To Tell the Truth

Some of you may remember the old game show, “To Tell the Truth” that aired many years ago. It comes back every now and then under different names, but still the same show. The show consisted of the host and four celebrity contestants. Then they would bring out three people which one had an unusual occupation. One of the three people would be telling the truth while the other two tried to convince the contestants they were telling the truth.

If you were in a game show and had a chance of winning prizes or cash I could see that people would really want to know the truth. However, in real life I do not believe this is so. In fact, many times we don’t want to hear the truth. We want to hear what we want to hear. We’ve already made up our minds concerning what we plan to do or want to do and the only reason we seek counsel is to find someone to agree with our decision. I think it’s funny that we usually go to the person we know that will tell us what we want to hear.

Many years ago Karen and I went to a seminar in Dallas. There were over 10,000 attendees at the seminar. I remember the speaker asking a series of questions to the crowd and asking for a show of hands. On every question the group would be split about 50/50 on every answer. Have you noticed that last several presidential elections there has been a similar split as well. It doesn’t seem to matter how large the group is because I’ve seen the same thing in classroom situations as well. So why the 50/50 split? Does this mean that half the group is right and the other half is wrong? Not necessarily. There’s a good chance that both groups are right or both groups are wrong.

The reasons for the varying beliefs can be due to several things such as…background, personality, experiences, present state of mind, feelings or based on something they saw in a movie. Our basic nature is stingy and greedy except in one area. We are always willing to give free advice. I want to urge you to be careful in seeking advice or counsel. I even tell people to not take my word for it because I could be wrong and just because 9 out of 10 people say something is true doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.

In the movie Star Wars I don’t know how many times I heard, “Luke, trust your feelings.” This may be ok for a movie, but in real life this could be the most disastrous thing we could do. Our emotions and feelings are like the tide of the ocean constantly going in and out. We can’t trust something that unpredictable or unstable. Some say, “Follow your heart and it will never mislead you.” Wrong! The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

The other difficulty we have is to let our morality dictate our philosophy. Simply saying is that whatever sin difficulty we have in our life we will have a tendency to change our beliefs, convictions or the Bible to fit in line with our state of living. This might work for awhile, but it will eventually catch up with us.

I hear frequently that there are many roads that lead to heaven. Some may agree there is one God, but he may go by different names. Some argue to say Jesus is the Savior of this world is arrogance because Christians exclude other religions and of course it’s not politically correct. The sad thing is that there are some people who call themselves Christians who have bought into this ideology.

When we are seeking truth we will never find it in people, horoscopes or on the back of a cereal box. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

This is why God gave us His Word, the Bible. He knew that mankind’s thinking had been distorted by sin therefore our truth would always be tainted and varied. The Bible is not a book of rules and regulations, but a source for us to find direction and truth. The question is…Can we handle the truth?