Tag: Jesus

Becoming a Truthful Person

“Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.”  John 14:6, NCV

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As we travel through this amazing life, we’ll experience so many things.  We engage every kind of scenario.  Much of it is good, but some will be bad.  When my Mom would give me medicine, she would often mix it with sugar.  But I could still taste the bitter, even with the added sweetness.

We have come to the place where we must swallow the truth.  We are learning to see that truth must be accepted.  We are brought to a place where we must take the truth in, and become true people.  The Word is the place where we start to assimilate what is real and true.  We are confronted “point blank” by what is real and trustworthy.  Falsehood flakes off us, and we begin to bask in the solid and eternal.

We are supposed to become people of the truth.  What is false should have no real business with us.  It is alien to the believer in Jesus.  It is a gear that no longer “syncs” in our mechanism.  We only mesh with the truth from this moment on.  We have been altered and we now see things from a brand new perspective.

We belong to the truth.  It is who we are, and nothing should distract us.  So much however assaults us, and we must focus pretty much exclusively on the things we know are authentic.  Our faith is to be bona fide and true blue.  There should be not the  slightest hint of duplicity.  We must avoid the trap of becoming fraudulent to our generation.

Each of us must accept the truth.  About ourselves, and about the unfolding of this life, about the reality of evil and salvation.  The presence of Jesus turns life upside down.  The things that were on the bottom have now moved to the top. Everything has been tilted.  It’s not surprising that we have issues as we try to sort things out.

I want to be a truthful person.  Lies and half-truths are fluent in my world.  I become inured to what is real, as I choose the lie.  And the amazing thing, is when I lie, the other person seems to know it on some deep level.  I suppose I am a terrible liar, and my attempt at sincerity only makes it worse.  I think I could make several million dollars if I could only teach people how to lie better.

Truth must become an intimate friend.  We need to be guided by what is real and sincere. “Buy truth, and do not sell it, get wisdom and instruction and understanding.” Proverbs 23:23.  There has to be a firm grip on what is true, and certainly we cannot barter it away.  Christians are to be truthful, even in a world that isn’t.

 

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A Peace That Teaches

“Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God!”

Colossians 3:16-17, The Message

At times, there has to be a forceful unity in us and through us.  The idea of “tuning” yourself to someone else is a bit rattling, and even scary.  “What if they are confused, or indifferent?”  There exists a real fear of combining our hearts with another. It is a special challenge in our culture that stresses individual rights. We think ‘me’ when we should be thinking ‘we.’  We need to fall in step with someone else.

There also exists a need for us to cultivate thankfulness and gracefulness. To be blunt, this is not an easy thing.  It is most hard.  Cultivation implies so much– long days of work under a hot sun. But, if it works we will take it. For many of us, this could become our very next step in our discipleship.

This passage in Colossians seems to emphasize our real need to let the Word run furiously throughout our lives.  I have watched “The Running of the Bulls” in Pamplona. We are being chased.  But what I have seen is both beautiful and frightening.  The Book of Colossians can be like this.  So many challenges, and yet also very wonderful ones.

God’s Word however, is penultimate, it is to be supreme.  It simply demands total control of us. We are charged in these verses, to let the Word go crazy in our lives.  But it can’t rest stagnant and alone.  Rather we are to become belligerent and insistent voices that directs everything to Him. We stand, and then we reflect all of the glory to Jesus.

We learn in these two verses on the need for us to sing.  Singing can be something we grind out.  A great deal of effort exists before we can really make this take place.  But I still don’t think this is what the Apostle Paul has in mind.  Music is bound to happen inside our hearts.  We are to become saints of praise– singing saints.

Dear one, be a believer that sings.  Find your voice, and then lift it up to Him. If you have come to this point, I must believe you have truly understood His exceptional grace to you. But we also need to sing for our brothers. Countless times I have been encouraged by the songs coming from my companions of this amazing journey.

Whoa! 70,000 Hits

Thank you for helping Broken Believers to 70,000 hits!

Please, pray for us as we seek to help rascals, strugglers and mentally ill Christian believers with teaching and encouragement.  We are getting quite a few hits from overseas, as well as the lower 48.  (We even traced a hit to the Vatican, lol).  BB has been followed and read on every continent, except Antarctica.

(Oh, help yourself to a piece of cake!  And thanks, again.)

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Dealing with the Ultimate Fear?

When I was a boy I was terrified of death.  The very thought of being six feet deep in a small box, with maggots, rottenness and decay terrorized me.  I also had an incredible fear that someone would make a

mistake and that I would wake up entombed in a buried coffin.  Just thinking about it now unsettles me.  It was an anxiety that required diversions. Which I suppose led me down the road of escalating drug and alcohol abuse.  It undoubtedly led to much of my psychological issues that I deal with today.

Here is 2 Timothy 1:10, “Which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  Scripture says that  Jesus has ”abolished death”.  I have learned to love that word, “abolish”!  It means to nullify, eliminate or make obsolete.  This is a decisive and a dramatic word which soothes my fear, and calms my mind.

It’s like he pulled the plug.  Death does not operate for the believer, because he did a disconnect for us.  I used to think my terror was unique to me.  I felt like I couldn’t tell anyone that I had those moments alone when I would be overwhelmed by morbid thoughts of death.  But Jesus destroyed the devil!

“We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had power over death. But he also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying”,  Hebrews 2:14-15 NCV.

 “The fear of death is ingrafted in the common nature of all men, but faith works it out of Christians.“– V. Powell.  When an athlete goes into intense training he/she will develop in their muscles “lactic acid” (or for the geeks out there– 2-hydroxypropanoic acid)  Lactic acid is what causes the soreness and cramps in an overworked muscle.  Trainers will stretch and manipulate the athletes limbs to extract this acid.  Death has infused our souls, faith works it out of us.

Fear of death is nothing to be ashamed of.  Almost all of us have had those disturbing moments that seem irrational.  But it’s not a question of rationality, but of faith.  Do I really believe that Jesus unplugged death for me?  He made the deliberate decision to change the status quo for me.  It wasn’t an afterthought, but a definite act, purposeful and well thought out.

“I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone observes My teaching [lives in accordance with My message, keeps My word], he will by no means ever see and experience death.“ John 8:51, Amplified.

A tremendous promise for the believer, especially the believer who is anxious about death.  We are free now, free to live life in outrageous freedom! I proclaim Jesus’ promise to you, you are free!

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These are odds and ends that would not fit in this post. I didn’t want to trash them so here you go. <3

“Christian! Death cannot hurt you! Death is your best friend – who is commissioned by Christ to summon you from the world of vanity and woe, and from a body of sin and death – to the blissful regions of glory and immortality, to meet your Lord, and to be forever with him.”   –Wm. Mason

“Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.” —Helen Keller

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