THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE

When Jesus stood before Pilate, he asked Jesus, “What is truth?” But he didn’t wait for the answer. If he had, I’m sure Jesus would have told him something similar to what he said in John 17:17 and John 8:31-32.

In John 17:17, Jesus said God’s word is Truth. In John 8:31-32, Jesus said if we continue in his word we will know the truth and the truth will make us free. I don’t know about you, but I want to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.

The truth is there in God’s Book, the Holy Bible. The answers to our questions about life here on Earth, and life in the hereafter. Satan is out to destroy us, and we make it easier for him when we don’t know and understand God’s word. Remember how Jesus responded to Satan’s attacks when he tempted him in the wilderness? He used God’s word. Each time, he said, It Is Written, then he quoted the scriptures.

Today, there are many different opinions about religion, the Bible, human nature, the beginning of time, and many other things. Too often, people put their own interpretations on the things we deal with in life, and too often, we develop our beliefs by following our emotions. I’ve talked to many people about God and the Bible who say they believe what they believe because that’s what they’ve always believed. I’ve talked to people who believe what they believe because of things they saw in a movie years ago.

I’ve loved Bible movies since I was a kid, but sadly, I’ve never seen one that was 100% biblically accurate. There always seem to be errors or at least misinterpretations in the script, especially when they add dialogue that's not in the Bible. I understand why the writers add words in a movie, but sometimes I wonder if they’ve even read the Bible or if they’re just telling a story that they grew up hearing. I mean, sometimes that’s exactly what it seems like.

Reading the Bible is very important. Knowing the truth can mean the difference between life and death; both physical and spiritual. We can be deceived in so many ways if we don’t read God’s word. Acts 17:11 tells us that the people of Berea were more noble than the people in Thessalonica because they searched the Scriptures daily to see if what they were being taught was true, and that’s the way we should be today. There are so many foolish teachings that would be completely cleared up if we would only read and believe the Bible.

Let’s read the scriptures I mentioned at the beginning. Since I only generalize them there, we’ll now see that they have a much deeper meaning.

John 17:17

17 Make them holy through your truth. Your word is truth.

Jesus was talking to the Father here about his disciples. He asked the Father to make them holy through his word because his word is holy. So, to be holy we must read God’s word. Paul tells Timothy something similar in 2 Timothy 3:15.

2 Timothy 3:15

15 From childhood, you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Jesus, the Messiah.

So to be saved, we must believe in Jesus. To believe in Jesus we must read (or hear) about him, and get to know him through God’s word, the Bible. Can you see how important the Bible is? Look at the next verse.

2 Timothy 3:16

16 All scripture is inspired by God, and is helpful for teaching, for evidence, for correction, and for instruction in being holy:

These verses tell us that the Bible leads us to salvation, and then shows us how to live a holy life through Jesus. That's how important the Bible is.

John 8: 31-32

31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and,

32 You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

There it is again; if we continue in his word or continue to read his word and follow it, and obey it, we will truly be his disciples, and by reading God’s word, we'll know the truth, and we'll be set free by the truth. Don’t you want to be set free? Don’t you want to know the truth? Lies deceive us, but the truth sets us free from those lies and deception. Knowing that God’s word is truth, we should want to read and know God’s word so we can be saved, live a holy life, and protect ourselves from being deceived by Satan and his minions.

Find time to read the Bible every day, if only for a few minutes. You’ll soon find yourself spending more time reading, and loving it. Yeah, it’s really that simple to start. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so don’t delay. Start today. God bless you.

———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2024 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

THE GIANTS AND THE THUNDER

For some of you who don’t know me, this story may reveal my age, but to some of you much younger people, it may make you think I’m older than actually am.

When I was in the first grade, once in a while, we would watch a film on a reel-to-reel projector. A vinyl record contained the audio track. We also had records that read books for us with a ding to tell us when to turn the page, but that’s another story.

One time, we saw an animated film about a man who, somehow, ended up in the land of Giants. He was captured by one of them and taken home. I don’t remember if the giant was going to eat him or keep him as a pet.

The Giant’s wife felt bad for the little man and tried to help him escape but her husband caught him before he got away. I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember another giant coming along, and the two giants started fighting over the little man. As they fought, they began moving so fast and swinging their arms so violently that they somehow propelled themselves into the clouds. The point of the story was that the sound of thunder is the noise of the two giants still fighting in the clouds.

As an adult, I understand that this is a fairy tale made for entertainment, but as a six-year-old kid, I thought it was true. I didn’t even realize it was animated. Kids today may not be that gullible, but they’re exposed to many things in movies, and TV shows that are not true. They’re also exposed to many things that are true but are not good. We can expect secular entertainment to be filled with lies and things that are not good for viewers of any age, but you’d think that Christian entertainment would be different. While there are many good, and decent things for Christians to watch, there are just as many that aren’t.

I could write a lot of words here about the many Christian movies that have errors, and even lies in them, but what I really want to do is encourage you to read, and study the Bible so you can see these errors for yourself. Jesus said, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32). He also said that God’s word is the truth (John 17:17). That's the Bible. 

If we don’t know the truth we’re in bondage. We have to believe whatever we’re told, and that’s more likely to be false in this day and age. The only way to know the truth is to know the author of truth. That’s Jesus. He said we would be judged by the words that he spoke (John 12:48). That’s also the Bible. Read and study his words daily. Get to know him personally, and be set free.

