Good morning, Samara.
Big day ahead. I have a guy coming with some logs for me to saw up at 10am. Then there’s a pile of sign work to keep on the burner. Besides all that are some attractive conditions on the mountain. I don’t see how that distraction can get on the real list for the day. To begin with, I guess I’ll attempt a jog after I send this.
Blessings on your day.
Love, Tua.
If a person does not earnestly desire to have TRUTH—the whole TRUTH, and nothing but the TRUTH—what do you suppose they will end up with? They may acquire bits and pieces of TRUTH, but if it’s not sifted, sorted, and refined by the standard of ABSOLUTE TRUTH (God’s TRUTH) then their measure of TRUTH has to be mixed with just enough non-TRUTH so as to cause their TRUTH to not be totally TRUE. I hope you’re not confused.
I’m remembering a profound object lesson a wise father once made before his teenage kids who were hassling him for permission to engage in some ideas and activities like their friends at school—things that he knew would compromise their Biblical faith and have long range negative consequences. He placed two plates of chocolate chip cookies on the table with a description something like this: “OK, kids, I made the cookies on the white plate with pure ingredients according to the recipe. Cookies on the blue plate I made exactly the same except for one thing—I added two tablespoons of dog poop. But don’t worry, they are mostly pure. So which do you want?” Duh!
Unfortunately many people, if not most, are confused. Many get so confused with the quest for TRUTH that they just throw up their hands and say something like, “Oh phooey!—this challenge of sifting and sorting all the data so as to find TRUTH is so difficult and controversial that we need to just individualize it—make it relative—do away with the whole notion of ABSOLUTE TRUTH—so let’s just accept that my TRUTH may be different than your TRUTH. Cool! You just run along with your TRUTH—and I’ll run along with mine. We’ll just be mutually tolerant.” But what most of those people don’t tell you is this: “Nevertheless, if your TRUTH interferes or messes with my TRUTH, I can get real mad—and you had better watch out!” Doesn’t that sound like chaos and confusion?!
Please, Samara—please do not treat your seeking TRUTH like you would shop for a breakfast cereal. I think most people do it that way—as they wheel down the aisle of the supermarket of ideas, only putting in their cart the kind they like—the kind that tastes good and makes them feel good—or the kind that their friends like. This is why the FOCUS VERSE rings with such good advice—“Buy the TRUTH and do not sell it…”
Here’s the deal: “Blessed are those who hunger (like a starving person) and thirst (like a parched and dehydrated person) for righteousness (for TRUTH and TRUE relationship with their Maker), for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). I believe it is best and safest to accept that promise as valid and TRUE.