Search

truth

How Do I Change My Perspective…Because I Want to Know the Truth

by

Our Perception of Things Depends on What Lens We Chose to Look Through

How we see things is too often something that we don’t give much thought to. We drift through life assuming things we hear and see are reality, when in fact they may not be.

Doug Miller made a statement in Sunday School once about people in Ireland dying after eating potatoes.

There was a time in the 1700s when everyone that ate potatoes in Ireland died.

What’s your first thought after reading this statement? If you’re like most people you’re wondering what was wrong with those potatoes.

The rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, was this. There was nothing wrong with the potatoes. Because…everyone who lived in Ireland in the 1700s has died whether that ate potatoes or not. That was more than two hundred years ago, and no one lives that long. The point of the story is this…

A true statement may not be the truth.

It’s easy to make assumptions based on what we hear or see. But is it the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Being aware that we make prematurely make assumptions about situations is where we begin to understand this problem.

So, what do we do about it?

We are intentional about what lens we use to look at things. We need to ask questions like a little kid and keep on asking them over and over, seeking the truth.

In Luke 4:14-30 Jesus was preaching in His hometown and what He was saying was not what his childhood neighbors expected. He was a carpenter’s son after all. He shouldn’t be saying that He was the fulfillment of the Scripture. That He was God come to earth.

This preconceived perception by people was what lead them to take Him to the edge of a cliff to throw Him over. Verses 28-29

Then Jesus leaves and goes to Capernaum (Luke 6:17-27) There He does preaching and healing and people came from all over to listen and be healed. It was an amazing thing that was happening. These people didn’t want Him to leave.

He told those who were following Him that things were going to be different than they seemed. What they thought was backward.

  • People who are poor will be blessed
  • People who are hungry will have plenty to eat
  • People who are crying will laugh

God will bless you when others hate you.

  • You rich people who’ve had an easy life will have struggles
  • You well fed people will go hungry
  • You who are laughing now will be crying and weeping

The Pharisees and teachers of the Law didn’t like this. They were feeling their power and authority being threatened by Jesus and they began to look for a way to get rid of Him. (Luke 6:6-11)

This is not to say that if you have money, food and are happy that you can’t be blessed. Look at King Solomon. God says is that our blessings come from what we believe and where our focus and loyalty is.

Are we looking at things through a worldly or Heavenly lens?

You can choose to build your life on the solid foundation of Christ or on the shaky one of the world. (Luke 6:46-49) Seek the truth and look at things through a Heavenly lens.

Doubt Can Be Important to Finding the Truth If We Don’t Stop There

by

It’s a Building Block for Greatness Not an Obstacle to Overcome

Earlier this month was April Fool’s Day, and there have been some pretty elaborate pranks pulled over the years. Like the big spaghetti harvest of 1957, or the flying penguins in 2008, or the baseball pitcher in 1995 that could throw a 168-mph fastball.

Some of us are more gullible than others. We can be too trusting and be taken advantage of by others. Some are more skeptical and untrusting, believing that everyone is out to get them. Both of these come from a combination of who we are naturally and from experiences.

Somewhere in the middle is the balance where we should be.

April Fool’s Day reminds me of a story that my brother once told me. He was taking classes at the community college in the neighboring town. He had gone shopping and his way back home stopped at McDonalds to have lunch with some of his friends from school.

Of course, he had to take his bag full of shopping treasures in to show off to the guys he was meeting.

As they were finishing their lunch, he saw somebody out in the parking lot that was leaving, who he needed to talk to So, he jumped up and ran out to catch them.

While he was still out in the parking lot, his buddies came outside and were leaving. They all said goodbye and went their separate ways.

On his way home he realized he had left his bag in the booth at McDonalds. So, he turned around and went back. When he got there someone was sitting where he had been, and they had his bag. He asked them for it, but they said it was theirs.

Then I asked my brother, “What was in the bag?”

Crap…like I’m feeding you.

A story that could turn believers into doubters.

Maybe Doubting Thomas, John 20:19-31, was told stories like the one my brother told. Because we know that if he couldn’t see and touch Jesus’s wounds, he wasn’t going to believe. He thought his friends were feeding him a bunch of “crap”.

It’s not like the other disciples hadn’t seen the wounds before they told Thomas. It’s not that Thomas didn’t believe after he saw. Thomas was having trouble wrapping his head around Jesus really being alive.

A week later the disciples were together again. This time, Thomas was with them. Jesus came in while the doors were still locked and stood in the middle of the group. He greeted his disciples and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands! Put your hand into my side. Stop doubting and have faith!”

Thomas replied, “You are my Lord and my God!”

 Jesus said, “Thomas, do you have faith because you have seen me? The people who have faith in me without seeing me are the ones who are really blessed!”

