Truth Telling
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Thursday, April 11th, 2024
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Flat out: I firmly believe that. What was ironic-my daughter pointed out-is that I preached on the Creator God and His monstrously creative genius the day before the total Eclipse. Straight up: I did not plan it that way. When I began planning my sermons, the eclipse was the farthest thing from my mind.
But I don’t want to write about the eclipse. Enough has been said already. It was spectacular. I did not watch it…I rode my bike inside. But I had my blinds open and it was creepy to look outside and see it pitch black at 3:00 in the afternoon. {Note: it gives credibility to the 12-3 scenario when Jesus was on the cross and it was dark}. What I want to write about this morning are the hucksters, the doomsayers, the conspiracy theorists, and the like who came out of the woodwork to use this for personal and professional gain. I am particularly piqued at the “religious” hucksters who crawled out of their hole in the wall to promote a false-read that very false- narrative that the eclipse was going to be the end of the world; God’s judgment on America; blah blah blah, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. There were the so-called prophets predicting all kinds of garbage that was going to happen…AND DIDN’T! Label them: F.A.L.S.E. P.R.O.P.H.E.T.S. There are those who predicted it would usher in the Rapture (if you believe in that). It didn’t (either that or I was left behind and if I believed that it would be a real bummer). There were those who predicted the doom of America. It didn’t. (if American is doomed its because of the truth of Proverbs 28:2: When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability”.
All that to say: whenever someone “prophesies” anything, run as far away from that person or organization as possible. The NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) with people like Bill Johnson and Bethel, Benny Hinn, Hillsong, Kenneth Copeland, and other yahoos, are nothing more than false teachers. R-U-N A-W-A-Y!! as fast and as far as you can.
I’ll stand with Jesus who said not even He knew when He would return, only His Father. That’s solid ground to stand on.
Posted in InTheShadow | 4 Responses »
Tags: Eclipse, End of the Word, God, God's Plan, Jesus, NAR, Opinion, Prophecy, Prophets, Reflection, Scripture look, Second Coming, Truth Telling
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024
I have said on a number of occasions that “you cannot take people where you yourself have not been.”
Part of the vision of the church I pastor is Pursuing Jesus Passionately. We cannot lead or teach people to pursue Jesus if we ourselves are not doing so.
We recently visited the Grand Canyon. It is an amazing display of God’s creative genius. As we stood safely behind walls of stone taking pictures, we could see paths where people could hike to see more. I know there was more to see than I was able to see. So much more. And the best way to see that was with a guide who knew his/her way around. One who knew the trails. One who knew what to look for. A newbie is not what I would have wanted.
When Ezra came in the second wave of people returning to Jerusalem after having been in exile in Babylon, he was dismayed to see that the people had not fostered a love for God and His Temple. They had neglected the Scriptures and their influence in their lives. Enter Ezra, the priest. He saw it as his mission to lead (guide) them to the Scriptures, to call them back to the source. He knew that it was the Word of God that changed lives. What will turn this country around will not be a political party or candidate, legislation to change this or that; outlawing certain practices’; or legislating morality. If hearts are not changed, then we will just find another way to disobey God.
No. Ezra knew: change the heart with the Word of God and you change society. That’s good advice for the country. But it is especially good advice for the church. Study the Word, put it into practice, teach it to others, then the church changes. You can’t demand or legislate change. Only God’s Word can have a permanent impact.
Posted in InTheShadow | 9 Responses »
Tags: Change, Choices, Christian Living, Church, God's Word, Humility, Jesus, Leadership, Lifestyle, Ministry, Opinion, Reflection, Truth Telling
Thursday, January 11th, 2024
“Honesty is the best policy.”
I’m not sure how old I was when I first heard that, nor how often I heard it. I suspect it was when my mother lined us up to ask, “Okay, who did it?” and reminded us that telling the truth was best. (I’m glad it was always my brothers’ fault when things went wrong). 🙂
My blogging friend, Pam Williams, wrote a great post yesterday on honesty. You can access that post here. She stated it correctly that honesty is in every part of our life. (Please take a moment to read what she said).
If I think of someone in the Bible who stands head and shoulders above others in the honesty and integrity department, it would be Joseph. Perhaps never is that put more to the test than his lack of an affair with Mrs. Potiphar. The fact that the Lord was with him is stated twice at the beginning (Gen. 39:2-3) and three times at the end (39:21-23).
Consider the scenario. A teenager with raging hormones. A stranger in a strange land (no one knows him…no family to check up on him). A seductive woman. No one around so who would know? The possibility of advancement as Mrs. P puts in a good word. I repeat: who would know?
