WATCHWORD:
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. 1 John 4:6
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:1-5
Meditation:
The Truth…
One can believe all of the right things and still be quite unaffected, untransformed by that belief. But what we “love”, shapes our lives and has great power to transform. We have seen that in our lives, both the negative and the positive of that power.
Marcus Borg, in his book Convictions, makes the statement that “The Bible can be true without being literally true.” Think about that. In your Christian walk, in your core faith and belief in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, these things do not depend on elements being literally true, only that you are committed to those elements.
There’s a journey we all go through, a faith journey. I’m a PK. Most of you know that means I am a pastor’s kid. As a fairly mature adult now, I’ve come to embrace that label, and to realize the impact it had on me, being raised in that environment. As an adolescent, though, I was not so keen on that. In fact, during a meeting of our youth group, I was nominated to be chaplain. I vehemently refused the “honor”.
As a PK, I was not automatically a believer. In fact, I was in my 40s when I was born-again, and accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. A lot went into bringing me along, until I saw “The Way and The Truth.” I was challenged by a colleague regarding my faith, and it angered me, How dare he question my relationship with God! To which a loved one said, Stan, why are you so angry? Strange as it may seem, those two questions were absolutely key in bringing me to the Lord. Sign-posts on my faith journey.
Let me ask you a question: Do you believe all the stories in the Bible? Careful, now, it’s not a trick question. Let me ask it a different way: When did you begin to realize that the truth of those Bible stories does not depend on facts? Maybe in your God-given wisdom, you came to know that the truth of the Bible is more than literal meanings, it is more than factual meanings. Many are more symbolic, pointing to a truth.
Marcus Borg tells us that “Our Biblical ancestors told the stories they told, not for the sake of providing a reliable history of something. Rather, they told the stories they told because of the meanings they saw in the stories.”
Jesus’ parables were ‘made up’ stories. Theologians would say that those parables were parabolic. Their purpose was not to report something that happened, but to point to the meaning. Parabolic stories are both less than factual and more than factual in meaning. Get it? The Good Samaritan existed only in it’s meaning. The Prodigal Son, was the same. The meaning was the lesson. So it is with the narratives of the Bible, their purpose is meaning, not factual veracity.
So, what is the Truth of the Bible? This question has divided Christianity from the start. Blood-shed, Crusades, wars, division after division. Churches split, divide, disappear, etc. How many Christian denominations are there? Close to 50,000! That’s the truth! We argue over non-consequential points. God created…No! The Big Bang theory. The Grand Collision! God did not create? Really? So, Nothing collided with Nothing and created…something? Okay, God bless you, anyway!
Back to the Bible. The Bible is — The Word of God, The Word, Holy Writ, Good Book, Scripture, etc. As Jesus tells us, He is the Way, the Truth, the Life. TheBible is? I’ll stick with “Truth”. Amen.
Bulletin Board:
Paddy is kneeling in front of the altar in church praying to God for a million dollars. After a short while another guy kneels besides him, sobbing, and starts praying out loud for $100.00. Paddy is annoyed by the competing request so he shoves $100.00 into the man’s hand and tells him to get lost. As the astonished guy leaves the church Paddy looks up toward the heavens and asks, “Can we now concentrate on me?”
Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I come to You in poverty of spirit, to seek Your face during a time when the truth of Your Word seems to be being attacked on every side, and few seem to know or understand about the truth of Scripture. Father, it is sometimes hard to know what is true in a world when everything to do with God is being attacked, not only in the secular arena but in many Christian ministries as well.
You promised that Your Holy Spirit would guide Your children into all truth, especially those that seek You with all their whole hearts and Lord, I want to seek You and know You more and more but Lord, I do not want to be influenced by wrong doctrine or false teaching.
Keep me, I pray, and guide me in my life as I read Your Word and study the scriptures. Prevent me Lord, from being swept into the many false doctrines that are sweeping through Christendom today. Give me a discerning heart I pray, and help me to find the whole council of Your Word of Truth so that I may grow in grace and in a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You Father, in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
