Apr 6
Truth and Fact
I am sitting in LAX airport and I have just finished reading comments from so called watchmen as they are attempting to lynch some of my friends in ministry. So I may be a little sensitive on the following topic of “Truth and Fact.”
So I ask you, is truth and fact the same thing? That ought to make one stop and think a bit. I do not think they necessarily are. There are two things that separate truth from fact or make fact truth, the first is context, and the second is motive.
CONTEXT
Contest is the tone, attitude and environment of the moment something was spoken or revealed. I have watched, and read articles that crucify some of my ministry friends These watchmen typically take facts out of context, then distort and twist the fact to make it seem like error and heresy and then label my friends as heretics. In this day of sound-bites and editing technology, one can make anyone say anything about any topic.
MOTIVE
The famous quote of former President Clinton, “it depends on what your definition of ‘is’ ‘is’,” actually becomes the quintessential example of motive’s involvement with truth and fact. What said was fact, but it was not truth, why? Because it was being spun or inappropriately used to make it seem as if he was innocent of the charges.
Truth takes into consideration the hidden reasons why we say what we say. Fact only addresses the words that were said.
Why is this important? Because the Holy Spirit is not the spirit of fact – He is the Spirit of Truth. He knows the thoughts and intents of our heart. He know where we come from to get to where we are. He knows our life in Jesus is a process. To know Him is to know truth and truth sets us free. Fact on the other hand imprisons us and leads us astray.
To live a true, pure spiritual life, one must be able to differentiate between truth and fact. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil contained the “fact” of good knowledge and evil knowledge. The Tree of Life was full of Truth.
Blessings,
John Paul
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Well said!
Well, said John Paul! It seems that if we are going to be effective in the “Great Commission”, aka the “Great Harvest of Souls” we all need to be speaking the same love language in the Body of Christ especially here in America. The whole world is watching us, they all know that there needs to be a change in the status quo. Nothing is working because everything up until now has been done through the spirit of manipulation and now is the time for believers everywhere, black, white, green and purple, pink polka dots, whatever…….. to pick up the cross of Jesus like Dr. Martin Luther King did and run with it. He was an authentic prophet that saw reality as it presented itself in the life of the believer and he addressed it and then he set out to solve a problem much bigger than himself under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit until the day God called him home through gun fire in this country called America, land of the free and home of the brave! Go figure….
I am tired of believer’s(or are they?) taking pokes at one another in the name of Jesus, in the name of love.
Folks, we are at a crucial point in our nations history and if the Body of Christ does not get their act together here in America, we will lose our part in this Great Commission. And that will be shameful because of not honoring our God given Christian heritage. Isn’t that why we are all here? Isn’t that why our ancestor’s were sent here…”To worship the one true God without fear” free from the tyranny of England in that day and centuries ago. at least that what was my history book stated. Or did they change that…whoever the are! We may never know!
We must never forget how christianity came to be here in America!
Everyone is so concerned with growing their ministries bigger than the next one and for what vanity, competition, I wonder????
We all have a major role to play in the spreading of the “real” Gospel of Jesus and not a half hearted counterfeit Gospel. Why are we dissecting the word of God like this. This isn’t love. We should focus more on building up good, Godly authentic Christian character like the Apostle Paul has stated in the new testament as a Body of Believer. we must not tolerate Christian bigotry, back biting, angry debates, and worst of all gossip done in the name of praying for someone we are concerned about at a gathering (internet or otherwise) without their presence.
We should be encouraging one another and teaching each other with words that come right out of the heart and mind of God both through the word and through revelation.
The Gospel of our Lord gets written upon the tablets of our hearts and minds through the Holy Spirit not only as we read the word but as we worship and enter into Godly fellowship with God The Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and each other as baptized believers, no matter what part of the Body of Christ, we come from.
If we take bits and pieces of the “Truth” for our own purposes without repentance in our thinking processes alone(*how we see things individually instead of agreeing in relation to how the Lord see’s things), we become a clanging symbol and a noisy gong and will not be effective in what we set out to do for God.
