'Truth' Tagged Posts
The Crowds
This weekend, pop superstar Taylor Swift is in town. I imagine that some of you went to the tour, and this first line immediately grabbed your attention. There are others who saw the first four words and decided you would no longer read this. I can’t help but be in awe of society as I watch hundreds of thousands of people flood into a city for three days in a row to scream the words of songs together. The crowds…
Jesus Is The Truth
Does truth matter to you? That almost seems like a foolish question because the answer is most likely a resounding YES! When someone lies to us, we are often filled with anger. We feel betrayed, like someone did not feel that my relationship with them was worth sharing what actually happened. When a child lies about a situation that they were in or about something their sibling did, the child deserves punishment. When an adult lies about something in the…
A Cautionary Tale
As defined, a cautionary tale is a story told in folklore, to warn its hearer of a danger. These stories are often told by parents or caring adults to younger children to teach them valuable lessons on what to do and what not to do in certain situations. One trademark part of these tales is the over-exaggerated details and consequences that are made up to stress the impact of the lesson being taught. From the danger of swallowing watermelon seeds…
The Right Thing…
At a certain point in a Christian’s walk, it is not difficult to discern what is right and what is wrong anymore. More often than not, we know what we should and should not do; the challenge is in what choice we make. Sometimes the greatest advice you could ever hear is also the simplest. My grandfather (Big Dad), a gospel preacher for over fifty years, has taught me countless lessons about ministry, preaching, and being a good Christian.…
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
One cold evening back in the 1800s, a preacher went to visit a member of his congregation who had stopped attending worship services. The man welcomed the preacher into his home and the two of them settled into chairs next to the fireplace. Wanting to convey the importance of congregational involvement, the preacher took a pair of tongs and carefully removed a burning ember from the fire, placing it on the edge of hearth by itself. Without saying a word,…
Know Your Place
“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” – Friedrich Nietzsche We are part of a culture – religious and otherwise – that seeks pleasure and avoids pain, at all costs. Because of this tendency to embrace anything that is pleasant and to reject anything that might be painful, many of us prefer to embrace illusions instead of reality. We choose to live our lives in a lie. As the old saying…
Imbalanced Worship?
In John 4:24, Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” In context, Jesus was not preaching a “sermon” about worship; instead, He was having a personal and intentional conversation with a Samaritan woman about her spiritual condition. In other words, He wanted to talk about something else. When the woman realized that the conversation was getting a little TOO personal, she changed the subject – like so many people still…
Cutting Your Losses
What’s the most expensive mistake you’ve ever made? If I had the time, I could tell you about a $12,000 mistake that I made several years ago. It was the result of misplaced trust, and although it seemed like a good idea at the time, it was $12,000 that I will probably never see again. Maybe your “expensive mistake” was in the form of a vehicle, a home, or a piece of equipment that caused more trouble than it…
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW EVIL TO EXIST? (PART 1)
Events such as the Time Square car attack that occurred on Thursday, May 18, killing one and injuring more than 20, as well as the suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England following an Ariana Grande concert on Monday, May 22, killing 23 and injuring in excess of 120, remind us that we live in a fallen world that is susceptible to suffering and evil. Sometimes it can be difficult to reconcile the existence of God with the…
LOOPHOLE HUNTERS – Episode One
Last week, we came face-to-face with the unfortunate truth that we, as God’s people, are often guilty of reducing His Word into mere “external observances.” We were forced to admit that we are often best known for turning the Bible into some kind of “checklist,” denying its real power (2 Tim. 3:5). We have an undeniably long history of taking God’s teachings, robbing them of their rich depth, and limiting their potential to change our lives from the inside out.…
NOT FOR SALE!
Have you ever had a garage sale at your house? Brooke and I have hosted a few successful garage sales during our 11 years of marriage, and by “successful” I mean that we are still married. Garage sales are fun, aren’t they? When I say “fun,” I mean “awful.” The only part I don’t hate about a garage sale is the 4-inch stack of wrinkled one-dollar bills at the end that means we will get at least one sit-down meal at a semi-nice restaurant…
THE FEAR FACTOR – PART ONE
Have you ever been in a situation that scared you to the point that you didn’t know what to do or how to handle it? Have you ever allowed fear to control your decision-making? Have you ever wondered what to do when you are scared to do anything? Maybe some of these situations sound familiar: “I’ve lied to my parents about something, and I know I need to make it right, but I’m afraid of what might happen if I tell…