Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Living the Truth - Part 1


Be sure to see previous posts to get the context of this article.

Here are the three principles I want us to look at:
        1. Know the truth.
        2. Accept the truth – believe, accept and embrace it
        3. Act according to the truth – make decisions, adjust your attitude, act the part

Let's dig deeper into these principles and then I will use them in some practical examples.

First then, we must know the truth. Jesus said in John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” This statement was not made in isolation however. Just before this, Jesus had said, “If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed.” The principles we are talking about depend on our being true disciples of Jesus Christ. They depend on our abiding in the word of Christ. This means that we need to be taking in the Scriptures, thinking about what they say and basing our life decisions on them. All of God's word is truth. Jesus said in John 17:17, “Your word is truth.” All of God's promises are truth. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “All of God's promises in him are yes and amen.” So become deeply familiar with the truth and promises of God. Know them!
In addition to the truth we find in Scripture we must know the truths of life – natural truths. You might think this is obvious, but a lot of people try to live life in contradiction to natural truth. Here are some examples:
Time moves only forward – so don't dwell on the past
You can't continually spend more money than you take in – so don't act like or wish you could
You can't change other people's minds for them – so just take care of your own attitudes; that's hard enough.
You can't add a day to your life by thinking about it (Matthew 6:27)

So the first principle is Know the Truth – both Scriptural and natural truth.

...to be continued...

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