Tuesday the 24th

Isaiah 59: 4 No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil

 

 

Lies….it is something we deal with daily, it is something we are talking about in church right now, and strangely enough it has come up as a main point in movies that I have recently watched.  A study was done at the University of Massachusetts  they had people engage in 10 min. conversations. During that time 60% of the people studied, lied. Not only did they lie, but on average they told 3 lies during that conversation. 3 lies in 10 min. at that rate a person could easily tell 100 lies in a day. When the subjects watched themselves on video, they were surprised that they lied, and were amazed at how often and how easily they did it. If we can lie to others that often, how often do we lie to ourselves? Sure we can make it a point to not tell anyone that we come in contact with a lie, we can vow to always be truthful with those around us…..but are we so kind to ourselves? Yes lies are empty, they do bring about trouble, and give birth to evil, however what about the lies we tell ourselves? What about the empty arguments that we have with ourselves?

 

I do not know how many times I have argued with myself until the wrong seems….. maybe not right…..but not entirely wrong. Often it is called living in the gray area. A favorite song of mine has a catchy line in it. “right or wrong, black or white, cross that line you’re going to pay, in the dawn before the light, live and die by shades of gray.” Have you ever really paid attention to the dawn? If you have ever gone hunting, or camping, you know what I am talking about. There is a time at dawn….it is not yet light, but it is no longer dark. The surroundings have no true color, the world is cloaked in shades of gray. Bushes look like deer, tree stumps move, and every now and then you might just think you see a man standing beside that tree. If we listen to the world, if we argue with ourselves, we cloak our mind in shades of gray. Suddenly what has always been wrong, now…..well in this case it is different. This time it does not count. No one is around, no one will ever know…..funny how knowledge by others seems to sometimes justify right and wrong. I bring these up, because these become lies that we believe, not just believe, but lies we live…..and we think nothing of it. I want to point out that if we cannot be honest with ourselves, then we have no chance with being honest with those around us. If we want others to have a relationship with Christ, we can’t take them, until we have an honest relationship with Him……and that all starts with what goes on between our ears.

 

It was quite a blow for me to start being honest with myself…..come to find out I am not as good looking as I thought I was! Seriously, when we really open ourselves up to ourselves, we often very quickly realize why we lied to ourselves in the first place, we are not as perfect as we want to be, we gave in to temporary pleasure because it was easier than not. We lied and hurt others because we felt we were not as good, as smart, as equal….well if we are being honest with ourselves guess what…. chances are we are right, we are not perfect, it is easier to sin than to do the right thing, and as far as being as smart, as good or equal with someone else…. well it does seem that we pick out the gifts that we are not blessed with to be the ones we want. Wow, felling alone right about now? Pretty depressing stuff….no wonder why we lie to ourselves! It does not have to be.

 

You are feeling alone and isolated, because you were never built to live that way. There is a drive inside you to excel. It is in all of us. We have just let the world drowned out power source. Of course that source is Jesus Christ. Guess what? You can’t lie to him! You think you are not good enough? You are right! With Christ you are better than good enough, you are beyond the grey of dawn and firmly in the light. Think you are not perfect enough? Again, you are right. With Christ you are as perfect as you can be. Exactly as intended, exactly perfect for who you are. As for doing the right thing, yes it is hard, but with Christ it becomes much easier. You see, when you take Christ with you every day, you have no need to feed yourself those lies. You might be able to lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to Christ! He already knows you. Quit arguing with yourself, and start talking to the Lord. Quit believing the lies and allow yourself to believe the truth. You are good enough, you are perfect enough, and you can do the right thing….not because you are that good, but because the Lord is that good. Step out of the grey of dawn, and into the light of day.

 

 

God Bless,

Brian Thetford

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The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22