As faithful witnesses of the gospel, we should be ministering to todays generation the Rhema word of what God has for them today that proceeds from the heart, mind, will and emotions of God via a relationship with Jesus. Time is short! We have to stop wasting it! The future of mankind stake in this hour! The future of mankind is at our finger tips. We need to be God’s tipping point for this generation! We need to storm heaven as the Body of Christ for our part in this destiny or else we lose out of God’s Blessing and favor set for this time. We need to lay our own personal and subcultural agenda’s aside for once so God can move powerfully as a nation and as the Body of Christ, We must pray, pray, pray…………..for this!
Sorry, for the longevity of my response. This blog ignited the fire in me. Thank’s John Paul, you’re such a hot ticket! You know how to stir the pot with this one (LOL)!
Peace & Blessings!
Shirley C.
And this is why we have the Holy Spirit. To discern truth when a watchman is acting like a Pharisee. And to help us stick close to God when we’re being persecuted…even by our own brothers. “Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matt 7:14.
Thanks for being out there in front, John Paul. And I’ll test everything YOU say, too.
John Paul,
Great post. I’ve debated some folks on different blogs who were attacking different leaders in ministry, who had no clue of what they were talking about, and extremely faulty conclusions based on fundamental positions/suppositions these critics held. Seriously swallowing camels while straining gnats. The point seems to be that only God is truly objective and truly sees. And the conclusions reached by some only reveals what is in their own heart. Witness those of us who at times rail against a particular sin only because that sin exists in our heart. As Paul says in Romans, we who pass judgement are guilty of the same thing, and we will not escape judgement because of it (Romans 2:1).
In one of his books Francis Frangipane wrote about discernment,and gave an example of how years ago his family used to collect cans and bottles to redeem them for money. At one point he could have opened his garage door and you could see clear plastic bags of beer cans. And once, one of his children took a particular beer can with a horse on it for a project. Francis’ point was that one could conclude, with two witnesses (the two instances of seeing beer cans in his family’s possession) that must have had a problem with alcohol. These would have been eyewitnesses to facts, but this was NOT the truth! He further says, and I believe the same, that we must seek to be like Jesus who did not (while on the earth) judge by what his eyes saw or his ears heard but with righteousness and justice. Clearly He looks at the heart and not the outward appearance, while man does the opposite.
Finally, in “The One Thing You Need to Know” by Marcus Buckingham, a business book, he comments on a key to successful relationships (marriage & otherwise) discovered by social science research. They found the most successful relationships were those in which a partner would take to the extreme seeing the intention of their partner’s actions in a totally positive light, even with much evidence to the contrary. Almost to the point of denial of reality. I think this is a profound prophetic statement. Isn’t this the way God sees us? Even in our sin, He sees what we will become. It’s also been proven that if you act towards someone as their potential will be in the future, they will gain hope of becoming what they could be. They will begin to see themselves differenty because we see them differently. In fact John Paul, I think on your website you had an AWE TV episode about the Law of Observation that makes this very point.
Finally, I’ve found there’s really no point to debating (after many frustrating exchanges and really, participating in the same spirit) their points.
Blessings to you John Paul. Thanks for doing what you are doing. We love you bro!
Dennis
Please talk more about this truth.
How do we know when we are following truth vs fact?
How do we know when we are worship in truth?
God bless
David
Why is there so much commercialism in today’s prophetic ministry?
Ephesians 4:29, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up.”
God builds up. Satan tears down. God creates, Satan destroys. It shouldn’t ever matter whether something is fact. What should matter is: does it build up, or does it tear down?
We need to pray for each other, encourage one another, love each other. We need to be kind to each other, and build each other up.
Period.
Blessings, JP!
Renae
http://www.renaebrumbaugh.com
A thumbs-up to you John Paul for your speaking out for friends in the faith! It is what was done to our Lord Jesus Christ, so they should praise God for being worthy to suffer with him. I remain open for God to prove me wrong on a “truth” I clutch, I have come to think it is a “fact” that He enjoys doing that for (to) me
!!!
