Aug
9
2013
Absolutely
I was lovingly corrected by two of my children one night after dinner.
The correction concerned things I had taught them.
Not character things, or morality things.
Old wives tale things that we pass along as truth.
I have always told my children that cows lie down when it is going to rain.
I learned that as a child and I passed the pearl of wisdom down to them.
I learned that cows have arthritic hips and the change in barometric pressure affects them.
That was truth until my daughter spent a weekend with her college roommate.
This dear friend is married to a dairy farmer.
My daughter felt so knowledgeable when she spoke the truth she had known.
Her bubble burst when she discovered that it is totally false.
Cows lie down to chew their cud and other assorted reasons.
None of which have anything to do with rain.
One correction would have been bad enough for my ego, but another followed it.
My son had been at a picnic with friends.
A bumblebee flew by and one girl panicked.
My son informed her that she had nothing to fear.
Bumblebees don’t sting like honeybees.
A debate ensued, ending with someone Googling bumblebees on their smart phone.
Bumblebees do sting; in fact they sting multiple times, if they or their nest are threatened.
He was grateful on some level for what he was taught, because he took bees in stride.
Another pearl of wisdom proven false.
My children know that it was with the best intentions that those things were passed down.
They came from reliable sources, which got them from reliable sources…and so on.
I guess the misinformation stops here, with my children.
Humble pie was served that night for dessert.
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord, because they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:33,34)
God’s law is a powerful thing.
God’s law is intended to point us to our sin.
In and of itself, the law does not save us.
We are either governed by something on the outside or something on the inside.
External changes are not lasting changes.
God knew that people would have to be changed from the inside out.
God would have to change the heart.
We all hear people say, That’s not fair!
Yet, they are the same people who do not believe in absolutes.
Both things cannot be true.
How does the person have a sense of fairness?
There must be an absolute standard of fairness in order to know something is unfair.
There are absolutes!
2 + 2 = 4.
That is true.
No one seems to debate the absoluteness of that math fact.
Every time we count, we are declaring absolutes.
People will say, There are no absolutes. Everything is relative.
If everything were relative then it would be absolutely true that everything is relative.
That would be self-refuting.
Saying that everything is relative cannot be true.
Some may try to deny it, but God’s absolute Truth is written on our hearts.
God’s law is placed in our minds.
We do have His Truth inside us, telling us right from wrong; guiding us.
We can squelch it, wish it away, and explain why it cannot possibly be there.
But God’s Truth is there, nonetheless.
Absolutely!
Ruth Bell Graham, wife of Billy Graham told a story about one of her sons.
He was told to sit down and eat his dinner.
After much protest, he finally acquiesced.
He looked at her and said, I may be sitting on the outside, but I’m not sitting on the inside.
We can do what is right on the outside, but the inside is still defiant.
God’s law, placed on our hearts, guides us in all Truth.
We have a sense of right and wrong, fair and unfair.
We measure those things against God’s absolute standard.
To say we are basically good is false.
Watch any two-year old…they don’t need to learn how to misbehave.
We all have the natural tendency to want what we want.
We have no trouble putting ourselves front and center.
Our hearts need to be changed.
We need to be changed from the inside out.
Truth is NOT relative. Truth is absolute.
It is very easy to pass on the things that we have learned but that are not true.
We need to know God’s Truth through His Word to combat relativism in our culture.
Unless we know Truth, we will believe any old wives tale.
Cows lying down or bumblebees stinging are one thing.
Denying God’s Truth, written on our hearts, is a dangerous thing.
Our eternal security depends on that Truth.
Excellent!!