“Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake. Why should the nations say, ‘where is their God?’” (Psalm 79:9-10a).
I am saddened and disturbed by the increased demands for rights and protests and counter protests (for whatever reason) taking place in our nation. Some want to remove or destroy our historical monuments and are getting their way, but that doesn’t change our history nor will it solve the real problem. Others want the right to live an immoral lifestyle to the exclusion of another person’s rights. Our police officers are wounded and killed because of disrespect for law and order. When I think about the things that are dividing our nation I see selfishness and pride. When one person’s or one group’s “opinion” becomes a “demand” that’s selfishness. Without God in one’s life self can become god. Many do not recognize that God’s truth is the answer to our personal problems and our nation’s problems.
Truth #1: God is Creator and Sustainer of all. God created male and female. God established the first marriage-one man, one woman.
Truth #2: God gave Ten Commands to live by and Jesus summed them into two. “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
Truth #3: Jesus died and rose again. The empty cross and the empty grave give us hope. Jesus is alive and desires all people to come to Him. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Truth #4: The Church will triumph. (Matthew 16:15-18 and Revelation 21 and 22.) The Church must stand for truth-not to be divisive but to seek to share the truth with others. The Church must demonstrate the love of Christ through caring for others unselfishly. The Church must not back down when confronted by those who deny God’s truth. John 3:20-21 says, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
Truth #5: God’s Word is truth and will stand forever. “All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal” (Psalm 119:160). “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Many are not living by the truth of the Word. Just because one denies the truth does not make the truth less true. God’s Word is truth and it always will be.
Let’s live unselfishly in the light of truth!
What a good teacher you are! Basic faith, spelled out so succinctly, undeniably…thanks be to God!
Yes, if only those who are indesive about the truth of God’s word would realize the need for obedience to what we are told to do to gain eternal life.