The Voice of Truth

For the last couple days, I've been sharing about how our thoughts, particularly, the bad tapes inside our heads that tell us lies about ourselves and about God, can be rewritten by the Voice of Truth.

Imagine the powerful lives we all could live if we believed the Voice of Truth. Imagine how dangerous we could be for His Kingdom if we believed - truly believed - in His character and His promises. Would we fear anything?

I share with you a passage from Gary Haugen's latest book "Just Courage - God's Great Expedition for the Restless Christian." You will see how Haugen reminds us the relationship between what we believe and our actions.

Haugen writes:

"Acknowledging that we are struggling with what the Bible teaches about the character of God is often the first, best step to authentic faith. Indeed, as Dallas Willard points out in the Renovation of the Heart, we don't believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true.

When it comes to praying and working for justice, Jesus could hardly have been more explicit about our perseverance in faith:

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ (Luke 18:1-8 NRSV)

While the Bible does not teach that we will prevail in every battle against injustice on this earth, it does teach us that God will prevail in teh ultimate war, that he goes with us into every battle, that he brings his power and protection to bear on our behalf, and that he will prevail in all battles necessary to the ultimate triumph of his kingdom. In a world of groaning justice, these are the truths that Jesus invites his followers to believe - and act on.

I don't know if Jesus actually rolls his eyes, but that is what I picture him doing every time he hears the "realistic" and "mature" Christians give 14 reasons why there is nothing we can do to stop violence and injustice. I think he is very sympathetic to our honest fears. But I think he is just annoyed when those fears are dressed up in a sophisticated analysis of why nothing will work. He's understandably irritated, I think, because he hears us simply regurgitating the ancient, tired nostrums of the father of lies, who for milennia has been making one simple argument, namely, that what God has plainly said of himself, the world and history isn't true. Since God can't be trusted, we, the enlightened ones, will figure out this dangerous world for ourselves.