Sandy came up to me to say hi. I did not recognize her at first. Sandy was one of the hard core addicts we had ministered to. I have always liked Sandy, she had a good heart but the addiction caused so much devastation in her life. I have not seen her for 23 years. She is off the street, clean and sober for several years, but the devastation of years of drugs and alcohol and life on the street shows in her face. She is only 59 but looks like she is 79.
Sandy told me that I had always told her the truth and that she appreciated that about me. She said I pissed her off some of the time, but she knew I told her the truth. This was refreshing for me to hear, because it has been my experience after 36 years of ministering to the streets, that most people do not want to know the truth. To know the truth means you have to make a decision. You have to reject it, ignore it or accept it. But to except it means you have to change.
What is truth? Pilot asked that question of Jesus, but did not hang around long enough to receive an answer. Today people sometimes ask the same question but really don't want the answer. They are comfortable in their own belief system. So just what is truth?
John 3:16 and 17 - for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Can it be that simple? Yes, and it is so simple that most will not, can not grasp this single truth: God loves us. God loves us in our brokeness, in our sinfulness, in our absolute messed upness.
The truth is not a doctrine, not a conservative nor a liberal theology. It is not protestant, nor Catholic. It is a person, no other than the son of God, Jesus Christ.
John 14:6 Jesus said that He was the way, the truth, the life and no one comes to God but through Him. So He is the truth, but to know the truth is to live the truth, and to live the truth is to follow Him that is the truth. How do you do that? simple: Read the four gospels and live as Jesus lived, Love as Jesus loved. Can you follow Him? It will be costly, but is the only way to be saved from ourselves, our addictions, our brokeness, our being messed up.
1 comments:
I watched "The Passion of the Christ" and was reminded that Pilate gazed intently into the very face of Truth Himself. I must remind myself often that Truth and Wisdom, etc., are not just "ethereal" terms --- but a Person --- with a Face, Whom I love.
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