Joseph would (a godly conscience is good at reminding us of stuff like that). More importantly: God would. And THAT was the kicker! Joseph said to Mrs. P, “Look, my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.” (39:8-9) (NLT)
That didn’t stop her. She kept putting pressure on him day after day, but he rebuffed her advances. Eventually, the saying came true: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
Here is the tale of the story though: Joseph was aware of God’s presence and that He sees and knows all. There is no sin He does not know about-behind back doors or out in the open. So…besides my mom’s words mentioned at the beginning, another favorite of hers comes into play: “Remember, I may not see what you do or say, but God does.”
Sheesh mom! Why don’t you just throw down that Ace of hearts? Why not throw down the BIG ONE? But…she is right. I’d like to say just like when she found out my brothers committed all the mayhem. But I would not be telling the truth. 🙂
Posted in InTheShadow | 8 Responses »
Tags: Christian Living, Intregrity/Honesty, Lifestyle, Opinion, Reflection, Scripture look, Sin, Truth Telling
Thursday, January 4th, 2024
Just a reminder: Please check out my review of my friend, Martha Orlando’s excellent trilogy called The Glade Series at my other blog, Cycleguy’s Spin. You can access that review here.
I have mentioned a number of times about my practice of reading Proverbs every other month. One chapter= that calendar date. Today, for example: January 4= Proverbs 4. Maybe it is because I’m reading this year from the New Living Translation (NLT) or that I paid particularly close attention, but some seriously good stuff stuck out to me this morning. The whole chapter goes on about the importance of wisdom: Pay attention. Get it. Don’t turn your back on it. Prize it. Etc.
Beginning in verse 23 are some simple “rules of life” or “advice to live by” given. Here they are:
Verse 23- Guard your heart
Verse 24- Avoid perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech.
Verse 25- Look straight ahead, fix your eyes straight ahead.
Verse 26- Choose the right path.
Verse 27- Don’t get sidetracked.
I thought I would give each a new heading, a new “wording” that might be easier to learn:
- Be careful what you expose yourself to.
- Watch your speech.
- Don’t let your eyes wander.
- Stay true.
- Stay focused.
Wise advice to follow today and every day. Choose wisdom. Then you will hear the ancient words: “You have chosen wisely.” (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) 🙂
Posted in InTheShadow | 10 Responses »
Tags: Choices, Christian Living, Leadership, Lifestyle, Ministry, Opinion, Reflection, Scripture look, Truth Telling, Wisdom
Tuesday, November 21st, 2023
I’d like to follow up on my devotion from yesterday.
There is another rule of interpretation/Bible study besides the one from yesterday (“Let Scripture explain Scripture”). The one for today is “A text without a context is only a pretext.” Interpreted: the failure to see surrounding verses, historical narrative and setting can lead to a whole lot of problems.
Yesterday’s passage was from Matthew 7:1-5. With that I presented the very common comment, “You have no right to judge me, to tell me that I’m wrong, or that my behavior is unacceptable in God’s eyes.” That is used in defense of sin: adultery, homosexual activity, “white” lies, and just about any other sin we want to justify doing.
But remember the context quote? Check out Matthew 7:15-16- “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act.” (NLT) That section ends with verse 20 saying, “Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”
Question: how can we identify a wolf in sheep’s clothing if we don’t (ahem) judge them? It is called discernment. But here’s the thing: it is not discernment based on our bias or personal opinion. It is based on…wait for it…what the Bible says. Every thought, every opinion, every decision, every judgment we form or express MUST BE and MUST FIND its source in the Word of God! If what we say or do does not find its root in God’s Word; if it does not find its anchor in God’s Word, then its a pretty fair assessment that it is false.
We need to be “fruit inspectors.” (Matt. 7:16-20). Last I looked a fruit inspector has to form a judgment and decide whether the fruit is good or not. The Apostle Paul wrote, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (ESV)
So, judging/discerning is an absolute must. Always compare what you are being told and taught to the Word of God.
Posted in InTheShadow | 8 Responses »
Tags: Bible/Scripture, Christian Living, Discernmenet, Fruit Inspector, God's Word, Judging, Leadership, Lifestyle, Opinion, Reflection, Scripture look, Truth Telling
Wednesday, November 15th, 2023
Some people today like to complain about the church: “It’s made up of a bunch of hypocrites.” (Most definitely true). “All the church does is tell you a list of what is right and what is wrong and the wrong is always longer than the right.” (There is some truth to that). “They are insufferable and no better than me.” (Given that we are all sinners that is a true statement).
