Truth in a Virtual World
“Truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found….” “Truth has perished, it has vanished from their lips…” (Isaiah 59:15& Jeremiah 7:28)
It is hard to know what is true in a virtual world. In our facebook lives, twitter has blurred the lines between perception and true reality. Twitter is the “play by play” online updates of what someone is doing at any given moment of their lives. You can put anything as your twitter. “Di is going to the dentist,” “Di is drinking coffee,” “Di is feeling happy,” “Di is going to sleep.” And so it goes. The problem with twitter and really with all online representation of ourselves, is that it may, or may not, be true. I can type a description of myself on my myspace page, that portrays me in the way that I want to be perceived. But it may not be true; at all. In the world of the internet, we have the ability to create our identity while cutting, pasting, copying or deleting anything about ourselves at any time. Cyberspace has made it easy for us to become whoever we want to be. Our lives are more dramatic when performed on the public stage of the internet. The question I keep asking myself is, “What is true?”
Before we can decide what is true, we have to define what truth is built on. A couple of years ago I had successfully recruited one of my neighbors to Canyon Creek. She and her family were consistently attending, and God was definitely softening their hearts and drawing them to Himself. After about a year of attending, and considering surrendering her life to Jesus, a series of events led my friend to some teachings by a well known psychic. Suddenly the spiritual sensitivity she was experiencing was fully directed toward the psychic church and its teachings. When I found this out, I was crushed and she and I had a long conversation about truth. You see, many “cults” and anti-Christian teachings are based on relativity. Beliefs and decisions are built on the teachings of a person, or a leader’s ideas about what truth really is. Entire religions are constructed on what a person, or a group of persons, believes to be true. What happens when this mere human changes their mind? Or does something contrary to what is “true?” The entire belief system is altered to include that behavior or choice. Everything is arbitrary, and often conflicting, and people are left to blow here and there between emotions and the beliefs of other people.
In my conversation with my friend, I pleaded with her to find something solid to be her foundation for truth. As Christians, our basis for truth is God’s Word. It is unchanging, does not contradict itself, and is ultimately TRUE. The Bible is what we base our decisions, our convictions and our compass for moral behavior upon. If God’s Word says it, I believe it, and I act on it. THAT is truth. God’s character is true, His promises are true and how He feels about you and me is true. Instead of having “shifting sand” as our foundation, we have God’s Word as our solid rock to build our lives and decisions on. We can see in Matthew 7:24-27 that it is not enough to recognize that God’s Word is true, we must act by building our lives on that truth. Only then will we survive the storms of life that will beat against us. Those who have foolishly not built their lives on truth will see what they have built fall down around them.
There are a few things we know about truth; I thought it would be appropriate to remind ourselves of them here. First of all, we know that TRUTH (defined for our purposes here as “consistent with God’s revelation/Word) is unchanging (Proverbs 12:19). In Jeremiah 6:14 we even see that denying the truth doesn’t actually change it. We also know, according to Psalm 43:3 that truth provides the right path for us to follow. God’s truth guides us, and helps to make right decisions and choose right thinking and behavior. Other things we know about truth:
God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all named as truth (eg. The “God of truth” see Ps. 31:5, John 1:14,14:6, 15:26 & 16:13 to name a few).
God’s Word is referred to as “the Book of Truth” or the “Word of Truth” (Daniel 10:21, Galatians 2:4, Colossians 1:5).
The church of the Living God is the pillar and foundation of the truth (I timothy 3:15)
We can exchange the truth for lies (Romans 1:25)
It’s important to tell the truth (Matthew 5:33)
We should worship in truth (John 4:23)
We should speak the truth (Zec. 8:16)
We should love the truth (Zec. 8:19), in fact we “perish” if we refuse to love the truth (II Thess. 2:10).
The truth sets us free (Romans 8:32)
And the rather obvious: No lie comes from the truth (I John 2:21)
As I was doing a brief study on truth in God’s Word, I was shocked to see how many times Jesus started a statement with the phrase “I tell you the truth…” In fact, a very quick count gave me the number 79! 79 (or probably more) times, Jesus declared that He was telling the truth. I truly believe that He did not repeat this over and over because he sensed that people didn’t believe Him. I think He was taking every opportunity to remind his listeners, that He only tells the truth, and that He IS truth.
