Thursday, October 16, 2008

Truth, Lies, and the People That Follow Them

At election times there are always stark challenges to truth. Did he do or say one thing and vote another? Is this person honest and trustworthy more so than his opponent? Will this person promise not to raise my taxes and will they, once elected, raise my taxes anyway? Sometimes it seems that truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

But there is such a thing as real truth. No matter what our generation says about truth, there are some absolutes that never change. The fact that some people say that there absolutely are no absolute shows the flaw in the argument. It is like saying, "ALL generalizations are bad." "And don't start a sentence with a preposition."

Gods word gives us a great picture of what happens when people exchange truth for lies.

"The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie...therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd." Zechariah 10:2

As followers of Christ there are lies we buy into everyday that keep us from living out the life we should be living. Here are some of the lies that I have been facing lately:

* I have to be perfect to be loved.
* I am responsible to make everyone around me grow in their faith.
* The success of the church is a reflection of how good I am.

All of these lies have one common ingredient: me. They are all based on a sense of self-value that is distorted by the world in which we live. We have the idea that somehow everything depends on us. That is not true.

One of the heroes of my life has been the late Bill Bright. he founded Campus Crusade for Christ and lived with a passion for reaching the next generations with the message of the gospel. I attended seminary at a school he founded. One if his favorite sayings to us was "Work as hard as you can and leave the results to God."

That is the truth that we as leaders must embrace. We must understand that true, lasting fruit only comes from the Heavenly Father. We find his truth in his word and in the power of his word to come alive in our lives. That is truth that lasts and that produces people of God who follow the Truth.

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