So my answer to those statements? Yep. Yep. And Yep. And I’ll also say, “Welcome to my world.”
I don’t say that because I’m a pastor; I say that because they describe me. I am a hypocrite at times because I don’t always practice what I preach. (Shocker!!) I don’t always live up to the standard God has set. I am sometimes judgmental (although I try really hard not to be). And sometimes I am no better than anyone else, in that sin gets its grip on me.
All this hit me last night as I sat and read. I’m rereading a novel called Dancing Priest (DP) by Glynn Young, a fellow blogger. It is one of 5 in a series about a young man named Michael Kent. I’ve read DP several times before, but it has been a few years since I last read it. I look for books to read at home which are different from my normal fare, so I have decided to read the entire series again. In DP Michael is assigned a parish (church) in San Francisco…much to his surprise. He applied for Malawi in Africa. In the ensuing conversation with his sponsor, he found out why.
Michael, the future of our church is in grave doubt. If there is a future, then you and others like you are that future. It will be better for you to be on the periphery than at the center because the center is rotting and collapsing. The future of the church is at the edges, and there you’ll find a willingness to abandon what’s dead, to meet the spiritual need, to fearlessly preach the Gospel-that is our way to survival. (p.163). A few paragraphs later he tells Michael, “You are a remarkable young man. You will do great things, Michael, not as the world defines them, but great in the way God defines them.” (p.164)
Honestly? That’s what I want. At my age (71) I know I have less years to live than I have lived. But nothing says that with the remaining years I have to sit on the sidelines and watch the world go by. I want to abandon what’s dead and to fearlessly preach the Gospel.
To my way of thinking, nothing else will do.
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Note: Check out Dancing Priest and the whole series by Glynn Young on Amazon. Start with DP and I guarantee you will decide to get and read the rest. And no, Glynn did not pay me to say that! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Posted in InTheShadow | 14 Responses »
Tags: book reference, Christian Living, Church, Future church, God's Plan, Leadership, Ministry, Opinion, Reflection, Sin, Story, Truth Telling
Tuesday, November 14th, 2023
Perhaps you have heard the saying, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” That phrase is used to state the obvious: what you have just been told is a bold-faced lie. I just read this morning about someone who made a bold-faced lie.
It is probably a familiar story/Scripture to many of you. The wise men has followed the star and it took them to Jerusalem. There they inquired about the star and asked a question that set a lot of folks on high alert: “Where is the Messiah to be born?” (Mt.2:4). The one with the biggest knee-jerk reaction was Herod. Leave off the “knee” and you have the kind of individual he was. But he was far more. Power hungry despot. Suspicious. Vengeful. Mad (as in crazy). Jealous. Words fail me to be able to truly describe how bad evil this man truly was.
So when he says to the wise men, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.“ (2:8), the words which flow off our tongue are “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” He had absolutely no intention of worshiping the Messiah, except on the edge of a sword. (2:16-17)
Bob Dylan once sang “You Gotta Serve Somebody.” (1979). Herod did…himself. We all serve/worship some one or some thing. It may not be as blatant a lie as Herod’s, but the failure to serve the Living, Triune God when we say we do truly echoes “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” At least Herod’s was blatant.
WHOM/what to you worship? Before you answer, please remember we have Someone who knows our every thought.
Posted in InTheShadow | 10 Responses »
Tags: Lying, Opinion, Reflection, Revenge, Scripture look, Truth Telling, Worship
Tuesday, October 17th, 2023
Two verses stopped me in my tracks this morning. They are from Proverbs 17:27-28- “Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.” (ESV)
WOW! Or is that a GULP?
Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying, “It is better to keep one’s mouth shut and thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.” Whether he said it or not is not the issue here. What IS the issue is the truth of that statement. Don’t you think it sound strangely like verse 28 that you just read?
The truth of the statement rises to the top. How many times have you said something and as soon as it passed through the doorway to your mouth you wished you could suck it right back in? But we all know the truth of that. You can’t. What is said is said and what is heard is heard. There is no “Return Unsaid” button. I know I have been guilty way more than I care to admit. I know I have hurt a lot of people over my 71 years-a lot more with my words than I have with a gun or a weapon. Unless, of course, you consider my “rapier wit” and my “fire-breathing tongue” a weapon (I do and so does James in James 3). My words have bitten, hurt, wounded, damaged, and even killed people’s spirits. Oh, how I wish I could have them back.