———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2020 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6

400 MILES FROM HOME

If you’ve read my book, “The Journey To Heaven,” you know I left home when I was sixteen years old and started using alcohol and drugs and doing many of the bad things that are usually associated with that lifestyle. After about three years of that, my life was a mess. I was a wreck. I wasn’t happy at all. I wanted to get my life straightened out and get back to being me, instead of the miserable person I was. By this time I was nineteen, and I was back home with my grandmother.

I wanted to make a better life for myself so I started working on a plan. I hadn’t had a steady job for a while so that’s where I started. My cousin and I were best friends and we went looking for a job together. We were introduced to a free job training program that would give us the skills to qualify for a number of job opportunities. The catch was, it was almost four hundred miles away, and I think it was going to take about a year to complete if I remember correctly.

It sounded like the opportunity of a lifetime, so we decided to go for it. We got everything together and kissed our families goodbye, and boarded the bus for an all-day ride with a changeover to another bus. We met some young people on the bus who were returning from a weekend visit home. One of the girls was really nice and talkative. She filled us in on the operations of the place, and the teachers and students and she shared all the negative things she could think of with us. We were not too thrilled with what she told us. It sounded like a prison with some pretty mean inmates. We were young and had never been this far away from home, so the whole situation was a bit scary to us. We were hoping she was only kidding.

After we arrived, we found out that it was as bad as she had said. Maybe even worse. There was a high fence with barbed wire at the top surrounding the building and a big open yard. The doors were locked and had alarms on them. It was like a prison. Some of these young people had been in trouble and were sent there by their parents or the courts to get headed in a positive direction.

It was after midnight when we arrived. The place was a wreck. The walls were just raw plywood. They were dirty and looked like they had been there for twenty years. They had holes all in them and writing all over them. We were shown to our room which we would be sharing with two other guys. It was only big enough to hold two sets of bunk beds with just a few feet between the beds.

One of our roommates hadn’t made it back from his weekend visit home, but the other guy was snoring so loudly that it was hard to sleep. After all, that girl had told us, we had joked that we should sleep with one eye open, and when we looked at our sleeping roommate one of his eyes was halfway open. That’s funny now, but I don’t remember it being funny then.

We did finally go to sleep, but we only got a few hours. At six o’clock in the morning, the door flew open and a guy came in yelling that it was time to get up, eat breakfast, and get our day started. We had orientation all morning, which was very stressful and we had to choose what trade we wanted to start learning. We had a couple of breaks and we were sent outside to a small courtyard with a few tables.

There was a beautiful girl out there, and my cousin and I both kept looking at her. She noticed us staring and finally, she looked at us with an angry face, as she stopped right in front of us. She put her hand on her hip, and with just as much anger in her voice, she said, “Do you like what you see?” We were both shy, and neither of us liked confrontation, so I guess we were in shock having her say anything at all to us, especially with a mean tone like that. We both turned and looked at each other at the same time, and without saying a word, we both turned back to her at the same time and started nodding our heads in a YES motion. She must have thought that was funny because she just started laughing and went back to her friends. Looking back, I guess it was funny.

When lunchtime finally arrived, we were starving, and apparently so was everybody else. When we started lining up in the courtyard, outside the cafeteria, it was like a stampede of hungry cattle. My cousin and I just stepped back out of the way and stood against a brick wall, and waited for the line to diminish. When twelve O’clock came, a big tall guy started beating on the door, cursing and yelling, and saying “You better open this door!”

When they unlocked the door a few minutes later, there really was a stampede. People were pushing and shoving, and one guy got knocked down and trampled. He got up and ran on in with the others. It was madness. My cousin and I went in last and got our food and sat down. With breakfast and lunch behind us, we could see why they were acting so insane about getting in to eat lunch. The little bit of food they gave us wasn’t appetizing at all, and it wasn’t long before we were hungry again. I wasn’t a big guy then, but I still don’t think I could have lasted a year on those kinds of rations.

When we finished our last class we went back to our room. I think we had the third one from the front door. A few of the guys kept going in and out, and the door would take a minute or so to close, then it would automatically lock. My cousin said he was escaping the next time he saw the door open. We got our suitcases ready and we waited. The next time that door opened, he was gone without saying a word. Just then, one of the guys yelled to someone else to get the man who was in charge. When I heard that, I froze. I couldn’t move. I thought my friend was in big trouble and I didn’t know what to do. The man came up the hall and the one who had sent for him, told him he had a phone call. What a relief. He didn’t stay on the phone long and as soon as he hung up and was out of sight, I ran for the open door.

When I made it outside, I headed toward the bus station where we had planned to go. When I turned the corner onto the main street, I didn’t see him anywhere. He was long gone. I met a group of guys walking up the street and asked them if they had seen a guy “running” by. They said, “yeah, he went that way.” I finally caught up with him and we went on to the bus station a few miles away.

We called home and told them what had happened and that we wanted to come home. My mother and my sister’s husband headed out to pick us up. We waited there all night and in the morning before lunch, our family arrived. We were so happy to see them. We crawled into the bed of that little truck and laid down and went to sleep. When I woke up I had a pretty bad sunburn, but I was happy to be headed home. When we finally made it there that evening, the rest of our family was happy to see us, and we were so happy to see them.

In a way, this story reminds me of the one Jesus told about the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32. He went far away from home, and some bad things happened to him, and he was hungry. He wanted to be back home, so he headed that way. When his father saw him in the distance, he didn’t wait for him to come all the way to him, he ran to meet him, and hugged him, and kissed him.

Many times, there are children of God who turn away from him, for a number of reasons. When we decide to return, our Heavenly Father is very happy and welcomes us back with open arms. He loves us and he is always there for us. So don’t be afraid to come to God and allow him to shelter you in his loving arms. It’s the best place you can ever be.

———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2017 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6