Thy Word is Truth

Shiran: The media feeds us a lot of hogwash when it comes to things like beauty and style, and occasionally even when it comes to the news, which is supposed to be the most honest of TV and radio programs. Nobody likes to be lied to, but somehow, the world seems eager to buy many of the lies paraded in its face. What gives?

Zack: I used to be like that too Shiran! I loved to hear only that which was pleasing to my ears. Even after I got to know Christ personally in December 2003, I still only loved to hear that portion of His Word which wasn’t so critical of my life as a lukewarm Christian then. That was until I was about three months into my salvation with the Lord Jesus Christ. I came across that portion of scripture that said about evil folk who in the last days shall collect to themselves instructors who only shall say to them (preach if you like) only the things that their ears itch to hear. Ergo, Shiran, I quite catch your drift there.

Shiran: This might seem random but I love my belts. Lately, I have realized that their value is far more than just fashion-oriented. Losing a lot of weight in the past few months has made them more than just a fancy piece of clothing, I now need them to hold my jeans up! I find myself constantly having to run around over wires and around buildings in my day-to-day activities. Jeans are the proper dress code for most of my days. Sagging pants would be an inconvenience, at the very least, and at worst they could trip me.

Zack, are you wondering where I’m going with this? I’m thinking about Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 6:14(a) – Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.

Zack: I love the Old English word, ‘girdle’; in part because it reminds me of folk in the Bible days (as I like to call the times that were in the days from Noah to when Jesus lived on the earth) as they would dress with mostly colourful sashes that ran down diagonally over their torso area upon their tunics and then girt their loins about securing the cloth over their bodies. The combination of all of that finally culminating in that word; GIRDLE. Please go on Shiran…

Shiran: I believe a few definitions are in order.

Loins: A part of the body between the hips and lower ribs, regarded as the seat of physical strength and generative power. (Dictionary.com)

Girt: the past tense (and past participle, I believe) of “gird”, which means “to encircle or bind with a belt or band,” and “to surround; enclose; hem in.” (Dictionary.com)

Roman soldiers, before whom the Apostle Paul came many a time, wore girdles to get garments out of the way of their legs, for swift and easy motion, which is particularly valuable during a war.

Paul must have understood this when he wrote the exhortation above. If we belt, or gird, ourselves with truth, then it makes our work easier for the kingdom of God.

Zack: True Shiran. And we mustn’t forget the correlation I guess with what you shared on the jeans above…the belt or girdle also ensures our clothes don’ fall off! I’m thinking that even in a war, if a soldier’s pants fell, his primary responsibility at the time would be to pick them up first before he struck the next blow to the enemy. A liability in war that would get him hurt if not killed as his eyes would for a moment there be focused off of the enemy!

Shiran: That said, we must answer the most important question, Zack. What exactly is this truth that we are ranting about? I was going to go on and try your method, and try and define it by looking at what it is not, but I realized just as I began that it can be summarized in one Name.

Zack: The name of Jesus???

Shiran: Before He was crucified, Jesus prayed for His disciples - that includes you and me (John ch.17)! Did you know that? I found that out just a few years ago and I was so excited that He took the time out to intercede for us even before He was on the cross. When any other human being would have been thinking about the ordeal they were about to face, He was thinking about us. Isn’t that just beautifully typical of our loving Saviour? Among my favourite lines in the prayer, and the one that comes most easily to mind, is,

Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. (John 17:17)

So, the Word of God is truth.

Zack: True Shiran. And have you seen the Biblical definition of what (who) this truth in the Psalms? Psalms 57: 3 He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy and truth. I believe it is from the snares of the evil one, even the Satan that the Psalmist is talking about here.

It gets better, Ephesians 6:21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. That word again Shiran, truth…

Shiran: Yup! Jesus said, Thy Word is truth. But, John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Which clarifies Christ’s words in John 14:6: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.

Zack: I just was gonna say that as well.

