Over two thousand years ago, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Jerusalem, asked the question, "What is truth?" Pilate spoke this when the Jews brought Jesus to him for judgement. Pilate had just exclaimed to Jesus, "You are a king, then!" To which Jesus responded, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." And then Pilate asked, possibly with awe and confusion, "What is truth?" (taken from John 18: 37-38).
Interesting question......"What is truth?"....and it is asked again and repeatedly in our time and in our culture. We have just endured a shocking presidential campaign filled with lies, innuendos, misinterpretations, twistings, slander, accusations and denials. We easily repeated again and again, "What is truth?" and "Where is truth?" Very disturbing.
When I think of how simple truth was to me when I was a child. My parents told me something and I believed it was the truth and it was truth. I was strongly taught to 'tell the truth', even if it hurt. To tell a lie was unthinkable...only truth would keep me out of trouble.
But in 2016, we see lying and subterfuge surrounding us. Our minds, emotions and our spirits are confused and angry as we contemplate what is going on. We don't like it and we scream for truth to return and make life orderly again.
I ask myself,"How do I find 'truth' in my world today?" I need 'truth' to sustain me through all the challenges and negatives that face me. I need 'truth' to comfort me, to encourage me, to steady me as I struggle through life.
In spite of the outward, cultural display of lying and twisting of truth, there is a source of absolute truth and thankfully I rejoice that pure truth is found in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Lying is sin....not telling the truth is sin......making excuses for 'that little white lie' is sin......distorting a fact is sin......and yet we ignore the word 'sin', we ignore that sin is against God and we, as a people in our culture, slowly move away from the source of all truth....GOD!
Renowned pollster, George Barna, recently reported, "Belief in God, trust in the Bible, and reliance on Jesus alone for salvation have all declined precipitously. Fewer than one in five adults believes that absolute moral truth exists and is defined in the Bible." (emphasis added)
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6. These words spoken by Jesus emphasize the importance of truth...of recognizing Jesus as truth....of knowing truth...of understanding truth....of placing truth at the top of our priorities in living.
Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus states: truth..... honesty, fact, actuality, correctness. It sounds pretty simple and direct. So why is our culture so dismissive of truth? To me, it all boils down to knowing, believing, worshipping and following the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When I totally surrendered my heart, mind and strength to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gave me the gift of discernment and with that clarity I have no doubt what is truth.
The truth of Jesus shines in my experience with my healing from cancer. I recently saw my oncologist who told me with confidence and utter amazement......"Of all the patients with CNS lymphoma that I have known in my practice, you, Janet, have exceeded all statistics. If those patients survived the initial diagnosis, the most they survived was 3 1/2 to 4 years. You have now survived 6 1/2 years....unprecedented! Truly a miracle of God."
As we talked further, it was pointed out that those who survived even 3 1/2 to 4 years were under the age of 50! I was 74 years in July, 2010 when I was diagnosed with brain cancer and now I'm 80! In statistical reality I should not be alive. But here I am, telling people again and again that Jesus is alive! and that He is TRUTH! Believe in Him, trust in Him, and know that TRUTH comes from Him and only Him!