How is your child, one of those?
Well, even though i disagree from time to time with you and others in the prophetic movement John Paul, Know that I love you, and that I have outspokenly said very good things in your regard to heresy hunters. Not that I am anyone special, but hoepfully it will be encouraging in a strange way.
You seek Jesus and truth, and so..to me, thats the necessary formula for NOT being a false anything.
i extend hugs, and blessing.
being a person who has also received the butt end many times from religious christianity, i encourage you to count it all joy..
one thing that I have found is that when there is many speaking against you for speaking truth, then God ups the revelation and the grace quite a bit.
to be honest, I have used the ‘heresy hunters’ and the ‘watchdog’ minisitries as a way to find out about great people..
there are many people i never heard of until i went to those pages..so i could scan names of people they didn’t like and then go research those people..
thats how i started reading things by swedonborg (sure a little strange here and there..but better than a friday night movie) and people like Jack Frost, Bob Jones, and Paul Cain. In my teen years in the 90s the internet watchdogs actually were a great way to learn about wonderful people…
anyways.hopes this is some how a healing balm.
Wow, well said indeed! I loved these lines…
“Truth takes into consideration the hidden reasons why we say what we say. Fact only addresses the words that were said.”
“Why is this important? Because the Holy Spirit is not the spirit of fact – He is the Spirit of Truth.”
“The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil contained the “fact” of good knowledge and evil knowledge. The Tree of Life was full of Truth.”
Now may God release His Divine Justice to those treated with such injustice!
Tom
John Paul,
What is it going to take for the body of Christ to stop the lynchings? I once heard a pastor say that the church thrives during periods of persecution. I fear his statement is truth. Who likes persecution? I don’t. At least, not yet.
Bless you.
There is so much mis-education in the religious community. On occasion I watch Dr Myles Monroe on TBN. He said something that was so simple and yet so deep, I just pondered it for many days. He said, Jesus came to earth, not to establish religion but to establish God’s kingdom. He talked about the difference between living as a subject in a kingdom as opposed to a living in a democracy.
There seems to be a persistent fundamental error in understanding church purpose. Jesus did not die for phifedoms - we are one body. If we do not understand the purpose of the church, we will mis-use and mis-represent our platform and authority. From that point forward we operate under a misguided sense of right and wrong; like Paul did before traveling the rode to Damascus. We are here to serve one another not judge.
I believe with all of my heart, however, that God is going about rectifying these errors in understanding, judgment and thinking right now. Jesus told the disciples to go into the world and preach the Gospel. They did not disburse however until they were heavily persecuted. When they finally moved it was with great power and authority. I see the investigations, the descent and the airing of dirty laundry as a good thing (however painful). God cares a lot about His word and reputation. He will demonstrate his wisdom in sending Jesus to reconcile us to Himself and in Jesus using the church as His helpmate in order to accomplish His purpose.
I wish I could tell you who said this, but it is so very true. Being a Christian is like traveling on Rt 66. You can be anywhere on the highway between California and Va. You need to know more than the name to understand where someone one is.
I offer another possibility to the blur between fact and truth. There is a term in battle called Fog of War which I would also apply to this situation. From the Wikipedia definition we have the following: “The fog of war is a term used to describe the level of ambiguity in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding own capability, adversary capability and adversary intent during an engagement, operation or campaign.”
If we are the Body of Christ then we are at war. Our words can be weapons and it never fails that someone is lobbing word grenades at someone else within this Army. There sure is a great deal of friendly fire going on.
I hesitate to say it is the enemy causing the harm. If it is other Christians shooting down other Christians then this is an internal attack. This can be very harmful. If you start taking fire from within your own camp I would imagine your tendency would either be to run out of the camp or keep your head down to keep out of the cross fire. Both inhibit success on the battle field. Both cause division and hard feelings. Both work against our common goal.
