I was recently talking to someone who had received a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease. I didn’t know what that meant but the word chronic didn’t make it sound good.
The doctors said it was important that my friend make some lifestyle changes, which they were really struggling with.
My friend understood the importance of things like exercising, losing weight and watching his blood pressure.
That’s the truth, but is it truth for right now or when the disease progresses?
When we mess around with truth we can often get into some serious trouble.
In our small groups and our Sunday service we’ve been looking at the book of Galatians.
This a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a church he established.
Galatia is in modern Turkey and is one of Paul’s earliest letters.
He’s writing to a church he helped establish for Jesus but things started to unwind. They began to compromise that truth and things got really messy.
They were misled by a group of people who said believing in Jesus wasn’t enough.
They had to work and do rituals to keep a faith. This was completely against what Paul had taught them.
Paul said in Galatians 5:1: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
The Galatians had rejected truth and fallen into a mess. Galatians 5:15 said if you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. The truth had been compromised and now they were paying the price.
In Christianity the truth is very important. Jesus said he was the way, truth and life, and only through him would we be able to come to the heavenly Father. Only through Jesus would we be saved.
There are great benefits in Christianity both in the spiritual but also in the emotional, relational and physical.
There is the well known passage about the fruits of the spirit.
When we walk in God’s truth we receive and can give love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
I believe there is truth. I believe that I have seen Jesus’ truth for the better of 40 years.
When I walk in what the Bible teaches and the Holy Spirit illuminates, my life is better. I hope you find this truth for yourself.
God bless you.
Pastor Rob Tanner
New Life Baptist Church
8°C