Shiran: So Jesus Christ is the Truth. The Bible is the truth. I believe, Zack, that when we realize that the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, speaks about Jesus Christ and His love from beginning to end, then we understand how He is the Word.

Zack: Isn’t it amazing, Shiran, the Grand design that God had and still has for His people. When you look at all of this and wonder how it could be there, sitting in both the old and new testaments alike? Truly, the Truth is the Word and that Word is the Christ.

Shiran: Now that that’s clear, I think we should go ahead and try to talk about what the truth is NOT.

Zack: Before you go on there Shiran, I’d guess if we could apply the law of opposites here then what the Truth is not would be that which the Word is not and inevitably what (who) the Christ is not. If you asked me even before I’d known Christ this question (and) with the knowledge above, I’d reassuringly say… it was Satan. And isn’t it interesting how later we learn (from the Word) that he is in effect the father of lies!

Shiran: The opposite of the truth is a lie.

King Solomon spoke about seven things that the LORD hates.

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him. A proud look, a lying tongue… (Prov 6:16-17).

This shows us, Zack, that our tongues are weapons that should be used to speak forth truth. Remember when we talked about faith? It must be exercised by our tongues, Jesus told us to say to the mountain, Be thou removed. In so doing, He demonstrated that God, who made us in His image, put immense power in our tongues – power that can be used for good, if the tongue is bridled by Him, but for great evil if it is carelessly let loose. A lying tongue is an abomination to the LORD.

Zack: So true Shiran! Where the light is, there’s absence of darkness. It’s so clear how this is an abomination to the LORD

Shiran: Every time I see something branded an abomination, I sort of do a subconscious double-take; it seems to me that the word is heavy with meaning and refers to something that disciples of Christ, children of the Most High God, should never come close to.

Zack: Speaking of, how did such an abomination come into the world?

Shiran: How did such an abomination come into the world? Well… just as Christ is truth, the devil is a liar and has absolutely no truth in him. He will, therefore, try to instill his personality over the children of God and try to sway us to live and believe his lies. Look at what Jesus said to the Jews:

… the devil… was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44)

Zack: ‘abode not in truth’ and ‘when he lies, he speaketh of his own…for he is a liar and the father of it’. Quite an avid description there!

Shiran: He is the father of all lies, from what seems simple, “No, Mummy, I was not licking sugar,” to the more outrageous “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” to the very abominable “there is no God and we have monkeys for ancestors.”

Zack: Hmmm…. lol. ‘to the more outrageous’. But on a more sombre note, I get the picture here Shiran. A lie, however big or small is basically the same thing… a LIE! And that doesn’t augur well with the LORD.

Shiran: I love that God instilled wisdom in Paul, and inspired him to write such powerful verses. When we let go of the truth, our belt, we begin to trip all over ourselves. Someone once said that liars must have good memories. when you start to tell lies, you have to remember to keep up, and that can be a hectic effort! Indeed you begin to trip over your armour and are inconvenienced in the war, until you go back to that place where you confess and ask God to cleanse you. Even then, you still need to gird your loins with truth.

Zack: Please go on… ditto there on the getting inconvenienced Shiran.

Shiran: If the loins run from the lower ribs to the hip, then that means they include the reproductive organs, which must be guarded. The way I look at this, then, is if we do not gird our loins, we will be unable to bring forth fruit as we are supposed to. How interesting it is that the words of Jesus in John 15:5 immediately come to mind!

I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.

Zack: He that abideth in the Truth put in another way! You know Shiran, this reminds me of those age-old English expressions, 'a chip off the old bloke', 'the apple not falling far from the tree'. And even the more... this is the Great Father talking! I'm blessed!!

Shiran: Zack, that blesses me too! Christ, the Truth, is the Vine – we are the branches, and only in Him can we bring forth fruit!