I imagine there are a couple of reasons another Christian would shoot their own. The underlying cause, however, is that they are confused as to whose side they are on…or even who is on their side. I wish there were Christian boot camps that could teach the basics…such as who to point a weapon at.
Anyway, I digress. It is probably in the minds of opposing Christians that they are correct and need to ‘fight’ incorrect theology. They probably feel that numerous people are being led away from God by incorrect teachings. We do need to confront incorrect beliefs that do not line up with God’s word. Method of conveyance is critical to maintaining unity. In this Army, you do not shoot or injure fellow soldiers if they make mistakes. We are an Army of love…not fear.
I wish in this century the church would learn this well. I wish they could learn who they are fighting and how to unify despite different beliefs in the ‘white’ sections of the Bible. (I’m defining the white sections as those areas of the Scripture that are not clearly defined by good Biblical interpretation methods)
Again I digress…the fog of war is to be expected. People’s perspective will drastically affect the way they treat others. If they perceive someone as the enemy they will treat them differently than they would a friend.
We need to evaluate our mistakes in order to move forward as one unified Army. One thing really stuck out to me concerning a lesson learned from Vietnam. In former United States Secretary of Defencse Robert S. McNamara’s book “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam” he writes a list of lessons learned. The following is profound to me if applied to the body of Christ: “We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.”
This can apply to those whom we desire to ‘conquer’ and bring into the body of Christ but also to those we perceive as enemies. It sounds like some ‘watchmen’ in the Body of Christ perceive other Christians as the enemy. My humble answer if you are so convinced other Christians are truly the enemy is to heed these words and consider ‘military tactics’ that WIN the “hearts and minds of people” from a totally different belief set. Throwing word grenades and tearing down other’s ministry efforts will not win the hearts of minds of those you have differences with. Even so, I would persuade those running through the camp shooting their own to reconsider who the enemy actually is. We are all on the same side.
There must be a less harmful way to communicate between the Christian camps. There must be a way to agree on a common goal. There must be a way to agree of a common enemy. There must be a common mission statement. There must be unity.
The truth will set you free … facts will hang you … love always thinks the best …
Very well said.
Two things:
1. I fear that we live in a society that is more hungry for fact than truth. This would explain why gossip magazines and T.V. shows are so popular.
2. Perhaps some of our “watchmen” should stop watching men and start looking to the Father.
Hmmm. It is true that the world wide Web is kinda the Wild, wild west, now. I am sorry you were hurt by the things you read, JP. I have been reading those kinds of blogs for the last couple of years as well, and I’ve tried to see if any of the complaints against the more visible prophetic ministries are valid.
Some may be. There is some outright contempt out there too, though.
I think one problem is that itinerant prophetic ministry is “sexy” (forgive the term–I mean exciting, stimulating, etc. not sexual) and people love to go to conferences, then come back to their local church and (sometimes! maybe! seemingly!) treat the church staff like a wife they don’t love anymore.
So there’s maybe some hurt feelings (and some loyalty issues) with people who interact with itinerant prophetic ministries…and maybe some jealousy on the part of the home-bound church staff? I mean, we are all people here!
Something I’ve pondered as well is that it isn’t always clear who prophetic ministries are accountable to. That, and the traveling aspect of what they do can contribute to a lack of real relationship with them. That is where internet lashings/flame wars are probably easier to justify (to some). Even if someone takes the time to contact a prophetic person via email, if they get a response, it takes a skilled, patient writer to communicate a heartfelt response.
Not only that, you can not control how someone receives something you say. There’s so many blocks to communication to begin with, apart from someone having an agenda or feeling passionate about something. Someone could pick up one line from this blog entry and hoist JP up for ridicule and it would be wrong. But it is done by well-meaning people all the time. Sad.
It’s a real quandry–how do you travel regularly and still have grounded relationships in a local church? I know when I travel to do ministry (very rare, but I have) the anointing is greater, and just about everyone loves you. Who wants to go back to your hometown where there isn’t as much honor?
