Truth And Perception
I’d like to post some simple reflections on an issue that’s been on my mind this year.
I believe in truth, that there are unalterable facts which will always be an accurate representation of reality. I believe it’s our duty to seek truth, and I believe that the ultimate representation of truth is found in God. Having said that, I want to talk a little bit about perceptions and the different beliefs we hold to having a strong affect on the way we interpret the world around us. Bear with me as I jump to a seemingly unrelated issue:
Pride is something I struggle with a lot. In recent months God has allowed me to identify a lot of areas in my life where my thoughts and actions are heavily determined by a proud spirit. It’s natural to admit to being wrong when it’s revealed to you without a shadow of doubt that you were, but it takes humility to acknowledge the possibility of being wrong based on another’s assessment of the issue at hand.
To tie the last two paragraphs together, I believe in unshakable truths we can bet our lives on, while at the same time realising we can only grow in faith and knowledge by having an accurate assessment of how much we really know and who we are! One of the things I’ve come to see is that we can ignore the fact that much of what we hold to is more our interpretation of what we see around us rather than universal and unalterable truth.
Finding a balance between what we can hold to as truth, and what we must acknowledge as simply being our perspective is a difficult endeavor. On the one hand there’s the danger of a post-modern worldview denying the existence of any universal truth, or at least the ability to confidently identify it. On the other, we can fall into the trap of allowing our pride to label everything we believe in as universal truth that everyone else must hold to.
I will leave you with this video which I found quite fascinating as both a demonstration of the power of perception, and an insight into how confident we can be in our perceptions. Many people have seen this video and flat out refused to believe anyone could see the girl spinning in a different direction than the one they saw her spinning in, check out the video and let me know what you see.
Two Friends Not To Be Forsaken
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart. Proverbs 3:3
This verse tells us to hold on to certain truths, that should in turn radiate from us: mercy and truth.
We tend to crave ‘mercy’ for ourselves but ‘truth’ for others. We easily overlook our own shortcomings but hold others to a very high, even impossible standard. We readily acknowledge our feet are only made of clay, but assume others are made of refined gold or bronze.
Yet God is calling us to a better way.
So let’s look at these powerful twins separately and then together.
Why is mercy so important? A Christian is saved because of the great mercy of God, and the Bible tells us to extend that divine mercy to others. The very fact that it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, should be a powerful reminder to us that every day is a merciful gift of God, but also an opportunity to show that mercy to others.
So what about truth? It is the means of making a person like Jesus Christ: His Word is Truth. It is also the standard by which we are to live before God and others.
Truth is often uncomfortable, unpopular and intrudes into the darkest crevices of our hearts. To know the real truth about ourselves can often be devastating.
But at the very point that truth brings clouds of despair and conviction, the rays of mercy quickly follow! God sends us the truth that we might humbly accept his mercy.
So mercy and truth are in fact inseparable friends. They balance each other out perfectly. God is Truth and He is also Mercy.
So what does that mean for us?
1. Mercy cannot be extended at the expense of truth (personal ministry without a true Gospel witness);
2. The ‘hard, cold truth’ given without mercy, is in fact a distortion of truth (eg personal confrontation without hope);
3. God declares that these twin truths are so important to the spiritual good of His children, that His Word to describes them as needing to be physically attached to a person’s body, and written in the innermost chamber of their personality;
4. A person truly known for these graces, cannot be the ‘real thing’ without the transforming power of Christ;
5. To live out ‘mercy and truth’ will mean death to our selfishness and our love for what is false, or even what is close to the truth;
6. Are you known for your mercy and/or your personal honesty?
7. In conflict, do people expect you to respond fairly and graciously?
As William Arnot wrote in his classic, Studies in Proverbs:-
….‘mercy and truth’. These two, meeting and kissing in the Mediator, constitute the revealed character of God himself; and He desires to see, as it were, a miniature of his own likeness impressed upon his children…..It is only in Christ that we know God……mercy and truth meet in the person and sacrifice of the Son…..
Using Scripture Like Satan Does
I suppose there’s a lot more that could be said about my topic of the last three weeks. We did get a little interaction happening in the comments which would be worth looking at. But I’ll probably let that topic rest for now.
hose who know me well know that one topic I’m passionate about is preaching and the way we treat Scripture.
Using Scripture Like Satan Does
Satan uses Scripture. He even had the nerve to use it against Jesus at the temptation of Christ. Let’s have a quick look at how Satan used Scripture in Matthew 4:6:
- Satan used Scripture to make his own point.
- Satan used Scripture out of context and proportion.
- Satan used only the Scripture that seemed to support his point.
Sadly, I have heard Fundamentalist preachers do each of these things. I suspect at times I’ve done each of these things. We ought to tremble at the thought.
Preacher, if you get the chance to go to “cemetery,” go! Get out those dusty old “dead men’s” writings. Read them! Get off your street preaching pedestal long enough to get into the Book. Like, up to your armpits in the Book. Stop going to Scripture to find a place to preach your message from and start going to Scripture to find out what your message will be. Dare we not? Dare we treat Scripture like Satan does?