The punishment for all who follow after a lifestyle of lies is severe. After this life, we will all appear before God in the Day of Judgment. Those who have accepted Christ will be welcomed into heaven, to receive their crowns and partake of everlasting life. However, those who love to lie, and those who believe the lies of the devil, will not enter through the gates into the city:

Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. (Revelation 22:15)

I think it’s fair to say that due to our sinful nature, everyone has lied. Peter lied when he denied Christ, yet he went on to become a great apostle. It is in refusing to repent that I believe we err the most. When people are hardened in their ways, then hope continually becomes futile for them.

I believe if we ask God to put sin far from us, and to make us hate to displease Him, He will. If we abide in truth, we will be able to war with confidence and soar like eagles.

Zack: A great truth there Shiran, like Cece Winans says in her song, ‘a saint is just a sinner who fell down but rose again’, I believe we all still have a chance to redeem our sinful selves. And like you say again, then shall we be able to war with confidence and soar like eagles. Don’t you just love the way God’s Word puts it in Isaiah, those who wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, walk and not faint. But then there is that warning which we all must heed, Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins...

And finally Shiran, Let’s hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) - Hebrews 10:23

What FAITH is:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." HEBREWS 11:1

Zack: The Webster’s (or any other) dictionary couldn’t have come up with a better definition of faith than what the word of God just says in Hebrews 11:1. Simply put that definition is the whole epitome of faith. In this, the Spirit of God, through Paul, is telling us that faith is laying hold of the unrealities of hope and bringing them into the realm of reality.

Shiran: Zack, speaking of the Webster’s dictionary, I would just like to mention that to my knowledge, no book has been able to define anything as impeccably as the Bible does.

Zack: It is "the evidence of things not seen”, for instance if you hope for finances to meet an obligation; faith gives you the assurance that you’ll have the money when you need it. You hope for physical strength to do a job; faith says, “The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” – Psalm 27:1.

Shiran: That phrase, “the evidence of things not seen,” blessed me immensely one day, when I realized its meaning. It continues to bless even today. This is what happened. I looked up the definition of “evidence”. One of the definitions is, something indicative; an outward sign (American Heritage Dictionary). How can it be an outward sign, if it cannot be seen? Quite the oxymoron there! I think that is the essence of faith. You can’t see it, but it’s there. It is evident, although not seen.

Zack: Faith, the Bible tells us, grows out of the word of God. Romans 10:17, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Shiran: Allow me to interject, Zack. Faith comes by hearing. Further, hearing comes by the Word of God. Most people misread that verse, as "by hearing the word of God," instead of, "hearing by the word of God." It’s like a chain. The word of God -> Hearing -> Faith. The more we study the Bible, the more our faith is built. We see things that God did for people, and we realize that He does not change (Malachi 3:6) and can do the same for us, and we begin to believe Him for the impossible. Joshua, our example from the previous entry, prayed that the sun would not set, and it didn’t! The Bible says, the sun stood still in the midst of heaven… and there was no day like that before it or after it… for the LORD fought for Israel (Joshua 10:13-14). Things like that, and the promises that God makes us in His word, build our faith.

Zack: We must remember (always) that faith says the same thing the Word of God says.

Shiran: True! Faith is also a part of our armour, Zack. We know that this is a war. No soldier goes to war half-dressed. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that it is the most important! Above all, he says, take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. The greater your faith, the more effective your shield. Going by Romans 10:17, we can conclude that the more we study the word, the easier it will be for us to resist the devil, that he may flee (James 4:7).

Zack: One of the best ways in the world to find out what something is, is to find out what it is not. Firstly, faith is NOT hope. A lot of times when it comes to receiving an answer to prayer, healing or the Holy Spirit, folk are just hoping they will receive. But you see, it is not hoping that gets the job done. It is believing. When we take sides against the word of God (some times unknowingly too), that is unbelief. And one sad thing is that there are so many believing folk who talk ‘unbelief’ and taking sides against the Word of God and they wonder why God’s Word doesn’t work for them. It won’t work because they are taking sides against it. If you want God’s Word to work for you, then you side with it.

