Lovers and Haters of Truth

 

 

Why is it so difficult to relate to others especially regarding politics and religion? I think that Jesus’ answers are quite fitting. He mentions two very different groups of people: 

 • John 8:31–32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

o Free from what? 2 Corinthians 4:4, 6…The god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God…For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

 The other group did not love God or His Word: 

• John 8:37 “I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 8:42–43…If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.” 

Why were they unable to “bear to hear” the Word of God? The unbelieving world is under the influence of Satan (1 John 5:19) who hates all the things of God (Revelation 12). 

A close unbelieving friend of mine was reading my book on Psychological Apologetics. I had assured him that he would appreciate my anti-secular therapy perspective. He didn’t and explained that each time he encountered the word “God,” he’d have to put the book down. Eventually, he got rid of it. 

• John 8:45–47 “But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” 

Elsewhere, Jesus had explained that along with their rejection of Him, they had become lovers of the darkness, the lie: 

• John 3:19–21 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” 

Those who have come to the light and abide in His Word have come to know the truth which is setting them free (John 8:32) from the darkness into the love of the truth! To love the truth is to love the Word of God, the scalpel of the Holy Spirit: 

• Ephesians 6:17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 

To neglect this sword is to reject God’s many blessings: 

• 2 Peter 1:2–4 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 

I had become addicted to the darkness, feeding myself continually with positive affirmations and visualizations. As they failed to give me the high I craved, my self-deceptions had to become even more grandiose. Besides, I required the positive affirmations of others, which drove them away. I couldn’t endure criticism and failure, for they represented rebukes to my affirmations. Nor could I endure rejection. Therefore, I found reasons to reject them before they could reject me. I was walking in the darkness of my addiction until the painfully exposing light of Christ appeared in my life. Now I thank God for exposing my darkness:

 • Psalm 119:67, 71, 72 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word…It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. 

Yes, we do need to be afflicted. Only as our eyes open to the consequences of our addictions can we begin to hate the darkness in favor of the light.

DEPRESSION AND THE FALSE SELF

 

 

Depression has become a worldwide stalker: 

·       The total estimated number of people living with depression worldwide increased by 18.4% between 2005 and 2015 to 322 million, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly half of people living with depression live in the more highly-populated global areas...

 

Another study (2013) reported similar findings: 

·       ...depressive illness is the disease with the second heaviest burden on society, with around one in 20 people suffering...[This] burden increased by 37.5% between 1990 and 2010...(The Guardian) 

What can account for this dramatic rise? Globalization has improved the economic lot of many. Broad assortments of psychotherapies have proliferated, along with a massive self-help industry and support groups. However, there is no solid evidence that any of these interventions have been able to check this tsunami. Instead, it seems that both the disease and its various cures have grown together, perhaps even profiting from a symbiotic relationship. How? 

It seems that the more we attempt to elevate ourselves with positive affirmations, self-trust, and tokens of success, the more our problems worsen. King Herod of Israel had reached the top rung of power and influence. He had welcomed a team of ambassadors from Tyre and Sidon who needed Herod’s permission to buy Israel’s grain: 

·       On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them]. And the savvy ambassadors began shouting, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!" Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. (Acts 12:21-23) 

The ambassadors were shrewd. They understood human nature and exactly what the king was looking for. He had wanted to be exalted – and this need is never satisfied – and they were prepared to give Herod this honor. 

Clearly, self-exaltation comes at a great price. It did for Herod, and perhaps also for us. Jesus had been observing the way elite banquet guests had grabbed the seats of honor for themselves. Jesus warned: 

·       “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."(Luke 14:11) 

Perhaps depression and our other woes are the price we are increasingly paying for the heady drug of self-exaltation. Meanwhile, the major religions have warned against the dangers of pride and arrogance, and Jesus was no exception: 

·       And he [Jesus] said to them [the Pharisees], "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15) 

The higher we exalt ourselves, the harder we fall. However, even more seriously, self-exaltation is a stench before both God and man. Jesus had often exposed this Pharisaic tendency: 

·       “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.” (Matthew 23:5-7) 

They were all about self-promotion and their own glory. While the Pharisees had won the respect of the people, they had lost their own lives (Matthew 10:39). They had been successful self-promoters, but this “success” came at the price of self-deception. They had rejected the light of self-knowledge for the darkness of self-deceit (John 3:19-20), convincing themselves that they were worthy and righteous before a God. 

Self-deception? Inevitably! For self-exaltation to pay its desired dividends, we have to believe in our self-affirmations that we are superior and worthy of God’s esteem. However, self-deception is also alienation from self, others, and reality. It is to establish a parallel “reality” at odds with the rest of life. It is darkness and confusion and a rejection of the light of reason so necessary to navigate through life. Such blindness ends in shipwreck and depression. 

