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[Tom Johns]

I just want to ask this. I have been struggling with things in regard to our faith and how it has been taught, handed down, or however we have been given the instructions or teachings on and of what we are to believe. Let's face it, when it comes to church or doctrine, there are many many different ones to choose from. But, does it matter? Does truth matter? When we think about what we believe, does it really matter if we are or were taught or have perceived something as truth? Does what we believe matter? Does how we believe matter?

God's word is THE TRUTH! Regardless of how we understand or perceive it, it is truth. It is not affected by our misunderstanding, misinterpretation or ignorance of it. God's word is truth and it will do what it says, it will do what and how GOD said and meant it, regardless of our belief or understanding of it.
So how did we get to where we are today? By we, I mean Christianity. How did we come to so many doctrines, beliefs and teachings?
Well, I know a lot of people think that they know or have the answer but even they seem to disagree or have answers that differ from others who claim that they have the answer.
Do I know the answer? No, I don't. But I know who does and I can be fully assured that He does. So, I just want to share a few things that He has shown me. I am talking about... GOD!
 
My favorite verses in His word are Proverbs 3:5-8.
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones."
I remind myself of this every morning.
You see, I have been in search of truth for years and I am convinced, without a doubt, that all "true knowledge", all "spiritual wisdom", all "revelation" and all "understanding" comes from God.

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
Colossians 1:9–12.

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1:15–21.

Paul prayed for the believers in both Colossae and Ephesus to receive "knowledge" from? God!

In fact, in the Epistle from James, it says
"But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."
James 1:5–8.

We can ask GOD!!! If this is, and it is, His Word, and His Word is TRUTH, then Who better to ask?

Back to Proverbs 3... Trust in the LORD! It's He who will tell us who He is and His ways.
do not lean on your own understanding... I would also think that would mean not to lean on other's understanding as well.
Truth is Truth! But if we do not know and understand it, how can we know that what we hear or are taught is truth if we do not have truth to compare it with?
I remember listening to the Bible Answer Man with Hank Henegraff years ago and he said something that really made me think; he said something to the effect that a person that works at a bank with money cannot possibly know every counterfeit bill out there. So, what they do is get to know real or true money so well that anything counterfeit can be easily detected. How profound and true!
Therefore, we need to know the truth and since God's word is truth, I reiterate, Who better to ask?

So I ask again, does truth matter?

[DavidMac]

Tom,

There are so many ways for me to make an attempt to answer this question of "does truth matter?"  I have wrestled with this question myself for many years and I will say that I believe TRUTH DOES MATTER.  First I would like to start off with a favorite scripture:

Revelations 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:  he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."  KJV

We have been warned that the whole world has been fooled, not just the Jews, Mormons, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, etc....  Also in Revelation 17 it describes the woman on the back of the beast arrayed in purple and scarlet (colors worn by the Cardinals at the Vatican) and all of her harlots which are all of the world's religions.  That is another entire discussion, but I am just trying to point out that the adversary has fooled the entire world. 

Since I am a psychotherapist, I frequently think about how we read and interpret things. We all have filters related to life experiences and what we have been taught and all this influences how we relate to others and how we interpret scriptures.  We all have different levels of spiritual development based upon our filters.  I love that iron sharpens iron, but everything needs to be put up against scripture and through prayer.  I also think that one of the key concepts is absolute surrender/dying to ourselves.  We need to really purge ourselves of sin and be totally open to our Creator.  Because of our finite bodies and brains, we have a difficult time truly comprehending the everlasting/Alpha and Omega/eternal nature of our Creator. We like to put Him in a box to fit our understanding of the truth as opposed to us conforming to His Truth.  This is no easy task and I am nowhere near that, but it is a glorious journey. 

Here are several scriptures to go along with Tom's that help me:

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge:  but fools despise wisdom and instruction

1 Corinthians 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men

Isaiah 55:8-9  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.  To me this just points to His Word and absolute surrendering of our limiting thoughts of our Creator because He is the Almighty.

