Growing up with an Army Sergeant as a father was difficult and the best thing, he loved me enough to discipline me and to tell me the truth.
When I lied to him I felt sick and empty, he didn’t just discipline me, he taught me about truth.
He told me how lies made him feel, disrespected and unloved. When I caught the dog house on fire, I told a half truth and he knew it. Before spanking me, he explained to me what could have happened and why I was wrong.
What if I burned the whole house down with a little fire? He also taught me that half-truths are whole lies, half-truths are no more than deception, Satan used a half truth in the garden (Genesis 3:1-6.)
Deception is a twisting of the truth, which makes it so appealing; part of it is true, better not fall for that!
When we were little kids we told little lies, most of us learn as we mature those lies slowly become big lies. That is why the little kids must be disciplined; it helps them to grow up. Some people never learn and take lying to an extreme because they have lost touch with reality and no longer understand truth. There are no layers of truth—only the whole truth!
The Whole Truth?
The sad reality is most Christians don’t know or want the whole truth, but there’s nothing new about that; God’s people have a history of only wanting to believe what they want to believe about God.
As I write this, we are celebrating Palm Sunday, the prophesied arrival of the Messiah to the holy city of Jerusalem on an ordinary donkey ( Zachariah 9:9, Matt.21:1-11.) Yet, because He didn’t live up to their expectations of a mighty King, the Jewish people rejected Him as they cried out Hosanna in the highest. Jesus promised His disciples after He was gone, the Holy Spirit would come and continue to lead them in truth.
Hosanna literally means “Save us, I pray” in Hebrew; for centuries the Jews had dreamed of a Messiah who would rule the world and establish them as co-rulers—so much for feel-good dream theology!
His own people forgot God doesn’t work like man; this is why Jesus declared Himself as the truth, the Pharisees and other Jewish rabbis taught lies. They puffed up God’s people and taught them to seek greatness, they were overdosin’. But, we have something the world ain’t got. Jesus Declared Himself as the Truth (John 14:6) and reminded the Pharisees their father Satan was the great liar from the beginning (John 8:44.)
Every time Satan tells lies he twists truth to satisfy man’s desire (Genesis 3:1-6, Matthew 4:1-11.)
Truth doesn’t always feel good and surely doesn’t always make us happy—it makes us holy when the Spirit moves. Jesus confronting the religious leaders of His day is warning to the church today, we must walk in the whole truth, not just the parts we like or want to hear; the bad things of life are part of truth.
The church often prides itself on being heirs of the kingdom, almost perfect in and of ourselves. We live in a fabricated world of comfort. This is why a lot of Christians flock to feel-good teachings.
Instead of meaty sermons, they want motivational speakers like Joel Olsteen and Joyce Meyers to tell them what we want to hear, they don’t terrify the dark.
The truth is we are sinners and rotten to the core, even our acts of righteousness are filthy before a perfect God (Isaiah 64:6.) We can’t even trust our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9.)Without the hope of God through Jesus’ sacrifice, like the lost we wouldn’t stand a prayer, this world is broken.
Answered Prayers!
The sad truth is most believers want worldly lies to satisfy their selfish and stubborn ways more than the truth. The 2020 presidential election proved this. Most Christians flocked to the side of a candidate who not only admitted to lying to Americans about the Covid-19, but ran on a platform of greed and greatness, neither of which are Christian values, what a beautiful lie.
The so-called conservative party (GOP) has put their confidence in greed and earthly visions of grandeur. It only serves to make conservatives happy. Personally it makes me sick every time I hear Christians chop up the Word of God like chainsaws just so they can be lucky and justify their stubborn worldly dreams they pray for. Newsflash, their guy wasn’t the favorite candidate.
The dissent of conservatives is evidenced in the “conservative” news outlet. It makes me want to scream each time I hear a Fox news commentary. Fox News is just as slanted and one-sided as CNN, they both only tell one side of the story; the only difference is Fox News is tilted towards positive feel-good news that conservatives want to hear as if this world is Paradise.
I live in the Bible Belt where there is a saying, “I’ve read the end of the Bible and the good news is we win.” I cringe each time I hear this because, if they really read the end of the Bible, they would know that if anyone adds to God’s Word or takes away from it, they don’t win—they don’t go to Heaven (Revelation 22:18-19,) that is the whole truth!
