Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Truth or Dare (08/28/08)
-
TITLE: What is Truth? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Loren T. Lowery
09/02/08 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Do we search for it with our eyes to see what might stand unwavering in the winds of change?
Can we touch it, that we might feel it like the invisible breath that sustains us?
Is it like water, tasteless on our tongues, but whose very absence would parch us unto death?
Truth? Is it the smell of murmured prayer rising like incense to an unseen god?
In the book of Ezra in the Bile, Darius, crowned king of Persia, asked three young men what they believed to be the strongest thing in the world. One, Zerubbable, answered this: “Great is truth, and stronger than all things. All else is wicked and shall perish. But truth lasts forever.”
If this be true, then why, at times, do we run from truth, as if our distance would make its strength less potent? We turn our heads as if the set of our eyes could change the image of the infallible. We sheath our hands that truth may not prick us. We flavor lies with honey to make it palatable. Our prayers, the incense carried to God, are often scorched by our deceitful, doubtful tongues.
If ourselves be so deceptive, how then can we know truth? And, if we were to know her, then which would be the greatest dare – to stand in her presence or to deny her?
Who is so grand that they might stand so tall as to see all things that are immutable and able to withstand all in its past, present and future?
Not ourselves, for we are flawed, our attempts too piteous.
No one dare stand in truth’s presence unarmored; therefore, we more easily dare deny her. And then, by this denial, we become cowards, thereby convicted, and condemned.
And yet, even in that conviction, we find rectitude of truth’s absolute strength. For truth knows no shame, while condemnation wallows in its swill.
Where then do we turn? If our ears be deaf, out tongues dumb, our eyes blind, ourselves incapable, are we then lost to perpetuate denial and dare embrace treachery as our immortal and hopeless truth?
If we believe such a thing, we believe a lie. It is foolishness and Satan is the father of both: lies and foolishness. And both burn in the presence of truth, flaming as a sword from the lips Christ himself.
Indeed, truth is the vanguard to Christ. To know truth is to find God. Yet there are those who would dare not believe and thereby forsake their very souls for the shame of confessing him.
They would deny the truth put in their hearts by a God who loves them. Close their eyes, cover their ears, silence their lips rather than declare a simple, beautiful truth that promises them salvation and eternal joy.
For it is in our hearts that we are able to believe and are therefore asked to guard it with all diligence. Disbelief hardens our hearts like tallow dripped from a candle – the flame of doubt burns hot, but it also must be brief. Life is but a moment; and in that moment, we are justified by our belief.
No one will be denied this truth. All we need do is call upon the one who does stand majestically tall to see all immutable things. The one who loves us and sacrificed his life for that love. The one who would dare us not be foolish and forsake that love.
That one is Christ Jesus, the name above all other names, the name to whom all knees will be bowed. The one that would dare say to us to believe in him and he will give us paradise, forever in his care.
We are then to put away all our foolish imaginations and simply believe and trust in him. He will never leave, nor forsake us. Believe in him and be at peace.
No greater truth can be found than uttering Jesus is your Lord and Saviour and believing in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead…indeed by sincerely confessing with your lips that gospel truth that rests in your heart, you will be saved.
What is truth? It is as Zerubbable, answered thousands of years past and has endured even to this moment. “Great is truth, and stronger than all things. All else is wicked and shall perish.”
______________________________
Prayer of Salvation can be found in the book of Romans, chapter 10. God bless.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
