Truth Be Told - Psalm 119:163

Psalm 119:163 I hate and detest falsehood but I love your law. (NIV)

Luke 4:13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Christ until an opportune time. (NIV)

A culture of integrity is absolutely essential for the health, unity, and longevity of any group, community, or society. When the truth is diminished and lies are embraced, fragmentation occurs which will eventually lead to the destruction of the group. Denial sets in, causing fear to trigger hostility and hatred. Falsehood creates confusion as people struggle to recognize the truth and the community becomes divided which is exactly what liars want to increase their importance and power because a fragmented group is so much easier to conquer, manipulate, and oppress than a united one.

When Christ wrestled with Satan in the wilderness, He encountered the father of all falsehood and lies. The devil even used scripture to justify the temptations he placed before Jesus, claiming that this would be exactly what God wanted. Against anybody else, this demonic ploy would have worked, but Christ saw right through the devil and knew that scripture was being twisted in order to manipulate Jesus. Just because Satan used holy words and perfectly recited them did not make him faithful or truthful. The devil was trying to separate Christ from God using quotes from the Bible, almost the diabolical equivalent of Facebook memes in our time. But no matter how devious the devil was, or how much slickness and charm he used to persuade Jesus, our Savior knew exactly what was truthful and what was false.

An important part of our responsibility as Christians is not only to seek the truth and do what is right, but to confront falsehood and lies. If we pander to or excuse powerful liars in our midst then we are failing to follow Jesus. We are expected to be messengers of the truth and not harbingers of lies; we are supposed to judge what is right and not justify anything that is wrong. If we feel confused or conflicted about these things, then we have to defer and default to Christ. He constantly confronted corruption and lies in His lifetime and successfully fought against Satan, the father of all lies, so should we expect Him or His followers to do differently in our present age?

Point to ponder

How do I differentiate between what is true and what is false? Am I a sharer of the truth or a spreader of lies? Am I honestly following Christ or my own ways?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we have sinfully made it difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, as well as right and wrong these days. We allow our prejudices to persuade us that what we want for ourselves must be right and all that we believe must be true. Forgive our foolish notions and guide us back to Your godly ways. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Come along and join us for worship on Sundays at 11:00 AM. You will be made very welcome. 😊

Today’s image is one of John’s latest art nouveau designs called ‘Seussitoshi.’ If you would like to view a larger version, please click this link: Seussitoshi.

Daily Devotional : Living Freely - why open government is good for everyone

1 Peter 2:16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. (NIV)

Our town, Knoxville, Tennessee, has been rocked by the corrupt practices of our local government. Our local newspaper, the News-Sentinel, has at last lived up to its name by bringing a law suit against the Knox County commissioners who made backroom deals with regard to replacement commissioners. According to the Sentinel’s law suit, these commissioners broke the Sunshine law by ensuring that their own people, and in some cases, their own family members, were awarded the vacant seats. We even ended up having a convicted drug dealer representing some people in our county. How corrupt is that?

For some people, this was major news. They didn’t think that our local government was capable of this kind of wheeling and dealing. For me, it was old news. You may remember that I was a regular guest of the morning radio show “The Voice” hosted by Lloyd Daugherty and Kelvin Moxley. We had been talking about this level of corruption in local government eighteen months before the newspaper decided to take up the cudgel and try to oust the backroom boys. We raised these issues on a regular basis and became a thorn in the authority’s side. We stopped broadcasting because some mysterious buyers purchased the station and turned it into a sports radio channel. It seems to me that we were making waves, so some groups were happy when we were no longer on the air.

Now these issues have come to the surface and the whole town is reeling from it. Our trust in our local commissioners has hit an all time low and it will probably take one or two elections to properly oust the backroom shenanigans and replace it with open government. Perhaps, in due course, our county commissioners will gain the respect of the people, and use their power not to cover up shady dealings, but to live as servants of the people they represent.

I guess this is an unusual devotional this morning because it deals with politics instead of faith, but in God’s world there is no separation. All of us are accountable for what we do with our freedom and our faith. Let’s hope and pray that we can all do a better job of choosing our representatives in the future, and that they will do an excellent job of representing their constituents.

Prayer: Lord, we pray for those who are in authority above us through being elected to represent the people in government. We ask that You will guide their hearts and minds to freely, fairly, and openly make decisions on behalf of our community. Grant them the courage to oust corruption and to stand up to those who would take false advantage of their privileged positions. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.