“And you shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free.”

— John 8:32

Over the next few days we’ll look at some modern myths—assertions by our society that contradict Biblical truth.

The first and perhaps most prevalent is “There are no absolutes; all truth is relative.” Have you perceived this attitude recently? You can hear it in statements such as “Things change, and what we believed ten years ago no longer fits”; “That may be true for you, but it’s not true for me”; “That concept works in America, but it would never work in China.”

The statement “There are no absolutes; all truth is relative” contradicts itself because it’s an absolute statement. When people assert that no absolutes exist, they really claim that God doesn’t exist because God is the ultimate absolute. “No absolutes” means no inspired Word of God. It means no Jesus Christ.

But absolutes do exist. The Bible constantly deals with absolutes: life and death, obedience and disobedience, righteousness and sin, saved and lost, light and darkness, good and evil, faith and unbelief, Heaven and hell, God and Satan. Not only do absolutes exist, but we can know and understand them. The Bible says, “These things I have written to you … that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). We can know that we must receive Christ as our Lord and Savior; that no one can mock God; that all have sinned; that one day we shall all give an account of ourselves; that Christ is the Way, the truth, and the life; and that Christ prepares a place for us in Heaven.

When we know the absolute truth, it sets us free to realize God’s will in our lives. Don’t let cultural relativism fool you into thinking that each person can determine his or her own “truth.” We all may perceive minor aspects of truth differently, but that doesn’t support the idea of relative truth. Truth is eternal and unchangeable.

Do you want to know the absolute truth? Then look into God’s Word today. Search the Scriptures for God’s truth, and let it set you free.

“Those who deny moral absolutes find themselves
in even greater bondage to sin.”

“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before unknown men.”

— Proverbs 22:29

A gentleman was walking down the street, and he passed a large construction site where a group of men were laying brick. He asked one of the workers, “What are you doing?”

The man answered, “I’m laying bricks, stupid. What does it look like I’m doing?”
The gentleman asked another man, “What are you doing?”
The second man replied, “I am making a wall.”
The passerby asked a third man, “What are you doing?”
He said, “I am building a magnificent cathedral to the glory of God!”

What’s the difference between the narrow vision of the first two men and the great vision of the third man? The third man saw the ultimate purpose of his work: to glorify God.

We need to have the same focus in whatever work we do, whether we work directly for the Church or in a secular profession. As the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession states, the chief end of humankind is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. So as we live and work, our ultimate purpose should be to glorify God.

How can you and I glorify God in our work? By pursuing excellence in all we do. Too often, work done in the Church by professing Christians is sloppy or below par. But when we do things well, God is glorified. For this reason, Christian books should be of a higher caliber than secular books, and Christian videos should be of a higher quality than secular ones.

Whatever God has called you to do, pursue excellence both professionally and personally. Make it your end to glorify God in all you do, and God will help you achieve the highest quality of which you are capable. Remember that even the smallest, most mundane task will ultimately result in a magnificent cathedral of glory to our God.

“Excellence in all things and all things to God’s glory.”
Motto Of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church

“… Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

— Revelation 2:10

What is one goal you’ve reached that you feel particularly proud of? Is it graduating from school? Running a marathon? Teaching your children good morals? Bringing a friend or family member to Christ?

Now, what did it take for you to reach that goal?

Columbus set the goal of sailing around the world. Every day of his voyage, he penned these words in his diary: “And this day we sailed on.” Columbus achieved incredible results because he continued the pursuit of his goal day after day. In the same way, if we want to reach any goal, we need perseverance and faithfulness. How well we start doesn’t really matter. In any goal we set out to achieve, we need to persevere until the end.

Would you like to know a couple of secrets about living successfully? Then read with me a verse from Genesis which contains two great secrets of success in any sphere of life: “And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.” Do you see in these words the two great principles of success in life? “And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan.” The first secret to succeeding in life is this: We must set out to achieve noble goals, goals worthy of our effort as people who will dwell eternally in Jesus Christ’s presence. Second, we must keep going. Abram and his family made it to Canaan because they persevered. They traveled toward Canaan day in and day out until they arrived. If we expect to lead successful lives, we can’t give up after we’ve set out to achieve a goal. Instead, we must everlastingly keep on keeping on.

If you haven’t already determined some goals for yourself, choose a goal today, a goal worthy of your time and effort. Then set out to meet that goal, persevering today and in the days to come.

“There aren’t any hard and fast rules
for getting ahead, just hard ones.”
Anonymous

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.”

— Ephesians 3:16

Leap tall buildings in a single bound. Run faster than a locomotive. Defeat villains with superior wit and strength. You know who I’m talking about, right? We’ve all seen characters such as Superman and Batman bending steel beams and knocking out criminals, and we cheer as good wins over evil.