In John 18:37-38 we find Jesus, arrested and being tried before Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate is questioning Jesus, and Jesus answers by saying “I came into this world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” To which Pilate replies “What is truth?” And with that statement, he goes to the public for the decision of what to do with Jesus. Pilate thought all truth was relative. The study notes in my Bible say “To many government officials, truth was whatever the majority of people agreed with or whatever helped advance their own personal power and political goals.” Without that standard and foundation for truth, there is no basis for right and wrong, morality, behavior and decision making. The world struggles for the ability to define what is true, but our only standard for truth is the Word of God.
I think one of the scariest warnings for us to consider, is that our stubborn disobedience can blind us to the truth. This may be a study for another day, but quickly, we see in Exodus 8:19 that even Pharoah’s magicians pointed to the plagues Egypt was experiencing as the hand of God. But the Bible says that “Pharoah’s heart was hard and he would not listen.”
We all struggle with the truth at different levels. Some struggle because they have become stubborn and disobedient and they don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want to submit certain thoughts or behaviors to God. When confronted by truth those people refuse to listen; they rebel, harden their hearts, and stiffen their necks. Some struggle to believe the truth because they don’t feel worthy. The truth may be that God loves you, but if you don’t feel worthy of love, it is hard to build on that truth. Some struggle with simply not KNOWING the truth. You cannot believe what you do not know. And many struggle with an undisciplined mind, letting untrue thoughts run out of control through their minds and lives.
My husband is an amazing man. Strong, righteous, courageous, pure, faithful, and handsome! For all of the things he is incredible at, he struggles with untrue thoughts. If someone schedules a meeting with him, his thoughts race to what they are mad at him for. If he or one of our kids isn’t feeling well, or is injured, his mind will run to all of the diseases or horrible injuries they may have contracted. And as a chronic insomniac, he will decide his “sleep fate” long before bed time. If his thoughts are racing in the late afternoon, by the time he makes it to bed he has already convinced himself that he will be up all night. This is a minor example, but it illustrates a point. If we do not constantly re-align ourselves to the truth, we will live according to how we feel or what we imagine. I don’t want to downplay insomnia or any other ailment, but I find myself coaching my sweet husband to change the way he thinks. Yes he CAN go to sleep, no our kids do NOT have a terminal disease, and not everyone hates him and wants to pile insults on him. These are basic truths, and if it takes so much work to re-align ourselves to these, how much harder must we work on KNOWING, and ALIGNING ourselves to the Truth of God’s Word?
Do you know what God says about you? Do you know how He feels about you? Do you know that He loves you and accepts you no matter what you have done, or not done? Do you know that He has plans and purposes for you? That He has a future for you? That He desires to know you and have you know Him? Do you know that He forgives you? Do you know that He wants to free you from every burden that you carry? And the million dollar question; do you believe those truths? Are they the foundation that you have built your life on, and that your path is guided by? If not, in our disobedience, we have chosen to believe what is un-true (lies) instead. Those areas become strongholds; barricades that keep the voice of God from reaching our spiritual ears, and the Word of God from taking root in our hearts.
We are not supposed to make ourselves look as good as possible in front of the largest audience we can. Instead, we are to deny and humble ourselves and follow God and the truth of His Word. Instead of trying to make everything appear perfect, what would happen if we were honest and truthful? What if we, as God’s people, would confess the lies and re-align ourselves to the truth of God’s Word? I think we would feel freedom we have never known, and we would attract an entire world that is built on shifting sand to the God of all Truth.
For Further Study
Take some time to research the Scriptures in this study.
Evaluate your life and be honest about where you are struggling.
Confess those areas to God and repent.
Find someone to help, encourage and hold you accountable in the areas you struggle.
Your Assignment
Share with the group at least one area in which you are struggling with truth.
It could be that you struggle to believe the truth (that God loves you, accepts you, forgives you) or that you are not living truthfully (everything looks perfect, but really you are paralyzed by fear or sin)
You can expound as much or as little as you would like.
In light of the deception that has come to the surface in our church, I imagine there are those of you who need someone to talk to about areas of sin in your own life or family that can’t be ignored anymore. If that is the case, I am making myself available to help you through this, but I can’t help if you aren’t honest!