We become enslaved to a deadly, unseen form of addiction – ego boosts. Whether it is addiction to a substance, pornography, or to an inflated self-esteem, each will dominate our lives. However, the narcissistic addiction is more deadly since it remains unseen by the addict. But with any addiction, the more pleasure we derive from it, the more we need it. The more dependent we become, the less we can enjoy normal pleasures, and the greater the fall when deprived of our stimulant. When we cannot get our fix, the deeper we sink into a depressed state, the more desperate we become for the next fix. 

As a result, the more porn we imbibe, the less normal sex will satisfy us. Likewise, the more we depend on our inflated estimation of ourselves, the less we can tolerate the truth about ourselves. Besides, the suppressed material is always trying to rise to the surface, like a beach ball, which resists being submerged. Keeping down the ball and the suppressed material requires a continual all-consuming struggle, where peace is the first casualty. 

Our inflated self-esteem is related to depression in other ways. It destroys intimacy, friendship, and creates isolation. In order to maintain our self-esteem high, we are constantly seeking affirmation for the false self we have created, like the drug addict seeking his next fix. Consequently, friends become drugs to fulfill our need. We use them to get what we want, but no one wants to be used, and, after a while, it begins to feel that way to them. 

As a result, social isolation and loneliness have become a growing problem, despite the many new outlets for communication. Psychiatrists Jacqueline Olds and Richard Schwartz cite two “major studies” in this regard. In the first:

·       “McPherson found that between 1985 and 2004, the number of people with whom the average American discussed ‘important matters’ dropped from three to two. Even more stunning, the number of people who said that there was no one with whom they discussed important matters tripled: in 2004, individuals without a single confidant now made up nearly a quarter of those surveyed” (The Lonely American, 2). 

Many explanations are brought forward to explain our growing isolation. Some cite America’s legendary pioneering spirit and our emphasis on self-reliance. Others suggest that loneliness is a product of our frenetic pace. However, these explanations fail to explain the recent nose-dive in levels of intimacy, since we have always been self-reliant and frenetic! In addition to this, there is the finding of James Buie that “Depression…for those born after 1950 is as much as twenty times higher than the incidence rate for those born before 1910” (Edward Welch, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness, 113). 

Why? Perhaps it’s because we live in a society, which has consistently pushed the “believe in yourself” drug – the embrace of the new narcissism. Consequently, we have been encouraged to feed ourselves high doses of positive affirmations and to deny the negative. However, when the negative can no longer be denied, we seek the psychologist who reinforces our dysfunctional quest. They teach us how to more effectively believe in ourselves using various visualizations and self-affirmations. They merely renew our delusional self-hope and self-trust. However, this only reinforces our schizophrenic conflict to believe in ourselves when reality (including our own conscience) tells us otherwise. 

Consequently, we can no longer tolerate any constructive criticism, any light that might threaten our deceptions. This is especially true of the criticism we receive from our spouse, who knows us best. Its impact can be destructive of a marriage. Had we been living in the light, the criticism would not have threatened us. Instead, we might have appropriately responded, “You are right, and I need such reminders in order to make the necessary adjustments.” 

Instead, anything that exposes us represents a serious threat to our perceived well-being and must be extinguished as had been done to Jesus: 

·       “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me [Jesus] because I testify about it that its works are evil.” (John 7:7) 

We cannot tolerate the sight of our evil, especially after our addictive positive affirmations have “convinced” us of our righteousness and worthiness. Consequently, we live vulnerable and schizoid lives. We know the truth about ourselves but cannot face it and have condemned ourselves to an endless struggle to suppress the truth. We have become like King Herod. We know that we are not God, but we cannot do without the praise. We live in the shadows, ready to kill any attempt to expose us to the light. 

I know what living in the darkness and hating the exposure is all about. This tension had driven me into decades of depression. Instead, I needed to see and accept myself as I am, but I could not begin to do so. It required the assurances of God’s love, forgiveness, and acceptance to teach me to accept myself, even with my many faults, which I had refused to see: 

·       So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32) 

Increasingly, I am free from the darkness to face the light of truth. The struggle to prove myself has largely vanished. Beloved by my Savior, I have found rest. Having the praise of my God, I am no longer addicted to positive self-talk and praise of men. No longer needing their approval, I am now set free to give them my love and approval as fellow children of God.

Seriousness of Sin

 

 

Sin Kills: Even what we'd regard as a "white lie:

·       Acts 5:3–4 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

Whenever, we sin against man, we also sin against the three members of the Trinity. Therefore Peter informed Ananias that his sin hadn’t just been against man but primarily against the Triune God who had placed His laws within out hearts and minds. King Saul had likewise sinned against God:

 ·       1 Samuel 15:11; 20–23 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.”…And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”

God honors those who honor Him. Saul lied to God, Samuel, and had blamed his army for his own sins. When we reject the Word of God, we reject God, and He will reject us. It would be preferable to pluck our eye out if it would cause us to not sin:

·       Matthew 5:29–30 “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Unconfessed sin is so deceptive and destructive that the one sin of Adam and Eve led to many others—lying to God, hiding from Him, blame-shifting, and refusing to confess their sins and to repent. It resulted in death and the Fall of God’s entire creation.

