When Jesus stood before Pilate, he asked Jesus if He was a king. Jesus responded: “You say that I’m a king’ Jesus replied. ‘I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.’ ‘ What is truth?’ said Pilate.” John 18:37-38 What is truth? There is the truth you and I live with, the truth we believe and live by, and there is the truth, unbelievers live by, fashioned by the thoughts of their own wisdom. But I am concerned that the church, that body of believers universal, is starting to sway from the truth that we have come to know in Christ, about the Lord God. You see, God still hates sin, but then people have grown to ask of themselves, “What is sin?” If I believe in Christ, but minimize the idol set before me in the world, that or those things that I keep hidden wanting to play, I will have developed an understanding that these might be alright to practice. But listen to the wisdom found in Proverbs, that lists seven things that the Lord hates. He hasn’t changed, and He still hates sin, but listen to these: “The Lord hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to Him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil, a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16-19 Arrogant eyes are the eyes that see what they desire, and through pride and arrogance, decide that the things they look at are alright for them, and will not interfere with their faith, yet God hates this. Some of these are easy as we don’t shed innocent blood, but do we have a lying tongue, do we have feet that rush to evil. The evil are the things of the world that seduce us to run to them. Lying tongues come from the fact that we try to make excuses that we can live within our thinking and have it not affect our relationship with the Lord. But it does! We understand that the world lives this way, but what about when the church starts to live this way. When we start to believe, as truth, that certain behavior is acceptable, as long as we say we love the Lord. Have we really repented of the things that pull us into the world? The seduction of lies try to transform us with another “truth” that we can live with. Let’s live by God’s truth, for His ways and His words of truth are the ones we will ultimately have to stand before, not the world’s truth.
Heavenly Father, Your word is truth, and forgive us when we have strayed from Your truth. Forgive us when we fabricate truth that allows us to live with sin of the world and in our lives, and accept it as new truth. Lord we need Your cleansing, the renewal of Your truth in us. May we see Your word in a whole new light today, Lord, reveal to us the sin that we have become so accustomed to that we covet it. I pray for deliverance and Your word, Your truth, will infiltrate our lives and hearts to worship. I give You praise and honor in Jesus name. Pastor Andy
Barnabas Man 