One of the most ridiculous statements I’ve ever heard is that the Bible is old hat and irrelevant. Only the winds of ignorance can propel anyone to such a conclusion.
If the Bible is irrelevant then peace, joy and a right standing before God are lost forever; for only true love can plant these longings in our hearts.
And so if we dismiss the greatest love story ever told without proper investigation, we do it at our own peril.
Once upon a time I found it hard to embrace a belief in God; but once He called me to faith I discovered hope and fulfilment.
If there was a weird mob roaming the earth, it would have to be “we” humans, for we’ve all been guilty at some point of holding onto a presupposition that God’s rescuer, Jesus Christ couldn’t or can’t help us.
Proverbs 18 v 13 reads: “He that answers a matter before he hears it entirely; such action is a folly and a shame unto that person.”
In today’s world, proclaiming the truth is becoming an impossible task. Not only do we have thought police patrolling what can and can’t be said in our public spaces but the populous at large have “tuned out”, preferring the profitless enjoyments of fables and lies.
In fact, because we prefer to feast on sugar-coated falsehoods we inadvertently idolise them as “god’s of truth”. But these unfulfilling God’s only offer hopelessness and counterfeit love.
But until we conclude irrefutably that Jesus was either a fable, a liar, or simply a lunatic, then Jesus remains who He claims to be, Lord and Christ; indeed “the only truth” this world can hang its hat on. Life choices that sit at odds with Jesus are simply anti-truths or anti-Jesus or anti-Christ.
When speaking about “truth”, Edmund Spencer said: “There’s a principle that becomes a bar against all information; and this inner barrier desensitisers us offering proof against all argument; and this principle of ‘condemnation before investigation’ cannot fail to keep mankind in everlasting ignorance.”
In fact, the depth of inner commotion we experience when exposed to “truth” for the first time is directly proportional to how deeply we believe “fables and lies” to be true.
Dresden James says: “It wasn’t that the world was round that agitated people; what agitated them was that the world wasn’t flat. When a well-packaged web of lies is sold gradually to the masses over generations, ‘truth’ seems utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.”
What did Jesus say? “I am the way, the truth and the Life. No man can come to The Father but by me. And any man The Father gives me, I will never reject.” Does that sound like a raving lunatic speaking to you; or perhaps you detect a spark of truth that may start a bush fire of faith in your heart?
See you in church!
Jim Seymour / Pastor www.tp4c.org.au / like us at Tenterfield Presbyterian Family.