Shiran: Amen! Someone said, fear is faith that something bad is going to happen. And doubt is faith that nothing good will happen. So really, we all knowingly or unknowingly exercise faith, just that sometimes, it’s faith in the wrong things. Like you say, God loves to come through for those who believe He will.

Zack: The Word states, Now faith is… –that is the present tense. If it’s not now, it’s not faith. When we say we’ll believe for our answer to prayer sometime, that’s not faith – it’s hope. Hope is always futuristic. But faith is now. Faith says, “I’ll receive right now. I have it now”. If somebody offered you some money, would you say, “Well I don’t know whether to receive it or not, so I can’t be sure to say I am”. Nay, you would receive it right there and then. In like manner, God has already given to us, but we must receive, of faith. Mark 11:24, Jesus said, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them… He did not say, hope that ye receive them, but “believe”. Not hoping but believing.

Shiran: Amen!

Zack: If you’re seeking healing, it’s not in the future you want to be healed. It’s right now. If you’re seeking the Holy Spirit, it’s not in the future you want to be filled, it’s now – as long as you keep putting it in the future, that’s where it will be and that’s where it’s gonna stay at.

A lot of folk are on about how God is going to do something for them. Faith says that He has done it and is doing it. Take for an example, when it comes to healing, a lot of people say God has promised to heal them in His Word. An incorrect statement. God has not promised to heal you at all. 1 Peter 2:24: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. Read that last verse quote again.

Shiran: By whose stripes ye were healed. Past tense - already done.

Zack: When you’re done, does that translate into a promise? Nay, it’s a statement of fact which tells us that something has already happened. That verse doesn’t promise anyone healing. It tells you what belongs to you.

Shiran: It tells what’s been done, already! Zack, this is why constant, prayerful reading of scripture builds our faith. The Bible has a way of dispelling theories and opinions people have built in their own human knowledge. God lovingly shows us that His way is the best way, and that it is done. It is finished. All that we need, we can find in Him. He has supplied and continues to supply our every need (Phil 4:19). Oh, how I pray that rather than hope, I will believe! That my armour, and yours, and that of every soldier, is complete, and that our shields of faith are built up and strengthened in Christ!

Zack: One thing I can guarantee you, once folk quit hoping and seek and start to believe, they begin to receive what they seek almost immediately. That’s faith in God for you. Substance of things hoped for. Evidence of things not seen. Oh, how I love Jesus!

strange fires

Zack: My interpretation of the word “temple” had always been “a very magnificent building in which people went to pray to God.” I held that view until I came across the scripture in God’s Word that said that God does not dwell in temples made with human hands (Acts 7:48, 17:24). That was an eye-opener; then I knew there was another kind of temple; one built not by hands of men, but by hands of God (Gen 1:27, Gen 2:21-22).

“After those days… I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” (Jer 31:33-34.) When we invite Jesus Christ to come dwell in our hearts, we become that new temple. The temple of the living God. In God’s planning, every minute detail is as important as it is intricate. In retrospect, in the Old Testament paradigm which we were given, God gave Moses a detailed set of instructions for building His temple, which, because the Israelites were still in transit from Egypt to Israel, was mobile. (Exodus 25, 26, & 27). Very notable is the fact that everything used was the best of the best. Every instruction for the building of the temple had to be followed to the letter. Perhaps more notable was the fact that God commanded His people at the time to, once the lamplights of the temple were set on, keep them burning always. (Exodus. 27:20.)

In our day when we are the living temples of God, it’s God Himself that sets that fire in His temple (our bodies) with His Spirit. Again as in the Old Testament paradigm, we shouldn’t let this fire go out. That is our primal responsibility…to keep this fire burning. Exodus 30:8-9 show us God’s commandment to Moses to keep this fire burning and not offer any other incense of it, except that which was commanded, for our praise is as incense to God.