I’m just looking at it from both sides, here. I am extremely indebted to many prophetic ministries, especially Streams, but I can also really see the value of local prophetic people who are known by those around them (how their marriage and family are doing, that they serve in the less glamorous ministries as well as the more visible ones, they train the newbies that are chomping at the bit, etc.) The tough thing with the more well-known people is that even if they do talk about their “regular lives” it can sound as though they are defending themselves, which doesn’t come across well either. >sigh<
I don’t know what the balance is between posting prophetic words on the internet, and allowing for the public weighing of those words. I would like to see more weighing of the words, as opposed to just tossing them out there.
I have been in local intercessory prayer meetings where someone will bring prophecies that have been given at other churches (i.e. meant for them) and the person found them on the internet, printed them out, the person now believes that our church is off track, in danger of missing God, etc. —All because of a word from someone that we are in absolutely no relationship with.
Again, I’d like to see more teaching on the weighing of words. This discussion on discernment has been super helpful. I appreciate all the thoughtful responses and positive tone on this site.
Blessings (and asbestos) to all the brave bloggers!
Facts: Are we human? Do we error?
Truth: Does God take up residence within us?
Somewhere in between is reality … to determine more is futility.
Simple: Were living moment to monent purely by His mercy toward us and grace at work in us.
I get you JP and am right in line (don’t mind the spank if I fall out - either)
You know John Paul, at times, to see the slaughter of the innocent can be unbearably painful (especially when it’s us), but to see the reward of the wicked, is insane…
May God have mercy on them both…
God bless!
Oh Halleluiah! – The Lord God showed me something so glorious!
The Law will be a part of us, to do His will, as an extension of us!
A natural extension. No effort.
What is our main problem? It is doing that which we don’t want to do! How can we please God if we cannot please God??? That is our greatest pain.
All of this can be summed up in the last fruit of the spirit mentioned – it is mentioned last for a reason because I believe it is a facility of all the others, it describes the wounding in us, the contrariness, our inability. It is self control! Self control is like patience! Self control contains. Our natural state is a state of constant leaking – a constant reaction to circumstances, instead of the circumstances reacting to us!!! Perseverance is as self control and patience, without it you would not be able to obtain or facilitate the great and precious promises as a natural extension – the opposite of self control is not acting as who we were created to be! A program or any design that doesn’t have “self” control is running around, leaking, as an aberration, not performing what it was designed to do!!! Our calling is sooooo glorious – what God has for us is strength, mettle so settled that we won’t flinch in the face of any circumstance. We who react ensure OUR OWN destruction by not reacting as who we are, so a lack of self control is really a compromise in the sense of being incomplete or naked, vulnerable – without our righteousness, our shield, our guard. Our natural fire.
“He who can control is own spirit is mightier that he who can take a city …” Proverbs.
So John Paul, could it be that those that try to follow ‘Truth’ understand more about ’sincerity’ in their hearts as opposed to those that love ‘fact’ leading them into the path of ‘Religiosity’???
Blessings!
I sent a link to this blog to a self-appointed attacker who thinks he’s doing God’s work but is inadvertently helping out the dark side. I wondered if you would be cool with that. I don’t want to make things worse.
RSVP,
Terri
John Paul:
Revised blog to John Paul:
John Paul thankyou for all that you are doing for people in your ministry and in this blog.
We have a station on the You Tube blog on channel WSCIRO, when people put tags in the the video’s that are uploaded it seems that it brings up other similar video’s related but are not from our station and when we uploaded yours from our files it seemed to have brought up other video’s from other people’s channel’s that were like the original ones that we uploaded under our channel name WSCIRO. Our station name is WSTK-ITV.
When we upload video’s on our page under description there are two parts located in the video description: (1)More from WSCIRO; and directly under that one (2) related video’s that are similar but from a different channel; in this section some of the video’s are ones we uploaded and there are some that are not.
How they get there is not under our control. We did notice that there are some bogus video’s that people have manipulated like one of yours regarding finances (uploaded from another station with the user name John4profits, there was also a couple of Benny Hinn’s video’s that someone else had manipulated. Again beyond our control. However, we are accountable to report this, if we see this happening as directors. You may not even be aware of this and sorry if I have disturbed you with this information.
