Learning Along The Way

How Do We Learn to Speak Truth to Lies?

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There’s a joke told among musicians and performers who aspired to the stage of the world renown venue Carnegie Hall:

“ How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice.”

This is no joke when we consider how we learn to speak Truth to lies.

We must know what the Truth is. And then we practice, practice, practice.

In today’s entry in 100 Days to Brave, Annie recounts Jesus’ 40 Days in the wilderness and the temptations by the enemy. You may know this portion of scripture: Jesus is tempted three different times by Satan and in each temptation, of body, of power and of worship, Jesus speaks Truth to the lies presented Him.

Simple enough right? 

Know what the Truth is. Speak Truth to the lies we hear whispered in our ears. Repeat.

But wait! How do we know the Truth? 

This reminds me of what I was doing last weekend. Encouraging a group of women to search the scriptures to know if what they heard me saying to them was true. Like the people of Berea who were commended by Dr. Luke in Acts 17, we are to be “Berean” in the way we handle God’s Word. When Paul had to flee Thessalonica, he, Timothy and Silas came to the town of Berea and began teaching in the synagogue. The people of Berea began searching the scriptures to see if what they heard was True.

As Christ-followers it is our personal responsibility to know what scripture says. There are any number of teachers running around saying partial truths and claiming it is all truth. How do we know who to believe?

Search the scriptures. 

Where do you start? What tools are most helpful? What voices do you listen to? Isn’t there someone who can do all the work for me, so I can just do the things I want to do? What difference does it make anyway?

You may ask any of those questions. I’ve asked all of them at least one time in my faith walk. Asking questions is one of the best ways to learn! If someone tells you to stop asking questions, I’ll just say that person is either annoyed that you’re asking questions, or they’re trying to control you. Sorry that they’re annoyed. Don’t stop asking questions!

In this post-modern era, there are many people who choose to believe many different things about the Bible. I’m not a Bible scholar. I’m a Christ-follower who wants to learn from Jesus. For me to learn from Jesus, I need to read the Bible. So I do. A little every day. I read it a lot when I’m studying and preparing to encourage women from the Word.

A good place to start is to read the recount of Jesus’ life and ministry found in one of the first four books in what is called the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the names of the gospels. Pick one and start reading a little every day.

If you use your smart phone, YouVersion is an app that has many versions of the Bible and also has a lot of Bible reading plans if that is something you’d like to do.

this is the image you’ll find in your App Store

What tools are the best ones out there? I now use online resources to study. I used to have physical copies of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, Matthew Henry’s Commentary, and a copy of Nelson’s Bible Dictionary, but when we moved I donated a ton of books, hoping they would be a blessing to someone else. Blue Letter Bible is one of my favorite online resources for study and word origin references.

Bible reading and study isn’t something to offload. Here’s why: your soul is wired for connection with the One Who created you. Getting out into Creation and reading His Word are two tried and proven methods for learning what is True and being able to connect your soul with God.

How do all these things tie into being brave? Glad you asked!

It takes courage to realize you have a need. In this case the need is know the Truth. 

It takes courage to take a step to meet that need.

It takes courage to carve out the time to meet that need.

It takes courage to guard that time as a priority.

It takes courage to ask the questions of God; what do I need today? How can I grow more Christ-like?

It takes courage to begin to hide God’s Word in your heart. (Scripture memory is work people)

It takes courage to speak God’s Word to the lies that we hear whispered in our thoughts by the enemy of our soul.

Those are seven ways that learning what Truth is has impact on being brave.

Annie wisely suggests we combat lies with Truth through prayer. I’ll leave you with hers:

God, tell me the truth of who I am. I’m listening. I want to be free from the lies—do that for me. Rescue me. Bring truth like a waterfall.

What’s Your Why?

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Some of the things I spend my time doing daily are have to’s and some are want to’s.  I imagine that is true for you as well.  Figuring out the difference between the have to’s and want to’s as I go through my day can be helpful, but a lot of the time I find myself asking “why am I doing this activity?”

Knowing my Why makes all the difference.  Not just in the short term to help me stay motivated but in the long term to help me FOCUS.

Follow

One

Course

Until

Success

When I began to learn about how I could be a better wife I discovered the learning wasn’t just for being a wife. I was learning how to be a better person. A better Christ follower.

And learning how to follow Christ is the exact place that the enemy of our souls wants to trip us up. I believe that’s in large part why God’s construct for submission has been so criticized and degraded. Yes, I know and agree there have been MANY abuses of submission. Lots of people have used the concept to control rather than to love & shepherd well.  There has been MUCH hurt: physical, emotional & spiritual, because of the misuse and misunderstanding of Biblical submission.  But God…

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His plan is good. His Word is for our good. People misunderstand, take portions out of context, stripping the Word away from the full counsel of God, and have made submission like profanity.

And it is not!

Now mind you I’ve had years of wrestling with the way I’ve thought about submission because of the cultural era in which I grew from child to woman; as a result of all the mixed and mistaken messages I have gone to God’s Word again and again to look at the good that has come from His headship and the woes that have happened by going my own way.  I’ve asked myself many times why is submission important, and what does the Bible say about it really?

If you are  familiar with Scripture you may think the place to go to get a good understanding about submission is in the Apostle Paul’s letter to Ephesians. It’s the most quoted and taken out of proper context verse on the topic. But that’s not the place I want to begin.  That abused verse isn’t going to help answer the Why.

Instead let’s take a look at Jesus the Son. In the Garden of Gethsemane. In anguish over what was coming, He went to beg His Father for a different Way, a different outcome. He prayed 3 times. And He said this: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

“not as I will, but as you will”

This is submission.

Having a conversation with God, expressing His concerns, desires, fears and trusting that the Father’s will for Jesus was better than the Son’s desires for Himself in Christ’s full humanity; that was His Why. And being fully God He had full knowledge of the bigger Why; the redemption of all humanity by His sinless death on the gruesome cross.

In having my own conversation with God, expressing my concerns, desires, fears and trusting that God’s will for me is better than my desires for myself; that’s the Why.

Husbands are called to submit to wives, wives to husbands and all of us to authorities. And we all are to submit to/surrender to/follow Christ.

We have a voice. We have rights. Jesus had both. But God in those circumstances had a different plan with Jesus’s submission. A much bigger plan with hard, horrible circumstances.

I don’t want to gloss over the pain of both the Father and the Son at the crucifixion and run quickly to the outcome on the 3rd Day. It is terribly disrespectful to what Christ endured for each of us to simply say there’s our model. We are not little Jesus’s nor are most called to literally sacrifice life for the good of mankind, but the pain and struggle of submitting one’s will is my FOCUS today.

Follow

One

Course

Until

Success

Learning biblical truth is not like studying for a test. To have success, you have to train — you have to practice for success. It doesn’t happen in a 10 week Bible study.  Learning is demonstrated by the effect on a life. Following is like submitting. You are not in charge. The Captain is.

And Living in Tandem is a life long journey.

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