Just some thoughts

I know the title doesn't tell you too much about what this post will be about but that is kind of the point. So in order to draw you in before I quickly lose you, I just was sitting here thinking about life, about some of my mistakes, about how much I have changed in the past year (both good and bad), about how I never thought I would believe like I do.

It is interesting, beliefs, there has always been hundreds of thousands of different beliefs. It seems today that there are very few people on the same page, mixing and matching from different religions, different philosophies. I think it would be interesting to see how the media influences people's beliefs: Does watching MTV make you any dumber? Does the History or Discovery Channel make you smarter? Just a thought.

So how can we know what truth is? It seems to me that there are various levels of truth, that statement needs to be unpacked a little. By levels I mean, there are black and white truths. But we live in this postmodern age where culture tells us that there is no longer any black and white truths, its both multi-colored and even multi-dimensional. I am not trying to be cool by bringing up this point of postmodernism, the simple fact is that the way my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents saw things is entirely different from the way we see it. My dad told me a story of how he remembered when some houses had black-and-white televisions, then one house on the street got color, then everyone got color. The progression over the past hundred or so years has been, everyone gathered around the radio, everyone gathered around the B/W TV (with its 4 stations), the family gathered around the colored TV watching TGIF (I miss those days), to the family split apart watching TV in separate rooms with a multitude of channels to choose from. Certainly you will agree with me that culture has moved from a family-centered focus to a self-centered focus. But I have digressed. The point I was trying to make is that I no longer believe that every truth or belief can be divided into black or white, red or blue, gold or brown. There are certain beliefs and truths that are multi-colored multi-dimensional.

So again what is truth?

"Jesus said to [Thomas], I am the way, and the truth, and the life..." John 14:6a.

I do not want to ever be known as someone who pulls Scripture from its context in order that it answers the questions I have for it, rather than letting it answer the questions that it was written to answer. (Jeremiah 29:11 was not written to you personally, I do not care what you say, if you are someone that believes in the whole "name-it and claim-it" then you are pulling it from its context and you are wrong to do so--this will get me in a lot of trouble and I will deal with it at another time). Jesus is giving hope to his disciples who already believe in God, they are Jews, but he is urging them also to believe in himself.

Jesus himself is truth. I have it written on the white-board in my room: Jesus is the absolute truth. All truth comes from him and flows through him, he speaks only truth. So what is truth? Jesus is truth. Jesus is the way, Jesus is life, he is the life. Earlier in John it says this, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (1:14).

I could take this further but I will briefly make my case with a question and answer format:

Who or what is the Word? The Word is Jesus. Word here in no way points to the Bible, at the point of authorship the notion of the Bible or even canon was 250 to 300 years away.

What does this verse tell us Jesus did? He dwelt among [them], unfortunately we are 2000 years removed from actually walking around with Jesus. But he has dwelt among us in a few ways: 1) The Word became flesh, the Word became Jesus, taking on human form, he knows the pains, he knows the struggles, the trials, and he knows the joy of this physical life. 2) If you have a trinitarian point of view of God (Father, Son, Spirit) which by the way the doctrine of the Trinity is in no way biblical, rather the elements/persons/characteristics are visible in Scripture but the actual doctrine was not developed until the 4th century. I wish I could go further here, simply put: In all eternity God lives and loves as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Second point is this: God dwells with us now, as the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7). In my opinion the notion that being a believer and receiving the Holy Spirit are two separate events in a persons life is idiotic. If you are a believer, if you are seeking God, striving to be Christ-like, if you have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved then you have the Holy Spirit (John 14:17). God (the Word) dwelt in flesh among those who walked with Jesus 2000 years ago, God dwells with us in Spirit currently and this moves to the third point. 3) We will dwell with God in eternity, not as some disembodied spirit (1 Corinthians clearly combats such notions), but in bodily form. as those who have been resurrected from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20-24). Picture this: Our final home is not heaven, in some disembodied spirit-like state; rather our final home, for all eternity, is the New Jerusalem. In the end, the earth will be New (re-created) the New Jerusalem will descend from the new heaven, to the new earth and our final home will be there in our resurrected, transformed, imperishable body (Revelation 21-22).

God has dwelt with humans in the flesh, God currently dwells with us in Spirit, and we will dwell with Him for all eternity in the New Jerusalem.

Now back to the original point: From Jesus all truth flows. His glory has been revealed to us on the cross, its cleansing power manifest in the fact that SIN exists no more, even though we have a propensity to sin.

I think I might have hit every rabbit trail possible in this post. I have been writing for about an hour and I feel if I continue then you will either get more confused or bored.

Grace and Peace.