Again eventhough, those particular video’s were not ours, we are going to report these abuses because it isn’t right. The Lord does want a powerful christian presence on the You Tube Channel with respectable video’s and that is why we have uploaded a variety of different video’s from various ministries.
When we first started on the You Tube Channel a year and a half ago, it was smut city and then google took over and they have cleaned most of it up.
However, they still have quite a long way to go.
The the Lord had revealed to us to start uploading good quality christian video’s that could minister to the youth that watch You Tube….Many young people that are christian surprisingly come to You tube to be creative and so it makes it a good arena for a strong christian presence. On our channel alone we have uploaded 177 including ours. In our back office, we have approximately 85,000 people that have actually come to the station to watch the video’s since October 19th, 2006.
What we do for ministries that we upload is we provide a link back to the particular ministry that we have uploaded. That is the way that we honor the work of God in that particular ministry. Your blogs are very challenging and so what we are doing is sending everyone to your blog who watch any of our video’s because our goal is to get them to think about the absolutes of God and hopefully apply them after they have watched each video!
We have discerned that there needs to be a strong christian presence on You Tube because, right now the kingdom of darkness is trying to gain an increasing presence through the the You Tube Streams….The first time that we attempted to put our stream together, a satanist tried to submit one of their video’s to the stream because I wasn’t familiar with the feature that blocks other people from submitting their video’s to the stream randomly. So, we had to shut it down and start again. If you can please pray for the success of our station on the You Tube Channel this would be good. This is all done for free and so we thank God…We even have some of our own video’s out there….feel free to click on the link when you have a chance.
May God continue to Bless You in All that you are doing and are destined to do!!!
WE PROMISE WE DIDN’T DO IT (LOL)!
Peace & Blessings!
From Shirley Canniff & staff of WSCIRO/WSTK-ITV
You Tube
Truth is awesome yet dangerous. The Holy Spirit indeed is the Spirit of Truth. He alone (and the individual) “knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts.”
I remember a season when there was a revival in one of the churches I was visiting. During that season, I remember lying on the floor asking God to change me and rid me of my old life when I felt someone had entered the room. Holy Terror!
At this point, every atom of my being became alive and a flood gate of my sins was revealed. But the awesome part was also that the weight of sin had lifted from within me and peace & joy flooded my being. A deep realization came into my heart that God indeed was an accurate keeper of the records of the intentions and actions of people. It was as though God was saying to me that NOTHING had escaped His Sight. A healthy fear resulted where now I wanted to live right before my Master.
Perhaps, we (the believers) have forgotten that we will give an account at the Judgement Seat of Christ for everything said and done after we have come to Him.
Well said, indeed! God deals in truth not fact, because facts are contingent or circumstances, whereaas truth shall always remain unmoved.
You have been speaking about something simple the Lord taught me a while ago: “If truth and facts are not the same, guess which one is wrong?!” Lately this has kept me going since the facts in my life speak opposite of what the Lord spoke to me about. Isn’t it what Paul said: “We walk by faith, not by sight or appearance (or emotions).” I have added the emotion part since I tend to consider them as facts as well.
So reading what you wrote was an encouragement. Thank you, John-Paul!
Barbara from Switzerland
Dear John Paul,
I heard someone say the facts are subject to change, and truth never changes. I am reminded where the people were divided and offended about who Jesus was. They said to themselves that they “knew” who is parents were and where he was from, but in reality they were missing some facts and as a result, missed God in the flesh. They only had partial facts - thinking they had the whole facts and made their judgments based on them. This error is still being made today. Truth is, we are called to suffer with him if we are to reign with him. I’ll make my stand on the truth any day of the week, cause God knows, the facts could change tomorrow!
We all have a rocky narrow path to run so let’s not throw stones at each other SHALOM
Yes, there are false people who lie as you say. However, I have experienced those that tell lies so well they are believed to be truths. Please remember the other side of the religious coin.
