To Tell the Truth...

Happy Sunday!

I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday, and are ready to enter the last month of this decade.  2020 is fast approaching and it seems as if it was only yesterday that we began 2019.

Our Children's Church lesson today was about what it really means to believe. It's easier to believe someone you trust.  God is trustworthy, and always wants the best for us.  We get all kinds of random questions from the 10-12 year old students.  One student seriously asked if Santa Claus was real.  I did what my mother said never to do.  I answered his question with a question in order to locate his thoughts on the issue.  I resolved to let his parents break it to him.  But I did expressed to him the fact that Jesus is real!  Even people that don't accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior believe he existed. Historians, and other religious groups will acknowledge that he was a "good man".  BUT we know the truth.  Jesus is more than just a good man, he is God!  I always wanted to be truthful with my children, and I still do.  The truth is hard at times, because telling the truth can reveal our own personal shortcomings and flaws.  But the truth is best.

Jesus said, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."(John 8:32, KJV).  Truth is imperative.  "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."(John 14:6, KJV).  Knowing Jesus is knowing the truth, and the better we know him the easier it is to follow truth.  The Apostle Paul wrote, "Why is it that he gives us these special abilities to do certain things best? It is that God’s people will be equipped to do better work for him, building up the Church, the body of Christ, to a position of strength and maturity; until finally we all believe alike about our salvation and about our Savior, God’s Son, and all become full-grown in the Lord—yes, to the point of being filled full with Christ. Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. Instead, we will lovingly follow the TRUTH at all times—speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly—and so become more and more in every way like Christ who is the Head of his body, the Church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly, and each part in its own special way helps the other parts, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love."(Ephesians 4:13-15, Living Bible).

Following the Truth.

Love and prayers, Cynthia