Shiran: Very true! Jesus said we are the light of the world, as a city on a hill, which cannot be hidden. We are candles, which people light and put on candlesticks, that they may give light to the house. (Matt 5:14-15). Jesus also said He is the Light of the world. That might seem confusing until one reads Genesis 1:16 (brackets added): “And God made two great lights; the greater light [sun] to rule the day, and the lesser light [moon] to rule the night…” Christ is the Greater Light. We are the lesser lights, and just like the moon, we are supposed to reflect Christ’s light in this dark world.

After the temple was built, God instructed Moses to appoint as priests the tribe of Levi. Moses’ brother Aaron and his four sons, Moses’ nephews Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar were selected for this office. The priests were to offer sacrifices to God for the people’s sins. These were known as atonement offerings. They were also to offer thanksgiving sacrifices and wave-offerings, among other sacrificial duties. They performed certain medicinal duties such as testing people for leprosy. Each sacrifice had specific instructions for the way it was to be carried out.

Zack: Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before God in his temple. When they did, they were consumed by fire from the presence of God. (Lev. 10:1-2.) They henceforth serve as examples to us - as temples of living God, we, too, should be very careful not to bring strange fires into God’s house.

Shiran: Still during this sojourn in the wilderness, Moses sent twelve men to go and search the land of Canaan, and see what lay in store for the Israelites when they got there. (Numbers 13). The men went and searched out the land, and ten came back very discouraged. They felt they were unable to conquer it. It was, as God had promised, a land of milk and honey. They even brought back samples – grapes, pomegranates and figs, how delicious!

“Nevertheless,” these men said, “the people be strong that dwell in that land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.” (Num 13:27-29)

Stop!

Who? The children of Anak, the Amale-what? The Jebu-who?

Anak was a giant. His descendants, also known as the sons of the Anakims (Deut 1:28), or the children of the Anakims (Deut 9:2). So if Anak was a giant, his descendants probably were, too. This frightened the men.

Amalek was Esau’s grandson (Genesis 36:12). According to Bible Topics, the Amalekites were a wicked, oppressive, warlike and cruel people, as demonstrated throughout the Bible. God ordered king Saul to utterly destroy the entire people of Amalek (1 Samuel 15:18).

The Jebusites, descendants of Noah’s son Ham (Genesis 10:6, Genesis 10:15-16), were a Canaanite people who lived in and around the area called Jebus, which king David later conquered by miraculous means, and renamed Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 5:6-7).

The Amorites were also descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6,15-16). Bible Topics uses scripture references to describe them as of gigantic strength and stature, with many strong cities. They were profane and wicked and idolatrous. The LORD “destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath (Amos 2:9).”

Shiran: Anyway… Ten men came back discouraged. How about the remaining two?

Zack: Two of these men, Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, had faith in their God when they said unto the children of Israel, “…The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land…” (Num. 14:7-8.) Their ten contemporaries had brought back a very negative and greatly disheartening report. A report of fear, a report of doubt. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of love, a spirit of power and a spirit of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7.) Fear and doubt to us, children of God living under the new and everlasting covenant are a sin, a strange fire in God’s temple. God still hates the strange fires. We should be careful what we set up in God’s temple. The two sons of Aaron and the ten contemporaries of Caleb and Joshua weren’t so lucky; their judgement was as sudden as was God’s fury at their disrespect for what He has set aside as holy unto Himself. The latter [ten contemporaries] didn’t make it into God’s promised land. You and I are still under the mercy of God, we can still change…will you be of the mindset of the sons of Nun and Jephunneh or will you continue to fear the sons of Ala’k?

Shiran: Like David slew Goliath, so can we, with God on our side, overcome any mountain, any giant, that tries to intimidate us. Fear and doubt must be overcome by faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 12:3 says that God hath dealt to every man a measure of faith. That means you have faith. With each miracle, faith increases. I echo Zack’s question: will you be of the mindset of the sons of Nun and Jephunneh, or will you fear the sons of Anak?