The Truth Is...

I was thinking last night about how humans have so many different perceptions of God. The Muslims think He is a mean God who wants them to kill people for Him. The Christian Scientists think He is an alien. Some people think He is the earth, or the sun, or a tree. So many differing ideas and beliefs.
So what is the truth?

I was thinking about the Bible...about how many years it has been around. Strange that a book could even survive all these years...and not only survive, but have the respect and honor and "life" that it does. As Christians, as believers in God, we say that the Bible is the Word of Truth. What does that mean? Well, to many people it means that everything within the pages of the Bible is written for us to fashion our lives after. But that doesn't really work. That line of thinking has caused us to pick and choose which things we actually want to live or obey, because...let's face it. We cannot actually take every word literally. I think saying we do has done more harm than good. And since we all interpret it differently, that cannot be the Bible's ultimate purpose can it? Why would God keep this book around, and keep it alive among us, so that it can cause divisions and disagreements as to what we should obey and follow and what we can let go? No, the Bible has to be more than a book of rules or simply a "how-to" book.

What if the Bible is truth in that it was given to us, and has remained here for us, to continue to point us to the truth of who God is, and to be the ultimate resource to answer our questions about him?
What if the Bible is a biography written about the God of the universe, wait...an autobiography actually written by him...to show us what he is really like? To give us the truth of who he is? Because without this picture of him we tend to get off track and start to make God up to be something or someone from our own imagination...we make him in our own image. If left to ourselves, God becomes whatever we like (or dislike) as the case may be.
So the Bible is here to tell us that God made us like him, in his own image. Now I can know for certain that He is not an alien, or a tree, or the earth...because I don't look like any of those things. OK, that gets me closer to understanding who he is. But not close enough. Because the beginning of this book is full of chapter after chapter of what seems to be a very mean and vindictive God. In reality though, as I read the Old Testament after knowing Jesus, I see it more as an account of how "way off" man gets in his perceptions of God, of who he is, and what he wants from us.
The Old Testament shows us what a frustrating mess we have made of things, and continue to make of things, without knowing the truth. It also shows us a few people who had a true picture of God, and how they maintained a relationship with Him because they found him loving, full of acceptance, and utterly other than a dictator or a mean old king.

Enter Jesus. The Living Word. The actual Word of God. Jesus, the living autobiography...the real, tangible, alive "Truth". Our ultimate representative of what God is really like. (God must have been getting frustrated with being so misrepresented all those years.) So God comes to us, as one of us, to show us Himself in a way that we can finally, truly understand. He comes as a baby, and lives as an "average Joe" or the guy next door, until the day that God...this God we never really knew or grasped...reveals Himself to us through Him, through Jesus. No more doubt or argument. All of our misconceptions laid to rest. "This is Me, guys! This is what I am really like! This is who I AM!!"

People ask me how I know that God is real? How do I know that what I believe is true? It seems prideful to think that I have a corner on God, or a handle on God, or that it's my way or the highway. But it isn't prideful at all. Truth is...and God wants us to know Him, and to know what He is really like. He has made every effort, and given all provision...He has revealed Himself and His heart to us fully and completely. He gave us the book, and now all we have to do is look at Jesus. Listen to His teachings. Observe the way He lived. In His life, and in His death, and in His risen life, we find our answer. In Him we see the Truth of God. 
The Bible is the Truth. Jesus is the Truth. They were given to show us once and for all who God really is so that we never ever forget.

So when we "stand on the Truth," or when we "speak the Truth," we aren't just standing on a Scripture, or reciting a certain passage of the Bible from memory. What it means is that we are sure, we are convinced, we have more than head knowledge...but have actually experienced...Truth. Because Truth is a person. We know this Man, therefore we know God Himself. He is Truth. The truth is...