Faith Column by Rev. Aaron Long: What is True, what is not
What is true and what is not in our modern society? We hear all sorts of stuff today, between podcasts, and YouTube, social media and the TV, everyone one out there has an opinion and is sharing it.
We see republicans and democrats, progressives and conservatives. We see feminists verses the manosphere and the young verse the old. Everyone has an opinion, everyone has a world view, everyone thinks they know how the world works and what we need to do to fix society.
Well, I am here to tell you, they are all wrong. I am not saying that from a place of arrogance or a personal sense of entitlement. I am saying it because I am a Christian. I am bought by the blood of Christ, redeemed, a child of God. As a Christian we are taught right off the bat that it isn’t about us, it’s about Jesus. Right off the bat we learn that the human heart is ultimately deceitful, but the bible is the Word of God.
A Christian understands that God has made us. He knows us better than anyone because He knitted us together in our mothers’ womb. A Christian knows what truth is because Jesus who bled and died for us is the way, the truth, and the life. A Christian knows what truth is because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, sanctifying and empowering us to do the work of Christ.
Ultimately a Christian knows what truth is because we have the bible. The bible, all sixty-six books of it are God breathed, written by different people at different times but teaching and telling the same story, the story of God in Jesus Christ. It is His Story, not history. The bible is truth.
Since the Bible is the Word of God it tells us how we are to live, what we are to believe, what we are to do. The bible guides us and shapes us as long as we are in the visible church, the body and bride of Christ. It forms us, gives us our marching orders and makes us who we need to be.
Your value as a person doesn’t come from a fraternity or sorority. It doesn’t come from who your family or parents are. It doesn’t come from your job, your bank account, or your social club. Your value as a person comes from knowing and living for Jesus, it comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, it comes from being a Christian, not just claiming to be one.
To many people try to get their sense of self from inside themselves, that will fail because we are broken people without Jesus. Too many people try to get their sense of self by belonging to a group, whether their race, nationality, or political party. That will fail because these are human organizations that have their own problems and issues that work against the Gospel from time to time. Too many people try to get their sense of self from self-help or YouTube groomers, that isn’t going to work because they tend to become demagogues and false teachers over time.
Truth is Jesus, truth is the bible, truth is the Word of God, the one source and fount of all that is right and good and true.