Perhaps we cheer because we see a kind of power that can affect our world. We know we don’t have that kind of power within ourselves, so we live vicariously through the superheroes our culture has created. Through them, we attempt to compensate for what we so obviously lack.

We all need the power to triumph over evil. However, our real need lies not in the external world but in the internal combat zone where we fight our moral battles. None of us will ever need to leap a tall building or bend steel beams with our bare hands. But we do need to conquer sin, overcome temptations, and bend our iron wills in obedience to God. And we can’t do those tasks without strength and power.

As Christians we have only one source for such might: the explosive power of Jesus Christ in our hearts. Not only does Christ’s power expel the evil within us, it conquers the attacks from without. Christ calls us to triumph, but He never leaves us to fight on our own. Jesus always leads us forth in triumph, exhorting us to “go and conquer in my name.” With Christ’s power inhabiting our souls, we can conquer evil and draw people to Jesus. God can use us to transform people and thus the society around us.

Christ is the only true superhero, and He lives within us and works through us. Allow Him to empower you for the challenges and temptations you face this day. By Christ’s power, you can conquer all evil that comes your way.

“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”
Old English Hymn

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

— Luke 12:7

A couple of years after the end of World War II, the British author W. H. Auden wrote a poem about the age in which he lived. Auden entitled this poem “The Age of Anxiety.” Amazingly, the label still describes our time though Auden coined it half a century ago.

Do you ever lie awake at night, worrying about this and anxious about that? If so, you know how distressing that experience can be, tossing and turning, trying to sleep while your concerns hound you. But if you’re a Christian, you needn’t allow worry to plague you. Instead, you can turn over your anxieties to your heavenly Father, casting them on the One who cares for you. I heard about one Christian man who envisioned lifting each of his big burdens, like a large stone, and handing it to Jesus. When Christ took hold of it, suddenly the rock shrank to a pebble. Our worries do indeed shrink when we leave them in God’s care.

A missionary was teaching a Hindu woman, who had just accepted Christ, how to pray the Lord’s Prayer. The woman prayed, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” Then she said, “Stop! Do you mean that God is our Father?” The missionary said, “Yes.” She said, “That’s enough! If God is our Father, then there’s nothing to worry about!”

Do you remember being a child, trusting your parent or guardian to take care of all your concerns? Remember how, no matter how frightened you might have been, all your fears dissipated when you put your hand into the hand of a loving parent? In the same way, we have a divine and heavenly Parent on whom we can still cast our burdens, no matter how big or how small they are.

Do you have a burden causing you to worry today? Hand it to God, your Father who cares for you. Allow Him to give you the peace that comes from trusting Him with everything that concerns you.

“When you have nothing left but God, then for the
first time you become aware that God is enough.”
Maude Royden

“Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”

— 1 Corinthians 1:20

Our world prides itself on nothing more than its vaunted wisdom. Having confused sophistication for wisdom and knowledge with understanding, our world looks down on those who believe in God and trust in His Word. Yet the Bible says that God has made the wisdom of this world foolishness. Most, however, do not really believe that. Sadder still, even Christians are impressed and intimidated by the world’s apparent wisdom.

But let’s take a quick look at what the world’s wisdom has accomplished through the years. Wisdom supposedly reached a pinnacle in the Golden Age of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle brought to light vast stores of knowledge that the world had not hitherto known. Yet their writings have done little to regenerate humankind and alleviate humanity’s problems. More recently (several hundred years ago), we ushered in the Age of Reason, supposedly a golden age of wisdom. But in truth, these were some of the bloodiest years France has ever seen. The guillotine, like some huge monster, consumed its victims until the streets of Paris ran with blood, and that Age of Reason became a very unreasonable, frightening, and terrible time. Even in this modern age, we haven’t learned our lessons. We’ve accumulated great stores of knowledge, so much that we cannot even measure it. Yet have we really arrived at wisdom? The twentieth century has been history’s bloodiest era.

Do we really want to rely on the world’s “wisdom” if it has resulted in all this bloodshed? Let’s bank our lives on the wisdom of God, wisdom that resulted in a different type of bloodshed—the blood shed by Jesus as He hung on the cross to die for you and me. God’s wisdom can do more to ennoble human life and alleviate the pain of human existence than anything conceived by the wisdom of this world.

“Wisdom is the something that enables
us to use knowledge rightly.”
Paul Lee Tan

“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”

— Colossians 2:6–7

A secular author was researching the subject of gratitude. As he did, he examined two large dictionaries of modern psychology and could find no mention of the terms “gratitude,” “thankfulness,” or “giving of thanks.” He then scanned the card catalog of a large university library containing hundreds of thousands of volumes. Through his search, he found not one single card giving any reference to the terms “gratitude” or “thankfulness.” Indeed, as one humorist put it, “If you’re looking for gratitude, you’d better look in the dictionary. That’s the only place you’re going to find it.”