We haven’t been able to see and touch those wounds or witness Jesus being killed and coming back to life. This is where we are called to faith.

Struggling with and overcoming things makes us stronger on the other side.

Seeing our doubts disproved makes us stronger.

Another story that is hard to believe is about giraffe mothers kicking their newborn babies. This has got to be a joke, right! Why would they do that?

As if the eight-foot fall of a baby giraffe’s birth isn’t traumatic enough, as the baby lays there, the mother kicks it, sending it flying. This process continues again and again. Then after a few more times, the mother is happy to see the baby standing and goes over to it and…gives it yet another kick.

This time the young giraffe gets up quickly. Mama Giraffe is delighted.

Why would a mother giraffe do this? She knows that lions and leopards love giraffe meat. So, unless the baby giraffe learns quickly to get up and stay up with the pack…its chance of survival is slim.

It’s up to us to get back up each and every time we’re knocked down.

The prodigal son thought he had it all figured out. He got his inheritance early and went out and blew it. After finding himself in a place he hadn’t expected, he decided to go back and ask for forgiveness rather than continuing to wallow with pigs.

Whether we don’t do something because of doubt…or we do something, and it ends up being the wrong decision, we need to remember…

As long as we are still breathing, it’s not too late.

In either case we will be stronger and smarter afterward.

Don’t let your doubts or fears hold you back from the great things you’ve been put here to accomplish.

Blindly Believing is Easier Than the Hard Work of Finding the Truth

by

Rejection Is a Driving Force in Why We Follow the Crowd

We naturally desire being accepted…being included in the group of cool people. This need starts at an early age.

You’re probably aware of the game spin the bottle. In one version, whoever the bottle points at must either kiss the spinner or pay them a quarter. One man said that he got so many quarters that he paid his first year of college with quarters.

Now that’s some major rejection. This humorous story may make us laugh, but…

There’s nothing funny about rejection.

Most of us are familiar with the Palm Sunday story of Jesus riding the donkey into Jerusalem. The people gave Him a king’s welcome. They spread coats and palm branches on the road in front of Him. As told in Luke 19:28-44, His followers were shouting “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

We know that in a few short days after Jesus is received as a king, he is killed like a criminal. Talk about rejection.

There were two groups of people observing Jesus’ arrival. The majority of both groups were wrong in their perception of what this arrival meant. Both thought Jesus was going to come in and overthrow the government.

The Pharisees were scared that this would be the end to their power. The others thought this would give them the power. All of them wanted to be part of the “cool crowd”.

Because their focus was on being in the “cool crowd”, they missed the truth.

Too often this desire to fit in, blinds us to the truth.

Being alone is scary. It’s easier to believe what we’re told than to be alone and ask the hard questions. There’s strength in numbers. We feel much safer in a group, even if that group believes the wrong things.

This was never more evident than when the Nazi German regime was able to carry out over eleven million institutional killings between 1933 and 1945. In Andy Andrews book, How Do You Kill 11 Million People? Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think, he shows us how deadly it can be to believe a lie.

Seeking and discerning the truth is of critical importance. Believing lies is the most dangerous thing you can do. Be a careful student of the past, seeking accurate, factual accounts of events that illuminate our choices.

We must become informed, passionate people or suffer the consequences of our own ignorance and apathy. We can no longer measure a group’s worth by what we hear or want to be true. Instead,

We must use an unchanging Biblical standard of the pure, unvarnished truth. 

This truth affects both the world we live in now and the one beyond.

Be More Like the First Son

by

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

In Matthew 21:28-32 is a story about a man and his two sons. The man said to his sons, “Go work in my vineyards”. The first son said he wouldn’t go, but then later he changed his mind and went. The second son said he would go, but never did.

Which of these sons obeyed his father?

I would say that neither really did. It is evident that the son that actually went to the vineyard was at least honoring his father’s wishes. In the second part of the story, verses 31-32, Jesus makes a point about our eternal life.

I think this story is also important for the here and now.

Saying one thing and then doing something else is way too common. Sometimes it can be a simple misunderstanding, but more times than not it’s simply lying. We say things that people want to hear rather than the truth.

Not telling lies is one of the Ten Commandments, not to mention several other Scriptures expressing how God feels about lying. When we say one thing and then do something else, it’s a lie.

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

This is especially hard for people with a servant’s heart. We want to do everything we can for everyone. Saying no is one of the hardest things there is to do.

Trying to do everything for everyone leads to doing less things well for fewer people. Trying to do more than you have time for will lead to corner cutting and poor quality.

Both sons in this story lied to their father. Who knows why neither one just said what they meant.  The first son’s actions at least spoke louder than his words. So, if you’re going to do one or the other…

Be more like the first son.