Micah 7:5-7 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide:  keep the doors of they mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.  For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.  Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation:  my God will hear me.   This verse is talking about the rebellion of Israel.  I look at "house" possibly = "church."  "Guide" = pastor?

Psalm 117:2 For his merciful kindness is gret toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth forever.  Praise ye the Lord.

Phillipians 3:3 For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnationto them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:  for they are foolishness unto him:  neither can they know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

This is probably one of my favorite scriptures:
Isaiah 28:9-10  Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

It has to be this way.  I did not see the movie but here is a quote from "A Few Good Men":  You can't handle the truth  By this I mean, if Our Creator revealed all to us, why would we need to be on this planet.  I don't think our finite minds could handle it.  He also knows that we are in a fallen state and that we are slow learners and if we learn things on our own, we tend to remember them more than if we are given the answers/truth.  We need to discover the truth ourselves and test it against scripture.  This walk with YAHUAH is definitely not linear and does not always make sense.  I am still wrestling with being separated from my wife, but without going through this separation, I would not have had the opportunity to get my life more lined up with YAHUAH and embark on this wonderful journey with him. 

YAHUAH knows each of us and knows what we need and he puts people in our paths for a variety of reasons, but for all of our good and the discovery of His Truth. 

I even spoke to my mother about your post Tom, and she said that humankind really complicates things.  She said that it is really simple:  Follow the 10 Commandments and the Golden Rule.  I really couldn't argue against that viewpoint. 

I have probably rambled in a few spots, so here is my answer to the question does truth matter?  HIS TRUTH MATTERS as His Word is eternal and it will come to pass no matter what the adversary attempts to do.

ALL PRAISE AND GLORY TO YAHUAH!

[Tom Johns]

        

[CatieladyB]

I have been pondering this ever since you put it up, but I think that DavidMac has really come up with some enlightening thoughts that make sense! God is in control no matter what we think or believe, but it is certainly better to follow Him through Christ!           

[DavidMac]

I continue to ponder this question "Does Truth Matter?"  "His Truth Absolutely Matters!" is the only answer I come up with.

I started to think and I tied a rope around my waist I went down this rabbit hole.  We are the Eternal's creation and he wants us to know His Truth.  I have to remember that I am a spirit with a body and not a body with a spirit.  That does make a difference in my mind in how I look at things and experiences.  I really have to look at our Father in Heaven as the epitome of love that we can't even comprehend.  I look at us as little children trying to crawl and learning how to walk.  We fall down and cry, have temper tantrums, reach up with our hands and someone helps us to our feet to only fall again.  Our Father is encouraging us and puts people in our path to help us along as we inch ever so closer to the finish line.  For example, my therapist recommended that I read Psalm 51.  The following day, a nurse practitioner, who is a Christian, was telling me about the sermon at her church and said he was preaching a Psalm and I said "Let me guess, Psalm 51."  She said yes and asked how I knew.  I have shared with her numerous experiences over the past two years that are very similar to this one.  Tonight I was speaking with a very good friend about this experience with Psalm 51 and he said that he just listened to that Psalm earlier in the day.  I believe that this is an example of how our Creator reveals His Truth to us.  Once I get done with this post, I am reading Psalm 51. 

His Truth is there for us to find.  All we have to do is remove the scales from our eyes, die to ourselves, absolutely surrender and continuously seek and grow closer to him.  People like to say pursue Him, like he is running away from us and we are chasing after him.  I believe he is standing still, waiting on us to stop chasing our tails and head toward him because he wants us to latch onto him.  He wants his family.  Not an easy task. I am sure I am not done with this fun question Tom.  Thanks and I love you brother from a different mother and different coast.    

[Tom Johns]

Love it brother. Looking forward to chatting with you again my friend. Love ya bro.

[CatieladyB]

Wow! That was another mind blowing explanation and I think you hit the nail on the head! DavidMac you have really opened up my mind to what I have been pondering lately about tom's question, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and knowledge! Love your insight!