How the TRUTH has set me FREE |
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How the TRUTH has set me FREE |
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"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” [John 8:32 NIV] This is personal as well as theological and eschatalogical. Let's start slowly and see if this is relevant to you. Suppose you child wants to go ice skating on the local pond, You take her there and find no one else skating. The ice looks good, but is it safe. Your child is pleading to let her go but you have anxiety. You do not KNOW if the ice will hold her. What do you do ? One choice is let her go while you stand by ready to jump into the frozen pond if she falls through the surface. Obviously, if her weight will take her down, yours will take you down. Do you know the pond's depth ? Will you be able to retrieve her in time ? If you knew all the truth, you would be free to make a sound decision. But you don't. Then a car pulls up. A large man and his teenage son get out, say hello to you, then sit and put on their skates. Between them, they look to weigh at least 250 pounds. Then off they go, blithely gliding over the ice with nary a crack appearing. You think to yourself, "The ice is safe". Now you believe you know the truth and that eliminates your anxiety. The truth has set you free from your worries. You let her skate. What if what you believe is truth turns out be not so ? Suppose your child skates away and joins the father and son. They skate across the pond's center. All looks good. What happens now is the combined weight of the three skaters is too much for the ice. It cracks and splinters. Down they go. TRUTH, as viewed through the human intellect, is elusive. It requires knowledge of many factors plus the ability to analyze and weigh all factors, then synthesize them into a whole truth. Next example: Your physician detects something suspicious. He does not come right out and say he suspects a dread disease, but rather that tests need to be done. You go to a lab and the tests are performed. You wait three days for the results. The doctor's office calls and tells you the results are inconclusive. He wants you to check into the hospital for more thorough testing. Has your anxiety level risen yet ? Mine would have. Now you spend two days and nights in a hospital bed worrying about what might be wrong. Your family members come to visit. Their faces are drawn and serious. An occasional smile looks fake, as if they are really thinking, "Oh you poor soul." On the third day your doctor comes into the room. He is about to tell you the results. You can't read them from his expression. He might smile and say, "Good news. Just a small benign tumor we should take out while you're here." Your sense of relief is palpable. The truth has erased your anxieties. You set free from fear and doubt. Or, he might say, "We just don't know enough yet to be sure. I'll have to schedule you for exploratory surgery." This also is truth but it does not set you free. It is truth of another kind ... the kind that says you must live in fear and doubt while you wait for an answer. Another possibility is that he says, "I'm going to level with you. This is bad." Then he explains how bad, and then you know, if the medical results are correct, you will be dead within a year, maybe less. Incredibly, this is a truth that can set you free. How is that possible ? It is so because living with doubt is worse than living with knowledge regardless of how unpleasant the knowledge is. TRUTH is what you BELIEVE it to be. It may or may not concur with reality. Nevertheless, if you are convinced, you can go through life based on what you believe you know. About the age of thirty, I finally freed myself from the dogma and constraints of Christian theology as taught by the Roman Catholic church. I was satisfied that Jesus was an historical figure and possibly a mystic or prophet. I was convinced the answer was elsewhere. This was the 1st time Truth set me Free. You may wonder how I could think I had found truth and been set free. It's simple. When I decided that what I doubted was NOT true, I was freed from that mind set. This view was aided and strengthened by my studies in a mystery school. This mind expanding experience lead me into a variety of mantic arts and esoteric disciplines. The path I followed in my search for truth meandered through numerous world religions and philosophies. There were many offshoots which lead to dead ends. I then returned to the main path and went forward. I learned astral projection, numerology, I Ching, Tarot, astrology and dabbled seriously in trying to predict the future. I visited churches and religious enclaves; stood amazed in the Bahai Temple in Chicago. I talked with and listened to all manner of people with varying beliefs; read the Book of Mormon, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Quran and thousands of pages of philosophy and excursions into the subconscious. I came to know the time without a watch; to know the direction without a compass. I experienced spiritual apparitions. For nearly nine years, I was, unknowingly, treading a path laid out by none other than Satan. There came a curious 'twist of fate' at that time. A series of very quirky, serendipitous events caused me to meet up with a group of people. In one instance I had an encounter with another person in whose eyes I saw a spirit looking out at me. I later recognized that spirit as The Christ. At the time, even though it was stunning I did not credit it as truth. I pursued my involvement with this group. The members were all in the throes of suffering, at different levels, from the effects of marital separation, divorce, or widowhood. In the group was an older woman who I came to understand was serenely unperturbed by events. She exuded love, joy, and peace. She was a living example of how I wanted to live. One of my sons and I drove her from Ohio to Florida to live with her daughter. During the two day trip she continuously exhibited the qualities I so desperately wanted. I asked her how I could get them. She told me what to do. I followed her instructions. One day, driving on East Broad in Columbus, I was listening to the radio station she suggested. I had been so doing for weeks. It was a Christian radio format of preachers and teachers. I listened and considered. It was a year or so later I learned she has passed away. All the time she was beaming happily and encouraging me, she knew she had terminal cancer, but never mentioned it. I heard the evangelist invite me to repeat after him a prayer asking Christ into my life. As he spoke the words, I sincerely repeated them. I had no expectation about what would happen next. Suddenly, I heard my own voice say, "I am a new creation. All things are made new. I am born again." There were no angels singing; no bells ringing; but I instantly KNEW with a certainty I had never before experienced, that this was real. This was the 2nd time Truth set me Free. After assiduously searching for nine years, or more, I had come face to face with the Truth I had been seeking. The truth is that Jesus of Nazareth was The Christ, The Anointed One, Messiah, Savior. And ... HE lives. I was in a daze of joyousness. I had to tell somebody. I wrote to my sister and brother. My family feared I had finally gone