Tag Archives: truth

I Guess the Yokes on You

I hit Jeremiah 26 today, and it’s a tough chapter.  I’ve been following Jeremiah’s story as a prophet, and God asked him to do such hard things.  In chapter 26, Jeremiah is told to go to the Temple and to warn the people that God is going to destroy the nation and the city.  It’s not a new message.  He’s been saying it for 25 chapters before this, and the people won’t listen.

So, first of all, why would Jeremiah keep going?  No one is listening to his warnings, no one is taking heed to his advice.  He is made fun of, laughed at, and mocked.  On top of that, God keeps making him do crazy things as visual lessons for the people.  In chapter 26, he is wearing a yoke, like the ones they put around a cow’s neck to pull a cart.  So, he’s in the temple, preaching doom, with a yoke on.

Following God was not cool that day.

The reaction to his message?  The pastors of the temple decide they’ve finally hit their breaking point, and they are going to kill him.  They take him prisoner, and want to execute him.  I don’t know about you, but at this point, I might need to reconsider my professional calling as a prophet.  One, he’s failing, because no one is repenting.  Two, he’s failing because people hate him and God more than when he started.  Three, he’s failing because they want to kill him, and that is never a win.

But his response is to keep preaching the same message to the people who want to kill him.  He tells them to do whatever they want with him, but to understand that God is going to judge the city, and they need to repent.

For Jeremiah, there was only one way to fail.  That was to shut up.  A few chapters earlier he tells God that he wishes he could just be quiet.  He tried to quit the warnings.  But he said that God’s words were like fire in his bones and he would burn alive if he tried to keep them in.  So, he speaks.  Jeremiah speaks when no one listens, when no one repents, when no one likes him, when his life is on the line.

Because of that, he wins.  He has God’s favor, he is never alone, he is not afraid of what is coming, he finishes the race well.

I don’t think that many of us are called to give such a message that someone is going to want to kill us, at least not today.  But I know God is calling each of us to take a step forward.  Fear, worry, embarrassment, uncertainty, laziness, or pride may hold us where we are.  Today, understand that if Jeremiah, who was just a teenager when God called him, could obey; then so can we.  The same God lives in us, loves us, gives us the power and the abilities.  Don’t measure what you’re called to do by what everyone else defines as winning.  Be faithful.  Trust Him.  He will see you through.

I Wanna Be….Your Sledgehammer!

Today I hit Job 32-34.  It’s the story of Eliphaz, this young dude who jumps into the fray with Job and his friends.  He’s waited and listened to the older men while they spoke, but then his anger gets the best of him and he lets it fly.  He tells them in no uncertain terms that he too has wisdom, and they need to shut their mouths and listen to him for awhile.  He is strong on judgment and heavy with truth.  He gets a lot of his understanding of God correct.  But, it’s incomplete.  You see, that’s the back story to the book of Job.  Every one in the story has truth about God, but it’s incomplete.  The problem is, Eliphaz speaks his out of anger. 

Truth is not a weapon in our hands to be used on other people.  It’s not.  We think it is, but it’s not.  The word of God is a sword, but it’s to be used against our enemy, Satan.  Not other people.  It’s God’s job to convict with truth in other people’s hearts.  We are to speak truth, and speak it in very tough spots.  We are to speak truth when it isn’t convenient, or when someone doesn’t want to hear it.  But if we are speaking it as a weapon in our anger, we are probably out of line.  Especially when we tie that anger to our pride.  We’re in deep water then.

I have done, and continue to do this, far too much.  God is changing me as the days pass by, but it is taking alot of work on His part, to be sure.  What about you.  Do you believe that if you have truth, that gives you the right to swing it like a hammer when you are angry?  Have you used truth in anger to hurt someone lately?  What do you need to do about it?

Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes

In John 21:23-27, the religious leaders try to shut Jesus down again.  They want to know what authority He has to teach what He’s teaching.  Who was His rabbi, His teacher, and when did He get His degree and license to teach, so to speak.  In Jesus’ day, you studied under a rabbi, and when you have proven yourself, you were given permission to go out and teach.  They wanted to know who He had studied under.  He won’t answer them.  So, He sets them up.

They could answer this question.  They know that they believe about the issue.  Jesus asks them if John the Baptist was sent by God or not.  They don’t think He was.  But if they tell the truth, it’s not a popular answer, and they’ll face trouble.  They want everyone to like them, and live by that rule, and so they can’t answer the question.

How often do I, do we, do that?  We worry about what everyone else will think about us, rather than just telling the truth?  We let others opinions dictate what we say, who we hang out with, what we wear, what we eat, where we go.  And we lose out because of it.

Stand up today and speak truth.  Let God worry about your reputation.  You worry about truth.

Grow. Or else!


Jesus really cracks me up in a creepy sort of way. In Matthew 13:24-33, He’s telling stories. He tells one about a farmer sowing seeds for a wheat crop, and then an enemy sowing weeds in to ruin the field. They wait until the harvest to pull the weeds and save the crop.

Now, reading it, I’m like “ok, the seeds are God’s truth, and I am the field, and I need to beware of the weeds Satan sows in my life to ruin me”. It sounds great, but it’s almost totally wrong.

Jesus explains in 37-43 that He is the farmer (check), Satan is the enemy (check), and the field is the kingdom of God. The good seed are followers of Jesus, the weeds are people who don’t follow Jesus. They are both sown, and both grow. The only way to tell them apart is at harvest time, when wheat will grow, well, uh… wheat, and the weeds won’t. Jesus even says if you try to pull them apart before then, you’ll confuse the two and pull good out with the bad.

So, what Jesus is saying is the only way to tell a follower from someone who doesn’t is what their life produces. It’s not about whether the plant claims to be wheat or not. It’s what shows up in their life. And at the end, we’ll be saved or not based on that.

That’s a bit rough in the face of a nice, solid five point Calvinism; or the idea that if we say a prayer, we’re in. Our faith will lead to a life that proves we love Jesus, or we’re toast. (wheat toast?)

Why is Jesus so much more deliberately obnoxious about the truth than I am? Why does He tell such sobering stories, and I don’t? Actually, those are dumb questions. The question is, why am I not telling this side of the truth to students all the time? What is wrong with me?

I’ll just have to change that.

The Truth Hurts…


I don’t want to get on Jesus wrong side. Period. I read verses 19-14 in John 18, and the religious leaders have crossed the line. Jesus doesn’t take them on the way I would, yelling and intimidating. He just brings the truth, raw, unvarnished and sharp as a knife.

I think that is what I often fear the most. I can put up with a bully, full of themselves and trying to act like they have power. But when someone has the truth and brings it into a part of my life where I am guilty, off kilter, and wrong; that brings fear to my heart. It brings a requirement to repent, turn around, and go the other way. My pride hates that. And pride leads to fear.

Jesus often stands in a courtroom in my life, with me putting Him on trial, blaming Him for all sorts of things. Often He takes it with mercy and grace and is so kind to me. But at other times, it is just like the scene in this passage, with Him delivering complete truth in such a way that I feel cut in half.

Honestly, I’m so glad He does. I want Him to be King. I really do. And I’m glad when He does. Not right away. But eventually I come around to it. Truth often hurts, but it always heals. Always.