Looking forward to hearing from you,
di
It is hard to know what is true in a virtual world. In our facebook lives, twitter has blurred the lines between perception and true reality. Twitter is the “play by play” online updates of what someone is doing at any given moment of their lives. You can put anything as your twitter. “Di is going to the dentist,” “Di is drinking coffee,” “Di is feeling happy,” “Di is going to sleep.” And so it goes. The problem with twitter and really with all online representation of ourselves, is that it may, or may not, be true. I can type a description of myself on my myspace page, that portrays me in the way that I want to be perceived. But it may not be true; at all. In the world of the internet, we have the ability to create our identity while cutting, pasting, copying or deleting anything about ourselves at any time. Cyberspace has made it easy for us to become whoever we want to be. Our lives are more dramatic when performed on the public stage of the internet. The question I keep asking myself is, “What is true?”
Before we can decide what is true, we have to define what truth is built on. A couple of years ago I had successfully recruited one of my neighbors to Canyon Creek. She and her family were consistently attending, and God was definitely softening their hearts and drawing them to Himself. After about a year of attending, and considering surrendering her life to Jesus, a series of events led my friend to some teachings by a well known psychic. Suddenly the spiritual sensitivity she was experiencing was fully directed toward the psychic church and its teachings. When I found this out, I was crushed and she and I had a long conversation about truth. You see, many “cults” and anti-Christian teachings are based on relativity. Beliefs and decisions are built on the teachings of a person, or a leader’s ideas about what truth really is. Entire religions are constructed on what a person, or a group of persons, believes to be true. What happens when this mere human changes their mind? Or does something contrary to what is “true?” The entire belief system is altered to include that behavior or choice. Everything is arbitrary, and often conflicting, and people are left to blow here and there between emotions and the beliefs of other people.
In my conversation with my friend, I pleaded with her to find something solid to be her foundation for truth. As Christians, our basis for truth is God’s Word. It is unchanging, does not contradict itself, and is ultimately TRUE. The Bible is what we base our decisions, our convictions and our compass for moral behavior upon. If God’s Word says it, I believe it, and I act on it. THAT is truth. God’s character is true, His promises are true and how He feels about you and me is true. Instead of having “shifting sand” as our foundation, we have God’s Word as our solid rock to build our lives and decisions on. We can see in Matthew 7:24-27 that it is not enough to recognize that God’s Word is true, we must act by building our lives on that truth. Only then will we survive the storms of life that will beat against us. Those who have foolishly not built their lives on truth will see what they have built fall down around them.
There are a few things we know about truth; I thought it would be appropriate to remind ourselves of them here. First of all, we know that TRUTH (defined for our purposes here as “consistent with God’s revelation/Word) is unchanging (Proverbs 12:19). In Jeremiah 6:14 we even see that denying the truth doesn’t actually change it. We also know, according to Psalm 43:3 that truth provides the right path for us to follow. God’s truth guides us, and helps to make right decisions and choose right thinking and behavior. Other things we know about truth:
God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all named as truth (eg. The “God of truth” see Ps. 31:5, John 1:14,14:6, 15:26 & 16:13 to name a few).
God’s Word is referred to as “the Book of Truth” or the “Word of Truth” (Daniel 10:21, Galatians 2:4, Colossians 1:5).
The church of the Living God is the pillar and foundation of the truth (I timothy 3:15)
We can exchange the truth for lies (Romans 1:25)
It’s important to tell the truth (Matthew 5:33)
We should worship in truth (John 4:23)
We should speak the truth (Zec. 8:16)
We should love the truth (Zec. 8:19), in fact we “perish” if we refuse to love the truth (II Thess. 2:10).
The truth sets us free (Romans 8:32)
And the rather obvious: No lie comes from the truth (I John 2:21)
As I was doing a brief study on truth in God’s Word, I was shocked to see how many times Jesus started a statement with the phrase “I tell you the truth…” In fact, a very quick count gave me the number 79! 79 (or probably more) times, Jesus declared that He was telling the truth. I truly believe that He did not repeat this over and over because he sensed that people didn’t believe Him. I think He was taking every opportunity to remind his listeners, that He only tells the truth, and that He IS truth.
In John 18:37-38 we find Jesus, arrested and being tried before Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate is questioning Jesus, and Jesus answers by saying “I came into this world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” To which Pilate replies “What is truth?” And with that statement, he goes to the public for the decision of what to do with Jesus. Pilate thought all truth was relative. The study notes in my Bible say “To many government officials, truth was whatever the majority of people agreed with or whatever helped advance their own personal power and political goals.” Without that standard and foundation for truth, there is no basis for right and wrong, morality, behavior and decision making. The world struggles for the ability to define what is true, but our only standard for truth is the Word of God.
