Monday, April 22, 2019

True or False - Can you handle the truth?




Imitation. Knock-offs. Fake, Mock-ups. Impostors. Hollow truths... What’s Real?

The world is always selling – if you cannot afford the genuine, no worries, commercial marketing has made millions off of peddling imitations.  “Give the people what they want” is their mantra!  Gucci, Armani, Rolex, Channel, diamonds, leather, etc. all have imitations. These “knock-off” versions all look good at first glance, but if you know the genuine product you won’t be fooled by the counterfeit.

Falsehoods are untrue ideas which suppress the truth with the intent to deceive.

The world sells many false gods and idols – replicas of hollow truths - purposely misleading the gullible with feel goods, quick fixes, fads, and fantasies. The repertoire of self-indulgence is designed to deceive. In a world where scientific and technical advances have manufactured 3-D printers and the cloning of animals, they replicate and copy, but they can never create the genuine.  False gods or idols look good, making promises of greatness, but they are no more real than a beautifully sculpted piece of plastic fruit.

As a child, my mother had a plastic fruit in a decorative bowl on the table.  In my childish innocence I took a grape from the bunch and put it into my mouth, only to discover I had been faked out! What looked good and enticing had no taste, no sweet nectar, nope nothing but a rubbery imitation that couldn’t be chewed or swallowed.  As a matter of fact, it had the potential of chocking me if I tried.

Beloved, do not be deceived or fooled (1 Corinthians 6:9).   Once you have tasted the goodness of Jesus Christ, you will never be satisfied with anything else.  Once you have received the robe of righteousness all other garments are mere rags. Once you have smelled the sweet aroma of our Lord’s sacrifice, you will spend a lifetime desiring to bask in its fragrance over and over again.  Jesus is the real deal!

Real versus Fake, I must ask, “Can you handle the truth?”  In Martin Luther King’s Sermon on “False God’s We Worship” he states:  “A man’s real God is that to which he gives his ultimate devotion, that unifying loyalty which draws his life together and gives it centrality and singleness of aim.”  We must be wary of what we bow down to.  What are we devoting our time, devotion and unquestioned loyalty to?  False gods have many faces, shapes, and sizes. Are you bowing down to a relationship, has your significant other become your god?  Or have you become devoted to your own self-image?  Has money and keeping up with the status quo taken precedence over life itself?  Have fame or celebrity and sports figures become markers for success?  Have you become enslaved to social and political causes? Are there any vain imaginations usurping or undermining your knowledge of Jesus Christ? (2 Corinthians 10:5)   “Little children, keep yourselves from idols, false gods – from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life. (1 John 5:21).

Evil, with its worldly schemes and ever-growing idolatry, desires to harden our hearts to the truth.  At the cross, the soldiers mocked Jesus, made sport of Him.  Unfortunately, mankind still ridicules Jesus today.  Many laugh, despise and scoff at the truth of the Gospel. In their arrogance, they claim to be smart in their endless arguments, but they are fools, devoid of understanding and empty inside. They attempt to ambush the truth but ensnare themselves with futility. In reality, they are lost, following transitory “here today, gone tomorrow” gods. Always striving after what cannot be obtained, caught up in a world of false promises, they have exchanged the love and salvation of the One True God for hollow vain imaginations.

Many impostors will cross our path in life. We will be deceived, and even betrayed by what we believe to be genuine and lasting unless we diligently yield to the Holy Spirit within us and test for truth.  Idols, graven images, fake reproductions entice and seduce, enslaving with false realities. However, the good news of the Gospel sets us free. The truth is this, it is impossible for God to deceive us (Hebrews 6:18).  He is incapable of deception (Numbers 23:19). Jesus is the real deal!  He is the Way, He is the Truth, and through His saving grace and infinite mercy, we have everlasting life (John 14:6).  God will do what He promised (Genesis 28:15). He will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).  Why settle for knock-offs, fake idols, when the one and only begotten Son of God gave His life up for yours. Only Jesus can truly satisfy the longing of our hearts.




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