But I can’t. You can’t either. Words cannot be unsaid. Worse: they cannot be unheard. In this case, though, words that do matter are “I’m sorry” or “Please forgive me.”
Two verses will give us the right perspective as well as close our thoughts today. Psalm 119:101 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” God’s words are words we ought to be feeding ourselves with. What goes in comes out. The other Scripture is one we ought to memorize and then paste it everywhere: “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” (Ps.141:3 ESV)
Be careful of what you “eat” today and what you say.
Posted in InTheShadow | 8 Responses »
Tags: Christian Living, Kindness, Lifestyle, Ministry, Opinion, Reflection, Truth Telling, Words
Tuesday, October 10th, 2023
I had a good day yesterday…my birthday. I did absolutely nothing. That’s good and bad. While I worked in the office early and had a staff meeting that lasted all morning due to various reasons, I was unable to go to the Y or for a ride. 🙁 However, I had lunch with Jo and Tami (our adult daughter who is on Fall Break from teaching K kids…thanks Tami), then drove to Terre Haute to pick up my Pathfinder. It had been in the shop since last Thursday. That’s when the fun began.
I did absolutely nothing. Unless you count reading, laughing and eating ice cream nothing. I call it doing what I like to do when I don’t have anything else to do or want to do! 🙂
Honestly? I needed it. After a very busy weekend (I had a wedding rehearsal and ceremony), preaching twice in the morning, and small group I needed a slow day. Plus my schedule in 2023 has been full and hectic. Time away is needed by me and Jo, but such is our life right now and the holidays coming, that it isn’t going to happen. I do have several outlets (biking and the Y), but sometimes one needs more. Sometimes time away is essential. We are hoping 2024 works out for us.
What started me thinking of this (besides my own fatigue and realization)? I read a quote by former MLB player, Andrelton Simmons: “Most people carry scars that others can’t see or understand.” He walked away from baseball in 2020 due to mental health issues.
Several thoughts went through my mind when I read about him. First, we are sometimes very good covering up the real “me.” “Never let ’em see you sweat” is the saying that goes through my head. To let someone see who you really are is often seen as a sign of weakness to admit we even have a struggle. NO. NO it’s not! It is a sign of strength to admit it.
Second, no one dare criticize another who is going through a crisis. I need to constantly remind myself that “there but by the grace of God go I.” That could have been me. He is right. We all have scars. I know I do. And I need to remember to do as Joe Simon once sang about: “Walk a mile in my shoes.” Truthfully, we all need to walk a mile in someone’s moccasins before we dismiss or criticize them.
Jesus empathized with us. Hebrews 5:15 says, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” He knows. He understands. He stands with us. Next to us. Holding us up. Giving us His strength.
Don’t hide. Don’t pretend all is okay. Get help. Be honest. You are not alone.
Posted in InTheShadow | 8 Responses »
Tags: Christian Living, Friendship, God, Jesus, Kindness, Love, Mental Health, Mercy, Ministry, Opinion, Reflection, Story, Suffering, Truth Telling
Thursday, October 5th, 2023
I suppose all of us, at one time or another, have jumped to conclusions. We decided what someone was like or what took place without having adequate information. I’m pretty sure all of us have figured out what a person was like before we really knew. We hear snippets; we observe random actions; we surmise without knowing all the facts.
That’s like the old legend of the blind men who were brought to an elephant and asked to describe it based on their experience. One touched his trunk and said it was like a big snake. Another touched his leg and said it was like a tree. One touched his tail and said it was like a rope. And the other touched its side and said it was like a wall. Each was right and each was wrong. It all depended on their perception. They were incapable of seeing the big picture.
When someone jumps to a conclusion-without knowing all the facts-there isn’t much difference from that and the blind men’s perceptions of the elephant. In their limited vision, they may have been correct, but in reality they were wrong. When we form preconceived ideas without knowing all the facts, we do ourselves and those we are forming opinions about a great injustice.
Limited in knowledge and limited by experience like the blind men, we fail to grasp the complete truth, to get it right. We cheat the other person. And we cheat ourselves. I decided to look up preconceived notions to see what some have to say. There are a lot of quotes to consider but here is one I thought was pretty spot on: “Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.”
Let’s not jump to conclusions. Let’s not be hasty in our preconceived ideas. Let’s gather facts. Let’s give people the benefit of the doubt. Let’s make informed and wise decisions about people. We all deserve that, at least.
Posted in InTheShadow | 8 Responses »
Tags: Ministry, Miscellaneous, Opinion, Preconceived ideas, Reflection, Truth Telling
