What is The Truth? (Part 4)

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. -- Ephesian 1"13~14

Early this year, my second daughter had a fever for three days. Fearing of dengue, I rushed her to the clinic. Unfortunately, on our way I entered a ‘No Entry’ street; I knew that street before, but my mind was more occupied on finding the faster way that I totally forgot about this. When a traffic enforcer signaled me to stop only then did I realize just what had I done – I broke a traffic law.

In big cities, the traffic is complex. So to keep the flow of traffic smooth and safe, the city government enacted traffic laws. Every citizen is expected to follow the law. Otherwise, there are undesirable consequences like a costly ticket, losing of a limb or worst losing a life.

Here is where we can see another nature of the truth. The truth is like traffic laws; they exist not for our convenience, but to promote life.

Life is wonderful. But it is also complex like a big-city traffic. So to keep man from harms way, God created laws. Therefore, knowledge of the God’s laws is knowledge of the truth.

God put in place physical laws.

There is the force that that keeps the earth, and everything on it including man from floating into space; we call it gravity. There is the force that we call the earth’s electromagnetic field that according to science keeps earth surface from being toasted by the sun. There is the force that keeps the portion of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases in our atmosphere exactly as it is for life to flourish. There is the force that keeps the moon and the planets in their orbits. There is the force that sustains the sun; without it, we will all freeze to death. And many more just to sustain life on planet earth.

But God also created spiritual laws.

Since you and I are not flesh, but also of spirit, God created spiritual laws as well to keep us from harms way for we have spiritual enemies roaring like lions ever ready to devour us. Fortunately, these unseen enemies cannot harm us if we stay within the path of life. To help stay on the path God implanted a sense of right and wrong in everyone’s heart, and He put in place our Conscience to guide us in our decisions.

But unlike the forces that enforce physical laws, our conscience doesn’t use brute force; he just whispers the right direction or nudges gently. Because God gives man the freedom to choose his/her path in life. We can choose God or reject Him. We have the power!

God prepared a path that leads to prosperity, to hope and to a bright future (see Jeremiah 29:11). But we have ferocious spiritual enemies lead by Satan and his demons that would do everything within their power to derail us from the right path and into spiritual death, and eventually eternal death.

Here's a truth. Hell starts here on earth, and so does heaven. Doubtful? Look around you. Look at the news. There is always good and bad everywhere, even within us. The good news is that while alive we can choose to stop living a hellish life; we can choose to follow that path of life that God has prepared for all of us. The bad news is, once we cross the bar (death) there is no turning back!

Here's another truth. Every minute we are engaged in a brutal spiritual battle. There are ferocious enemies roaming around to inflict harm on us should we meander away from the path of life. They’re so cunning and deceptive; they are experts in distracting and confusing us. And their methods of tempting people to leave the path of life are flawless. We have no chance, whatsoever.

A man engaging the enemies is like a lamb facing a pack of hungry wolves – they attacks in pack. Zero chance. Much more is the man/woman who has no clue that he/she is already being attack by our spiritual enemies. And there are a lot of people out there that has no idea what’s going on the their spiritual life because all the see is the physical. They are easy prey.

Some of you might feel by now that you are walking on a tightrope: there is a path that you have to follow in order to have a bright future, and there are enemies outside the path waiting to devour you. You may start to wonder where does your hope lie? Where does my hope lie?

Two words. In Jesus.He is the way, the truth and the life (see John 14:6).

Jesus who was physically weak has fought Satan in the desert and soundly defeated him. We don’t have to struggle through life alone, we don’t have to fight our enemies alone. We can invite Jesus to fight with us. He wouldn’t reject you or me no matter how sinful we are, no matter what our past was.

We don’t have to stumble through life like a mousetrapped in a maze because Jesus already laid out for us the map that lead to the path of life. Everything we need to know about the path of life is written in the Bible. It's the ultimate physical source of the truth. Read it and follow it’s instruction no matter how difficult it is for you. For sure your life will never be the same again… 

Part 3 / Part 5