If someone looked into your heart today, would that person find thankfulness and gratitude?

Someone once said that thankfulness is the least of the virtues and ingratitude the worst of the vices. We consider gratitude an easy virtue to attain, yet so few people distinguish themselves by their thankfulness. Meanwhile, in the first chapter of Romans, Paul, in cataloging the descent of humankind into the mire of depravity, begins by saying that “although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful” (Romans 1:21, emphasis mine). He then describes humanity’s fall into all sorts of base immorality. The slide from godliness into wickedness begins with ingratitude.

Shakespeare once said, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” But the Bible repeatedly calls upon us to remember our blessings and express gratitude. It says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits” (Psalm 103:2). What blessings can you thank God for today? Beginning now, cultivate a grateful heart.

Make it a regular practice to thank the Lord for who He is and for all He has done for you.

“As a rule, a man’s a fool. When it’s hot, he wants it cool. When
it’s cool, he wants it hot. Always wanting what is not.”
Anonymous

“Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept. Line upon line, line upon line, here a little there a little.”

— Isaiah 28:9-10

If you’re a parent or hope to be one someday, then you’ve probably already considered how you’ll raise your children. Allow me, if you would, to put my oar in the water and give you a few thoughts about godly parenting.

When we first look at our newborn children, we are full of hopes and dreams for them and their future. To guide our children toward reaching their potential, we can rely on promises and principles from God’s Word. Biblical parenting boils down to two main things: We must train our children in God’s Word and discipline them according to God’s principles.

“Training our children” means teaching them line by line, precept by precept, a little bit here, a little bit there about the things of God. A father must fulfill his role as spiritual head of his household, teaching his family the things of God: “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). This includes teaching the Ten Commandments, the gospel of Christ, the importance of memorizing Scripture, and how to pray. And because our lives speak louder than our words, we must teach by both precept and example.

Disciplining our children must be done in love, not anger. We shouldn’t raise our voices. We should listen to our children and refrain from disciplining them until we hear all the facts. We should set explicit and reasonable boundaries, enforce them consistently, and make it clear that Mom and Dad will always have the final say. We should encourage good behavior by offering positive rewards. A father once paid his son to read certain books and write book reports on them. When in college, the son often expressed gratitude to his father, because his knowledge of those books put him far ahead of his classmates. This father’s initiative helped the son reach his potential.

Parenting is tough but worth every effort we make. As we train our children in God’s ways, we can feel confident that our children will reach their full, God-given potential. Today, pray for your children. Ask God to help them grow in Him. And ask Him to give you the wisdom you need to train them in the way they should go.

“You cannot change your ancestors, but you can
do something about your descendants.”
Anonymous

… Unlike those high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices—first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for He did this once for all when He offered up Himself.

— Hebrews 7:27

There were priests in the Old Testament, but now Christ, our great High Priest has come. He completed the work that they could only begin.

With a priest and an altar you have something else: you have a sacrifice. For hundreds of years, at God’s instruction, the ancient Hebrew priests offered sacrifices with many specific guidelines. There were daily sacrifices and specific annual offerings. They may have “forgiven” sins temporarily, but never permanently.

All of these sacrifices foreshadowed the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. What He did is the basis for all forgiveness. His blood was much more precious than that of bulls and goats.

Read Hebrews 9-11 and you will notice that one word appears over and over and over again. It is a word that I recommend you underline. It is “once” or “one.” By one sacrifice Christ has forever reconciled us to God. There was only one sacrifice, and it took place upon the Cross 2,000 years ago. On that finished sacrifice all of our hopes are founded.

Question to ponder:
What does it mean that our High Priest offered Himself up “once for all”?

… weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

— Psalm 30:5

Sorrow, sadness, and weeping are all part of this life. None of us are untouched by the troubles of the world. But these are temporary—whereas joy, for the Christian, is everlasting. 

One time at a speaking engagement in Indianapolis, a man came up to me and said, “I was down in Ft. Lauderdale on vacation, and I met a lady in your church who shared with me those good tidings of great joy.” She had told him of the Gospel and he had accepted Christ. He continued: “You certainly cannot know, you cannot imagine the indescribable joy I have known for the last year since I came to know Christ. I never would have believed it.”

It is never recorded once that Jesus ever laughed, and yet the night before He went to the agony of the Cross, He said, “I have spoken these to you, that My joy may remain in you” (John 15:11). He came from the source of all joy—from Heaven—and He came to bring that joy to us. He took all of our sorrows and our griefs upon Himself, and thus, though He never laughed that we know of, He did weep. And He wept, so that we might be glad.

Question to ponder:
What difference does it make that sadness is temporary?