I think one of the scariest warnings for us to consider, is that our stubborn disobedience can blind us to the truth. This may be a study for another day, but quickly, we see in Exodus 8:19 that even Pharoah’s magicians pointed to the plagues Egypt was experiencing as the hand of God. But the Bible says that “Pharoah’s heart was hard and he would not listen.”
We all struggle with the truth at different levels. Some struggle because they have become stubborn and disobedient and they don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want to submit certain thoughts or behaviors to God. When confronted by truth those people refuse to listen; they rebel, harden their hearts, and stiffen their necks. Some struggle to believe the truth because they don’t feel worthy. The truth may be that God loves you, but if you don’t feel worthy of love, it is hard to build on that truth. Some struggle with simply not KNOWING the truth. You cannot believe what you do not know. And many struggle with an undisciplined mind, letting untrue thoughts run out of control through their minds and lives.
My husband is an amazing man. Strong, righteous, courageous, pure, faithful, and handsome! For all of the things he is incredible at, he struggles with untrue thoughts. If someone schedules a meeting with him, his thoughts race to what they are mad at him for. If he or one of our kids isn’t feeling well, or is injured, his mind will run to all of the diseases or horrible injuries they may have contracted. And as a chronic insomniac, he will decide his “sleep fate” long before bed time. If his thoughts are racing in the late afternoon, by the time he makes it to bed he has already convinced himself that he will be up all night. This is a minor example, but it illustrates a point. If we do not constantly re-align ourselves to the truth, we will live according to how we feel or what we imagine. I don’t want to downplay insomnia or any other ailment, but I find myself coaching my sweet husband to change the way he thinks. Yes he CAN go to sleep, no our kids do NOT have a terminal disease, and not everyone hates him and wants to pile insults on him. These are basic truths, and if it takes so much work to re-align ourselves to these, how much harder must we work on KNOWING, and ALIGNING ourselves to the Truth of God’s Word?
Do you know what God says about you? Do you know how He feels about you? Do you know that He loves you and accepts you no matter what you have done, or not done? Do you know that He has plans and purposes for you? That He has a future for you? That He desires to know you and have you know Him? Do you know that He forgives you? Do you know that He wants to free you from every burden that you carry? And the million dollar question; do you believe those truths? Are they the foundation that you have built your life on, and that your path is guided by? If not, in our disobedience, we have chosen to believe what is un-true (lies) instead. Those areas become strongholds; barricades that keep the voice of God from reaching our spiritual ears, and the Word of God from taking root in our hearts.
We are not supposed to make ourselves look as good as possible in front of the largest audience we can. Instead, we are to deny and humble ourselves and follow God and the truth of His Word. Instead of trying to make everything appear perfect, what would happen if we were honest and truthful? What if we, as God’s people, would confess the lies and re-align ourselves to the truth of God’s Word? I think we would feel freedom we have never known, and we would attract an entire world that is built on shifting sand to the God of all Truth.
For Further Study
Take some time to research the Scriptures in this study.
Evaluate your life and be honest about where you are struggling.
Confess those areas to God and repent.
Find someone to help, encourage and hold you accountable in the areas you struggle.
Your Assignment
Share with the group at least one area in which you are struggling with truth.
It could be that you struggle to believe the truth (that God loves you, accepts you, forgives you) or that you are not living truthfully (everything looks perfect, but really you are paralyzed by fear or sin)
You can expound as much or as little as you would like.
In light of the deception that has come to the surface in our church, I imagine there are those of you who need someone to talk to about areas of sin in your own life or family that can’t be ignored anymore. If that is the case, I am making myself available to help you through this, but I can’t help if you aren’t honest!
Looking forward to hearing from you,
di
posted by Di Beals | 1:08 PM
1 Comments:
This was so good that I had to share with Mike (even though he is a guy). We both embrace what you are saying. Truth is a key to witnessing... everything in our lives need to be transparent. I struggle with my sin and you pointed them out so well in your lesson. Stubbornness, disobedience, undisciplined.. Create in me a clean heart O God is the cry of my heart. Excellent word Di!
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