over the edge. I began reading scripture and books, listening to radio teachers, attending church every Sunday. Some Sundays I went to two different churches. I was consumed with desire to know and know all about my savior. Over the next several months, a number of life changing events occurred. I was fired from my job as a manager of a small company. For the first time in my life, I collected unemployment and food stamps. I was so broke that when the lease ended on my glorious high rise apartment overlooking Columbus, I had to borrow money from family to pay movers. My credit record was good at the time so I was able to satisfy the owner of a townhouse I was a good risk. I moved. I collected unemployment and made a small income by teaching astrology. One day I came home and heard the voice of the Lord in my mind saying I must stop working in mantic arts. Attempts to foretell the future prevented me from relying on God's direction in my life. I gave away the 100 or so books I owned on astrology, theosophy, numerology, etc. etc. Later I wished I had burned them rather than send someone else down Satan's path, but it was too late. A few paragraphs back I told you about "a series of very quirky, serendipitous events" that lead me to the group and so forth. One of the key events was a "miraculous" apparition; a sign. Based on my mental state and years of study, I knew I needed to follow this sign and see where it would lead me. What I saw may have existed only in my imagination or possibly it actually existed. It doesn't matter which. I saw it. I followed. I came to understand that God had turned Satan's tools back on him to lead me to an opportunity to find the truth. Giving up my interest in esoteric practices was the 3rd time that Truth set me Free. I intensified my efforts to know God. I asked for illumination. I had not bargained for what resulted from this request. I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. [Ps 119:104-105 NIV] The light came on. It illuminated the entire path of my life, revealing my sinfulness to me; recalling events I thought I had forgotten. It was torturous. Agonizing and slow. I was in fear of what God would do to me. I had not yet come to the place of knowing His relentless love for me. His Spirit invaded my mind. HE explained to me that though I had confessed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I was still living a carnal life. I had not confessed and repented of my sins. I had accepted forgiveness, but Satan was on my case, reminding me day and night of thousands of failures. I had to admit to myself what I was. There was no longer any need to try hiding from God. He knew, and I knew that He and I knew. "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." [John 3:19 KJV] Recognizing and owning what the Light showed me was the 4th time that Truth set me Free. During the ensuing thirty years I opened myself to the Lord in ways I never imagined possible. By His Spirit indwelling me, He taught me many things along the way. I still pursue knowledge of Him through personal relationship. I know that many born again Christians have not been blessed in the ways I have been blessed. I believe it is a matter of yielding, surrendering, to His will and ways. Recalling and forgiving all that has been done to me was the 5th time that Truth set me Free. I imagine most people who live into their seventies have experienced a lot of the pain and suffering the world constantly inflicts on us inhabitants. Some is physical; some mental; some financial; some medical; some emotional. I judge I have had my share of each kind. Much of it occurred because of my own life choices. Still, a great deal was done to me in one way or another. From time to time I would remember an event, or person, who harmed me in some way. When memory dragged up one of these, the Holy Spirit was right there urging me to forgive and let go. I did not know I was carrying baggage filled with hurts until I began dealing with them under the Lord's guidance. Have you any idea of how freeing it is: to not resent; to not hate; to not hold grudges ? Such memories are poisonous. They can not be simply erased. If they are suppressed, they continue to inject poison into the human psyche. Forgiveness, even if the offender does not repent, is the only way to get rid of the poison. My heart goes out especially to you who have held on to poisonous, unforgiven memories of people who are no longer living. They can never make amends; never say "I'm sorry". But you can do it for them within yourself. It will set you free. I regard my coming to fully comprehend that I am under grace and not law, the 6th time that Truth set me Free. There may come yet other times and ways the Truth will set me Free from something; some bondage I don't even recognize as such. I admit that I am not completely free of all anxiety in my life. I am affected by circumstances just as you are. But I know, with a deep and certain knowledge, that no matter what happens on Earth, my final destination with Him is assured. This knowledge permits me to enjoy the "peace that passes all understanding". Though I am present in my body, the real me, the eternal me, is living in God's Kingdom. When my life in this body expires I will continue in a new form and live forever. I was born. I am borg again. I live in His Kingdom. I am alive eternally. When I become whatever kind of being I will be in the life beyond my body, I will still be me no matter how different. My identity will be preserved in such a way that I know I am me. Otherwise, there would be no point to God's efforts to redeem and bring His people back to himself. If we saved believers ended up as a fuzzy spiritual soup or stew, God's intent would have been defeated. HOW can this final truth be THE Truth ? What happened to the previous "truths" ? The basis for declaring something true is data ... information ... knowledge. When humankind KNEW the Earth was flat and ships would sail off the edge; that was truth. But they were wrong. Then the Earth was a spheroid at the center of the cosmos. THAT was the truth. But it was wrong. Then arose this incredible heresy claiming Earth was NOT the center of the cosmos; the SUN was the center. For a long time that was the truth. Today it is not. Surely you can see what happens ... new data alters perceived truth. The amount of valid data in the cosmos, and possibly outside it, is unknown. This makes it impossible for humans to discover the ultimate truth. The ultimate truth is known only to the ultimate being ... the Lord. God has shared with us enough of the actual Truth to set us Free from the bonds of doubt about the ultimate destiny of each person. If you have been saved, I rejoice with you in your salvation. It was given freely and will never be taken away. But you must realize that your chief enemy does not want you to believe this. He wants to make your life troubled, perplexing, and filled with doubt in the hope that you will either lose faith, or live in uncertainty, denying you the victory Christ has given to you. "You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." [Matthew 10:22 NIV] Standing firm in belief is the requirement for you to have and keep your eternal life. Do not let Satan or anyone else rob you of this TRUTH. |
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