If Christians are the body of Christ, then accusers like these “watchmen” are an autoimmune disorder; they spend more time destroying the body’s vital functions than defending them.
The key difference is that an autoimmune disorder warrants attention. I think these accusers do not deserve even that much. The more we listen, the more damage they are allowed to cause. Who are they to pass judgement on their brothers? Measuring people with a harsh, critical standard does nothing but cause God to judge them by the same standard. Their ranting is wasted oxygen and should be ignored. The intent of their heart is between them and God.
Saul murdered and imprisoned Christians, thinking it was God’s will– but it didn’t make it right. I suspect that these watchmen are mired in a similar mindset.
As for truth and fact… Truth, according to the dictionary, is “that which corresponds to reality,” and reality is defined as “that which is.” Fact and truth are seperate, because facts are ‘impartial’ (for lack of a better word). Any fact can be taken out of context. It’s how the fact is USED that determines whether or not it is true.
Anyone can take a fact and make it a lie.
The comment I placed on the previous blog could probably have been placed here to.
I’m reminded of what my Bible College instructor said in my Pentateuch class a number of years ago.
“context, context, context,”
He drilled it into our minds that context is everything.
Perhaps that is why I continued to stand when challenged upon God’s nature as a Triune God. And perhaps when challenged about the deity of Jesus I can see for myself in context where some are misled. And then challenged about the ways in which some may understand scripture. exigesis Vs icegesis.
Very good blog! I really enjoy all of them and the comments as well and just have not had a chance to comment on any…til now. This is my first.
I always thought that it’s the truth that you KNOW that sets you free. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the TRUTH and the Life.” In John 18:38, when He was on trial before he was crucified, He was asked by Pilot, “What is truth?” Pilot didn’t even know that TRUTH was starring him straight in the face…. Hence, he didn’t KNOW the truth.
Until one KNOWs the truth, they are not free, just yet. It has to be “known”. The truth of all of the entire Gospel is out there for ANYONE who’ll ‘grab it’ sort ot speak (or receive it), but there are those who don’t KNOW it yet until they actually receive what Jesus has made known through His Word and those who preach the Gospel.
Really enoyed this! God bless!
Really liked the part about the Trees in the Garden…had always wondered why it was so dangerous to eat. I’m knowledgeable enough to know that bad fruit is simply that; and that fruit contains it’s own seed. But this explains a lot, along with the idea that truth (eternal) is designed to be spoken in love, then bringing about new freedom.
Thanks
There is so much to be afraid of in this world and of the scariest 5 for me is twisted words. I have realized that honesty is not legalistic. Legalism has so many loopholes while honesty and truth are transparent. Perhaps facts are technical truths. While absolute truths are driven by motive. Good, clean, pure motive.
For a while I struggled with how I handled people because I figured it was up to them to differentiate between a technical truth and a real good-motive driven truth.
In my first year at college, I suddenly got more attention from guys than I ever had. I had always thought that I could use some weight loss and so I was surprised that so many guys liked me. However, I was not at all interested in a relationship with any of the guys and so I figured out ways of keeping their attention without actually committing myself with my words. So I smiled and insinuated more admiration than I actually had but I never once crossed the line into flirting or saying anything that committed me. It worked out that I had such a great number of admirers but it was a time bomb waiting to explode. Most of those guys said that I had led them on. And truth be told, I actually had. Even if factually I had never led anyone on, my motive had spoken. I used to tell myself that it was their fault that they read between lines instead of reading the lines themselves.
I realized I had been selfish and manipulative even with my friends and family because I gave information in a biased sort of way.
Had I actually meant no harm, I would have felt no guilt. But truth convicts. I know what I was doing. And I will never go back there. There are very few of all those guys who remained my friends. I wish I had just told them that I just wanted to be friends rather than manipulating them.
I learnt truth is enough. You do not need to spice things up or say something with hidden meaning to get what you want. You don’t need to help truth along. One must trust the Lord enough to believe that his truth is enough. Justice is based on truth.