MAKE A HABIT OF LOVING TRUTH AND HATING LIES
Today's lessons from God's word has to do with deception and lying agendas. Slander, disagreements, living under the power of the flesh and the god of lies (Satan).
There used to be this thing called wearing your religion on your sleeve. Today we live our lies on our sleeves; tattooed onto our skin, listed as pronouns in our bios, colored into our hair, pierced onto our flesh, and married into our family lifestyles and communities of faith. We used to condemn people who wore their religion on their sleeves, today we celebrate wearing lies in every aspect of our social institutions.
THE TRUTH IS: There are balls and there are strikes and we should call them as they are. Objectively, we follow Jesus the God of truth. You can't avoid the lies or the truth. We live in a world of counterfeit truth, false teachers, idols and spinning spiritual politicians. We live in an age and among a people who have tolerated unbelievable untruths. Some think they are innocent as long as they say what is technically true, even though they intend to mislead others to believe what is not true. It is possible to tell things that are technically true, yet we leave out pertinent facts or otherwise speak in a way that we end up leading others to believe untruths (like FakeBook fact-checkers). Even mandating untruths and thinking they are righteous in doing so (like corporate lapdogs working for the government). They claim to be convinced by some evidence but really that's not why they believe as they do. They just don't want to face the objective truth, so they defend their position or other errors until they've convinced themselves it is true. Self-deception is sad in any area of life, but it is especially sad that the area of life in which most people deceive themselves is religion.
Friends,
There are six things the Lord hates—no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family (Proverbs 6:16-19).
We cannot operate on half truths and little white lies- 1 John 2:21 "I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth." Lying generally involves deliberate falsehood, told with the intent of misleading or causing someone to believe an error. The followers know the truth because they follow the God of Truth. Many folks in the vanity fair will deceive the people with backbiting, gaslighting, and smooth talk. These lying spinmeisters are everywhere. Jude16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. These false prophets prophesied lies in God's name. He had not sent them, commanded them, nor spoke to them, but they prophesied a false vision and the deceit of their heart (Jeremiah 14:4). "False apostles" are called "deceitful workers," because they pretend to be servants of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13–15). And for that reason the people need to stand firm in the truth. They absolutely need to guard their hearts and minds. When we tell lies then we've followed the influence of Satan and his hordes of deception demons, but the ultimate problem is in our hearts. If we are going to change, we have to start by changing our attitudes. The head is the ruler of the heart. If Jesus isn't truly ruling our minds, he cannot truly live within our hearts. And we NEED Jesus as our head, Jesus warned that people would revile and persecute His disciples. False accusations and lies are a standard means for persecution, intended to intimidate the righteous to compromise the truth or to discredit their influence. Lies insidiously erode truth, Proverbs 29:12 - If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his servants become wicked. The people must guard their hearts.
Jesus followers follow the truth, the whole objective truth. (John 1:14) "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus, the God of Truth said “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me." (John 15)
Prayer:
Psalm 120:2
Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips,
From a deceitful tongue.
Keep deception and lies far from me,
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is my portion Proverbs 30:8