Truth

I am right in the middle of Rob Bell’s book, Velvet Elvis.  And, I won’t say that I love the book, yet.  But, it has made me think more than most books I have read lately.  I can only read a few pages at a time before I have to put it down and finish chewing on what I just read.  I guess that makes it a good book…just not a lot of fun sometimes!

One of the points he makes in the book that I really love is when he talks about truth.  Jesus tells us in the book of John, that He is the way the truth and the life.  So anything that is true is Jesus.  You can not have truth outside of Jesus.  They are one and the same.

And, yet, we spend a lot of our time arguing truth.  We write doctrines.  We make rules.  We exclude those who don’t follow our doctrines and rules.  And, we discount other truths.

One of the examples Rob uses in the book is a trip he took to the Middle East.  He was in a Muslim country, and as he was driving around, he noticed a lot of the houses were under construction.  But, all construction looked like it had been stopped and abandoned.  Houses had partially finished additions.  Foundations were there gathering dust with no other work going on.  Construction equipment was laying around.  So, Rob asked his guide about this, and he was told that Islam forbid people from going into debt.  So, they cash-flowed all repairs and additions to their homes and businesses.  When they ran out of money, they quit working.  They would begin again when they had more money.

Friends, that’s truth.  And that’s biblical.  Proverbs 22:7 tells us, “the borrower is slave to the lender”.  So, is it possible that there is some truth in the Islam faith?  Now, I will be the first to tell you that until they know Jesus, they won’t really know truth, but isn’t that aspect of their faith more “true” than the American way of going as far into the debt as the banks will allow?  How many of us would admit that we are truly “slaves to our lenders”?  How many of us feel locked into jobs we hate because we have bills to pay?  How many of us miss out on ministry opportunities because we have a J-O-B?

Here is my point.  I think we, as Christians, need to get off our high-horse.  We don’t have Jesus all to ourselves.  For, wherever there is truth, there is Jesus.  So, we need to quit saying things like, “I am going on a mission trip to bring Jesus to such-and-such”.  Is Jesus something that you pack in your suitcase when you travel to these areas?  If we think that, than we have no idea how big Jesus really is.  And I have said similar things myself.

The Bible says, in John 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Did you catch that?  Jesus was there “in the beginning”.  He is everywhere.  Why do we act like we have exclusive rights to Him?  Wherever there is truth, He is there.  And, if I am being quite honest, sometimes I have found more truth outside the familiar walls of my church than within them.

So, we don’t need to “bring” Jesus anywhere.  He is already there, and calling us to join him so we can tell people about the source of the truth in their lives.  He is not our “Savior in a Suitcase” that we unpack for people.  He is moving and active, creating truth wherever He is, and He was there long before we were ever here.  And, that makes him WAY bigger than I ever thought!

Advertisement