Try talking to a liar. Allow truth to seep from your lips. It doesn't matter if the truth you're revealing concerns a relationship, employment, money, children, religion, or something else. Watch the liar's reaction. If you have ever experienced conversing with a liar then you know they hate it when you speak truth. Now put yourself in Jesus' shoes walking the earth conversing with liars who suspected him of being a liar. He provided miracles, signs and wonders to back up truth in all its forms, but still liars crucified him.
Jesus
We don't live like Jesus. We don't talk or walk like Jesus and some of us could care less about Jesus and what he did so long ago. But one thing most of us know especially if you have a personal relationship with Christ, is that he did/does exist. We also can conclude, just by all of the churches and bibles in this world, that he shook up people spiritually with what critics call, "lies" while others call, "truths" in a way that mere man could never compare.
For centuries, Jesus has been talked about long after his death and resurrection. It doesn't matter whether you believe in Jesus or not, his name will still be around when you die. So what exactly did this prophet, son of God, missionary, healer, and so much more really stand for anyway, and what makes him so special? In one word, I will answer, truth. He spoke and lived truth. There are many people who love truth even if they have a history of lying. Whether it comes in the form of word of mouth like a child-like story, a movie, in print, or over the Internet or radio, when a person is mature enough to have a reverence for truth, they love it! They desire to know the truth about someone's life, the truth about a business they are giving money to, the truth about a company they are working for, even the truth about a parent. However, liars hate truth! If truth inconvinces, hurts, exposes, or does anything that makes them feel less than happy, they want no parts of it and will work diligently to keep from anyone knowing the truth.
Think of how many people you have known over the years who may have spoken to you about Jesus, what was your reaction? Did you overreact, get an attitude, talk about the person badly, or feel defensive? If you did anything like this while adding an excuse to your reactions, then at that moment you had a problem with truth. Jesus represents truth! The words he spoke, while walking this earth, exposes liars in the past and presently. What liar do you know, including yourself in the past, wants to be exposed? This is why some will stay far away from those "strange, weird truth-loving" Christians, conspiracy theorists, wise grandmothers, bosses, or anyone else who speaks truth not only about the Bible but anything including our government!
If you have read the Bible in a way that challenged you to apply the holy scriptures to your life daily, you would see the lie that you are living. You would see the areas in your life where you are killing, stealing and destroying yourself, and others. You are your worst enemy--no need to blame the devil! Consider him an assistant. When we plant, water, and watch a lie grow, then we are no better than the devil! He will be more than happy to assist us with killing, stealing, and destroying ourselves and/or someone else. Think of the times a lie you told someone bothered you so much that you tried everything from drinking it away to walking away and still nothing seemed to work.
There are moments when it can be challenging to fathom that a mere man walked this earth and saved the world. But as we know from the Bible, he wasn't a mere man--he had power and authority over mankind.
The T in Truth
We have seen many times in movies Jesus carrying the cross, you know that "T" in truth. Think for a moment about the cross, now see it as the letter "t" for truth. Now connect it with your life. Picture yourself walking with Jesus. If you are a truth seeker, truth lover, truth mover and shaker or even a part of a truth movement, you know that when you spread truth or help someone else, there are consequences to pay. It doesn't have to be just the gospel of Christ that you are spreading, you may want to help others know the truth about all sorts of people, places and things so that they aren't following the devil's many paths of destruction.
For far too long, many Christians have limited truth to just talking about the Bible as if their jobs of spreading truth stop there! The bible is the foundation that we need to stand for truth in whatever we do. It's time to wake up my fellow brother and sister in Christ! Someone or group has sold us lies--since we were children, in a variety of forms, which has affected every area of our lives from the personal choices that we make to date to what we choose to believe or not about Christ and the Bible.
It's time to start investigating and questioning things like, "Why do I make the choices I make? Who has been my influences over the years? What exactly do they stand for? Am I proud of the way I have been living internally and externally?"
Just about everything we watch on TV is a lie whether some truth appears in the storyline or not! If you should take the time to compare truths with lies in every program that you watch, the final result with many tv programs would be more lies than truths. For instance, how many times will you watch a sporting event and choose to believe that what you are watching is not in some cases a lie (ie. a televangelist's sermon, a reporter's breaking news, a refs bad call, or a player's real or faked injury to sway the outcome of a game.) There is too much money at stake to feed you the truth every time.
How many times will you watch the news to see that only part of the story is being told? You should ask yourself the next time you are watching the news, "What am I not being told and why? How many times will you hear a relative tell you a story about family history and not question it? How many times will you help your child with homework, but not bother to sit down to find out what lies his or her friends told him today?
Exposing Lies
You may have just exposed a co-worker, relative or friend's lie(s). You may have told them the truth about how you feel about a situation while hoping this person will tell the truth about how he or she feels, but instead a lie comes out. It hurts, doesn't it when someone lies? It also hurts sometimes when a person tells the truth too especially about yourself. You know you need to hear it, but you don't want to. Some people become defensive, they want to crucify the messenger. Isn't that what happened to Jesus? He carried the "t" in truth and with the same truth, liars crucified him. Some members of your own family may have already done this to you, because they can't handle the truth.
There is sometimes a price to pay for spreading, following, connecting or dare I say it, nailing truth (Jesus) to the cross. The sacrifice for truth is what turns people off. They believe it's just easier to tell a lie. Sure it is, for now, but lies always come back to haunt you, now don't they? Oftentimes truth is revealed after a relative or friend has died. Some Christians will lie about heaven and hell claiming that either one, the other or both don't exist while sticking to a falsehood of how "great, kind" or "wonderful" a person was now that he or she is dead.
Heaven
Jesus ascended to a place that some will simply not believe in nor talk about. It seems too good to be true. But it doesn't matter what we believe, there are thousands of documents of people and stories that were written long before we came into this world about a place called heaven. I am no fool, and will not argue whether it exists or doesn't. I just read what the word says about both heaven and hell and hope that there is a place in heaven for me after I'm dead.
Seek Truth
As a new believer, a backsliding one or someone who is just thinking about Christianity and what it all means, you have to study and know truth in ALL its forms not just in the Gospels which at times can be tainted--this is why you must go to God and ask for the Holy Spirit (See the Book of Acts.) It's not enough to just read the Bible, but you have to take it's principles and grow from them!
Question liars everywhere, from the salesman at the car dealership to a bad ref at a game. Teach your children truth, because they won't always get it in school, from a relative or from their peers. Talk to your partner about truth to see if he or she is serious about being in your life for the rest of your life. Ask relatives about the truth concerning family history. Most of all, search for truth in you!
Will you be popular in the end because you're a truth seeker? No. Will things stay the same in your life as you pursue truth? No. Will liars attack, hurt, abuse or run away from you? Yes.
In closing, I leave you with the following questions: What is the price you are willing to pay for truth? How much time are you willing to spend in truth? Are you even ready to accept and carry your cross of truth in all that you do? Consider the work that Christ did on the cross for you and me, now start doing something to help others know the truth in ALL its forms.
