did not get any better. Because I had shoulder length hair, I got called “Jesus Freak” by the world and dirty hippy by the church. I just didn’t seem to fit in.

Growing up I could tell you of a thousand abuses, difficulties, hardships and persecutions I have gone through. But in all that, I never saw myself as a victim. I would never blame all that on a group or a race and certainly would never expect reparations for any of it. What happened to me was life! Life is hard and not everything is fair, but all those things made me who I am today. All those difficulties helped form me into what I am. I have maintained my faith for over 50 years now and realize that “in everything” there is a purpose and God has been there with me through the fire and trials.

Many people today are being taught that they are a “victim” so that your focus is not on yourselves and the lessons to learn from all this, but they try to get you to focus on others and the people who have victimized you. They make demands on justice not realizing that there is always justice, it is sometimes justice delayed. If justice does not come now, God will always bring it in the end.

Jesus told the story of the rich man that lived his life in pleasure while he ignored the beggar at his gates. In life it seemed like there was no justice for the suffering of the beggar, but Jesus said when they both died, the rich man found himself in Hell and the poor man in the comfort of Abraham’s bosom. Heaven was the poor man's reward and Hell was the rich man’s justice.

Even many Christians and young people are buying into this “Victimhood” mentality and are thinking themselves wronged by people, churches, pastors, the world and other Christians. My friends, let it not be so. The world is always looking for someone to blame. But that is not our concern. Whether it is the devil, demons wicked men or so-called Christians, God will deal with that. We are to give Him thanks for all things and allow the working of life to hone off the rough edges of our life and polish perfection into our character. Difficulties can have purpose and God often uses circumstances to develop the character of Christ in you. Jesus was greatly abused, mocked, laughed at and rejected by men. Yet he never spoke back. He entrusted himself to the Father. In the end we are not to see ourselves as victims but as Overcomers in Christ! In the end we must see ourselves not as Victims, but Victorious!