What an awesome responsibility we are entrusted with. Hear Paul’s solemn words:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 2 Peter 4:1-2
I’ll leave you with this…
- Treat the Word carelessly long enough and you might find your church doing meaningless stupidity like this.
- Josh (at least I think it’s Josh… the site doesn’t make it clear who is writing) is making the point that busyness can be an expression of laziness over at Truth Matters. A worthwhile read.
- And finally, more anti-prop 8 riots… er, rallies. This prop 8 supporter is pressing charges. Just to make it easy, I’ll embed the footage here:
Grace to you.
Sharpening Iron
Proverbs 27:17- “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
Recently, I’ve been convicted about the need to spend one-on-one time with people. Hanging out with a group of people is great and has its place but spending time with one or a few people can really grow a relationship in leaps and bounds.
“Lately, he had been feeling that this one-on-one individual work was as important as preaching. ‘To have a man come to see you at your own house and be able to talk with him plainly and directly about his soul’s welfare, what could be better?… I feel that there is more force in an appeal under these conditions…” –James Fraser, Missionary to the Lisu people.
Though Fraser was speaking of challenging a man on their eternal destiny, the principal is still true that one-on-one interaction may bring about openness and accountability between two people and therefore can be a source of spiritual growth and victory for both parties.
The verse above speaks of a friend who has the potential of sharpening the countenance, or rather, the behaviour, demeanour, spirit, or conduct of his friend. Iron can’t be sharpened by paper, cloth, or anything softer, but it can be sharpened by iron. So too, a man can only be sharpened by another man who is just as sharp.
Too many, Christians are fighting this spiritual battle alone. We find ourselves breeding a life of loneliness and closing out life of from the Word of God and also from the gaze of other Christians.
We need to cultivate an environment of openness and accountability. I will further discuss these points at a later post for now who are you sharpening or not allowing to sharpen you?
Peace
Apo
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Like it or not it’s that time of year again. Christmas. No doubt you’ve already been bombarded with the commercialization and materialism of the Saviour’s Advent. From the radio, junk mail, TV, and stores, EVERYONE is trying to get you to buy the latest and greatest gadgets and gifts this holiday season.
So what is on your wish list? What are you hoping to receive this year? What is at the top of your “must have” list?
May I suggest that whatever else might be on your Christmas wish list, that you add to it some books? BOOKS?! Yes, books! And not just any books. But some good Christian books that will challenge you and help you grow in your spiritual walk.
Good books can be pretty expensive so why not ask for them as gifts? You could go about this a couple of ways. First, you could ask for specific books that you want to add to your personal library. That way you should get exactly what you want. The only thing to be careful about with this suggestion is that if you give the same list of wanted books to several friends or family members, they might accidentally buy you several copies of the same book. So maybe you can give different titles to different people.
Or you can ask for gift vouchers to spend at a Christian bookstore like Koorong or Word. If I get vouchers for these kinds of places I try to hold on to them until a significant sale is being offered. That way I get more bang for my dollar.
If you want to stretch your dollar even further, check out the Christian books for sale on Ebay
. I have seen many great books for sale for next to nothing. The only reason I didn’t buy them is because I already own them and unfortunately I paid a lot more for them too!
So do you know which books you want for Christmas? Do you know which books are worth purchasing and which ones aren’t? It would be a shame to waste all of that Christmas money on books priced too high or on books of poor quality and content.
Are You A Calvinist?
I’ve been asked this all important question a good few times in the past couple of years. Maybe it has something to do with the church I attend, or maybe questions like that are regularly used conversation starters that I’m not aware of!
I’ve given fairly cryptic answers each time I’ve been asked this question, partly because I’m not completely settled on the issue, and partly because I don’t want to encourage labeling people by the position they hold on various issues.
Something that’s been of interest to me in the past few years is working out how to determine the importance of any given spiritual issue. One particular article on InFocus titled “Levels Of Beliefs” tries to tackle this issue and breaks beliefs down into various levels.
So many of the commands given to us in the Bible revolve around our relationship with God and others, yet it’s so easy to swap that out for saying what is acceptable to the groups we identify with, and pridefully engaging in debates which serve only to bring glory to ourselves, all the while neglecting God and what he desires of us.
Here are a few verses that have been of conviction to me when I’ve let my focus turn away from what it should be:
Matthew 23:23,24
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
2 Corinthians 3:6
Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
The two guidelines that have helped me the most when examining myself are a mental check of how frequently a particular topic appears in scripture, and assessing what kind of priority scripture gives to the issue at hand.
I don’t want to sound like I’m saying there are issues that don’t matter, if scripture touches on a subject then it is important to seek and understand what it says on that issue. Notwithstanding, there are varying levels of importance which we should recognise and priotise our efforts and convictions by.
What guidelines have you found helpful in determining how important a particular issue is? Perhaps I’ll deal with this from the angle of separation in a future post, I’d appreciate any feedback!
