40 Days of Truth - 11
Dr Jim Brown's TruNorth Devotional
40 Days of TRUTH
Day 11 | ABSOLUTE TRUTH
40 Days of TRUTH
Day 11 | ABSOLUTE TRUTH
ABSOLUTE TRUTH
Psalm 119:160
“The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” (NASB)
Have you ever had an acquaintance who seemed to have a proclivity for falsehoods? Who just couldn’t be trusted? Who would sometimes speak the truth, but just as often, not?
Many marriages have ended because of the lack of trust. Similarly, many business partnerships have crumbled, many students have been expelled, many have gone to jail, and many have died – due to lack of truthfulness.
In today’s world, there are so many “voices” wanting to be heard, wanting to be accepted as the truth, wanting to persuade others, wanting to be “in charge” and “in control” of the masses, that it’s getting more and more difficult to discern what is true and what is false.
So, how do YOU determine TRUTH?
Does your “vote for truth” go to the person who yells the loudest? Who seems the most sincere? Who is the most threatening if you don’t agree with him? Who seems the most logical? Who has the greatest credentials? Who looks truthful?
What is your measuring stick? How do you determine TRUTH in an age of countless voices vying for your attention?
The best man in my wedding recently sent me this tidbit by Dr. J.P. Moreland, Professor of Philosophy at Biola University: “Truth exists when something IS the way we perceive it to be. Truth and facts are actually not the same thing because truth is a relation between a "truth maker" [reality] and a "truth bearer" [my perception or my belief about the truth maker]. When the truth maker and the truth bearer match… truth exists.”
That is deep and thought provoking… and brings me back to our opening Scripture.
King David (the most likely author of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible), had lived his life in and out of the will of God. He was an imperfect person – like all of us – and yet after decades of walking with the LORD and being both chastised and loved by Him, he gives us his bottom line: “The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.”
Even then, 3000 years ago, he desired, as we do today, to know TRUTH and thus to be able to better discern what is true and what is false.
Today, many assume that just because they yell the loudest, threaten the most, or are able to debate ferociously, that they have the truth.
Nonsense. Truth – Ultimate Truth – has its source in the Creator of the Universe, Almighty God.
But each of us gets to choose. Believe God (who cannot lie) or believe a spokesman for the Enemy (who habitually lies and at best, speaks half-truths). Trust in God or trust in quicksand.
The chorus of the old hymn says it well:
“On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”
Prayer: Lord, I don’t want to stand on quicksand. I don’t want to pin my hopes on a lie. I am trusting in You and Your Word as the Absolute Truth. Help me to read your Word and to glean from it those things I need to live my life well and to be pleasing in your sight. Amen.
Psalm 119:160
“The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” (NASB)
Have you ever had an acquaintance who seemed to have a proclivity for falsehoods? Who just couldn’t be trusted? Who would sometimes speak the truth, but just as often, not?
Many marriages have ended because of the lack of trust. Similarly, many business partnerships have crumbled, many students have been expelled, many have gone to jail, and many have died – due to lack of truthfulness.
In today’s world, there are so many “voices” wanting to be heard, wanting to be accepted as the truth, wanting to persuade others, wanting to be “in charge” and “in control” of the masses, that it’s getting more and more difficult to discern what is true and what is false.
So, how do YOU determine TRUTH?
Does your “vote for truth” go to the person who yells the loudest? Who seems the most sincere? Who is the most threatening if you don’t agree with him? Who seems the most logical? Who has the greatest credentials? Who looks truthful?
What is your measuring stick? How do you determine TRUTH in an age of countless voices vying for your attention?
The best man in my wedding recently sent me this tidbit by Dr. J.P. Moreland, Professor of Philosophy at Biola University: “Truth exists when something IS the way we perceive it to be. Truth and facts are actually not the same thing because truth is a relation between a "truth maker" [reality] and a "truth bearer" [my perception or my belief about the truth maker]. When the truth maker and the truth bearer match… truth exists.”
That is deep and thought provoking… and brings me back to our opening Scripture.
King David (the most likely author of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible), had lived his life in and out of the will of God. He was an imperfect person – like all of us – and yet after decades of walking with the LORD and being both chastised and loved by Him, he gives us his bottom line: “The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.”
Even then, 3000 years ago, he desired, as we do today, to know TRUTH and thus to be able to better discern what is true and what is false.
Today, many assume that just because they yell the loudest, threaten the most, or are able to debate ferociously, that they have the truth.
Nonsense. Truth – Ultimate Truth – has its source in the Creator of the Universe, Almighty God.
But each of us gets to choose. Believe God (who cannot lie) or believe a spokesman for the Enemy (who habitually lies and at best, speaks half-truths). Trust in God or trust in quicksand.
The chorus of the old hymn says it well:
“On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”
Prayer: Lord, I don’t want to stand on quicksand. I don’t want to pin my hopes on a lie. I am trusting in You and Your Word as the Absolute Truth. Help me to read your Word and to glean from it those things I need to live my life well and to be pleasing in your sight. Amen.
Posted in Truth