·       Genesis 3:7–13 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

 Resisting Sin

Jesus resisted the Devil  by relying on the Word: Matthew 4:3–11 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” (Psalm 91) Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

If Jesus relied exclusively upon he Word, how much more must we. This is only one reason why we must rely on the Word:  

Psalm 1:1-3) Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

·       Psalm 119:11 “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You”

God does the heavy lifting. He makes new our heart and mind through regeneration. To grant repentance is also to grant us faith. The two are inseparable. Both are necessary to open our minds to the things of God to escape from bondage to the devil:

·       2 Timothy 2:24–26 …Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance [regeneration] leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

We cannot blame God, the devil, our upbringing, or a lack of freewill for our sins. Nor does He implant unwholesome desires within us. Instead, we are to take full responsibility by confessing and turning from our sins:

·       James 1:13–15 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

The only way that we can face our sins is to know that we are beloved and forgiven:

·       1 John 1:8–10 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

It is only with this assurance that we can live truthfully and confidently.

Cryptic Portraits of God’s Love—A CONDUIT For GOD’S BLESSINGS

 

 

 

For years it had been hard for me to believe that God loved me. Besides, I couldn’t trust in a God who might not love me. Perhaps He would save me but only reluctantly. I understood His promises but doubted that they could apply to me:

·       Ephesians 3:19 …to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

However, in time, I slowly became convinced that that did apply to me as I began to see glorious portraits of God’s love for all who would come to Him. Not only would He love me, but He would watch over me as He had with Abraham:

·       Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Since He would curse those that had dishonored me, I would never seek revenge but I would trust in Him who would defend me:

·       Romans 12:19–21 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” [Romans 13:1-5] To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I became convinced that He would also make me a channel of blessing to those my life had touched. Yahweh had assured Abraham that even if there were only 10 righteous people in Sodom, He would spare it as Abraham had prayed:

·       Genesis 18:32 Then [Abraham] said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten [righteous] are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”

Even though 10 righteous could not be found in Sodom, God knew Abraham’s concern for the family of Lot and saved them even though they were unworthy of Him. Perhaps also my growing sense of unworthiness wouldn’t hinder the grace of God.

I began to see the love of God for His children. He had promised Jeremiah that if he could find just one truth seeker in Jerusalem He would spare it from the Babylonian onslaught:

·       Jeremiah 5:1 “Search [Jerusalem’s] squares to see if you [Jeremiah] can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.”

Each of His children was so precious to God that He would spare that city because of that one. Similarly, if there is just one believer, God would regard as holy the entire family:

·       1 Corinthians 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

God’s net is so broad that He even wants to include unbelievers in some mysterious way. I began to see that His net would even include me and even the unrepentant to induce them to turn from their sins. God is even merciful towards those who refuse to turn from their sins. In the two examples of those who have been dis-fellowshipped, they would only have to confess their sins and to turn from them:

·       1 Timothy 1:19–20 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

·       1 Corinthians 5:5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

In both of these cases, dis-fellowship had been a reflection of God’s love in hope of restoration. How reassuring it is to know that all who come to Him are highly loved, blessed, and a blessing to others who might be kind to God’s children:

·       Matthew 10:40-42 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

We are so beloved by our Savior Jesus that any who bless us will be blessed and any who harm us will be harmed:

·       Corinthians 3:17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

I am now convinced that not only am I God’s beloved temple but also that I have become a conduit of God’s blessings to those around me. As a prisoner, Paul was being shipped to Rome to stand trial. However, the boat was blindsided by a horrible storm. After a week or two of battling the storm, the sailor was ready to give up all hope of survival. However, they hadn’t counted on the blessed presence of one of their prisoners:

·       Acts 27:22-24 “Yet now I [Paul] urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’”

It all unraveled just as Paul said it would. We are blessings to those around us but are barely aware of this fact. No longer do we need to prove to the world that we are of great worth. While some will hate us for this, others will love us (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). Nor could King David hardly believe in the restorative grace of God after his sin with Bathsheba and killing her husband. Despite his prayers, the Lord took his first child with Bathsheba. The second one he named Shlomo, meaning “peace,” in what might have been seen as a vain hope that now there would be peace with God:

·       2 Samuel 12:24–25 Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon [Shlomo]. And the LORD loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah [“beloved of God”], because of the LORD.

God had reassured David that He was able to do exceedingly abundantly above anything that David had hoped. Our God is able to take the worse sin-stained people and relationships and convert them into something beautiful, and I was reassured that He could do that for me.
I now rejoice that God loves me and will fulfill His plan for my life (Psalm 57). Nothing is any more important than this knowledge. How precious is our Lord!