Life Matters - January 11, 2023
“You believe that easily which you hope for earnestly.” – Terence. That is where lies get their traction, is it not? Someone, somewhere has a hidden agenda called hope. We may hear a juicy rumor, for instance, hope its not true, but then, in our fixation upon it, repeat it to someone else and suddenly we hope we didn’t say an untruth (otherwise known as a lie) and so our hope may switch. From hoping its not true to hoping it is. That is the problem with gossip, is it not? Its definition is, as Webster puts it, “rumor or report of an intimate nature.” And a rumor is without known authority for its truth.
Cleaning up gossip and/or lies, however, can be much like stuffing escaped goose-down back into a feather pillow in the great outdoors on a breezy day. Or akin to an attempt to stuff toothpaste back into its tube.
It would be naive to claim that “cleaning house” of this present-day accumulation of lies will be an easy task. It would also be naive to think our mission accomplished once the lies are removed from the present government, social order, our homes, churches and personal lives.
Jesus tells us what happens when a house (a person) has an evil spirit removed and then is left empty, swept and garnished. I quote, “when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it also be unto this wicked generation.” (Matthew 12: 43-45) We can safely assume in the context, that “this wicked generation” is a people “cleaning house,” then, of lies without an influx of Truth. Goodness, in fact, strikes fear into wickedness. Truth strikes fear into a lying spirit. The reactions of fear when goodness exposes wickedness, and/or Truth reveals lying, can be fearful indeed. But in either case, the wicked and/or the liar has a blessed opportunity. An opportunity to change allegiance. From wickedness to goodness. From lying to being truthful. Which is a reasonable change of heart as both Goodness and Truth, embodied in Jesus Christ, have already won the war in Heaven. The battle rages on here, but temporarily, as the devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour ... “because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” (I Peter 5:8/Revelation 12:12) ... “he hath but a short time.” God through John made that statement almost 2,000 years ago and none of us know how long “a short time” is with He to whom “a thousand years is as one day and one day as a thousand years” (II Peter 3:8) but this we do know; that the time to the end of that “short time” is shorter now than it was 2,000 years ago.
Take courage, “redemption draweth nigh.” And it is not God’s will that any should perish. Until that final redemption it is the calling of every Christian to keep pouring Truth into this lie-besodden world. The Truth of creation and our creator God. The Truth about the fall into sin and the resulting, ongoing, nature of sin. The Truth about our Holy God who cannot overlook sin. The Truth about the Word of God (Jesus) being born into this world as a man, living a sinless life, defeating sin, death, and hell itself by His life, death, and resurrection. The Truth of his redeeming grace. The Truth of Jesus ascending into Heaven and His Promise to come again. In the meantime, providing all wisdom and power for the crooked to be made straight, to bring the valleys up and the hills down, to make the “rough places plain.” (Isaiah 40:4) To be as the estuary that keeps salt water in the bay by a continual flowing of fresh water from the river and its tributaries. May all of us be tributaries of Truth that form a continuously flowing river, keeping lies at bay. May we hope, pray, and strive earnestly for the prevailing of Truth in our day. Truth is Immortal. Life Matters!