Whispers of Truth

The struggle with being corrected is real because it is a struggle with pride. Being wrong, well, it just feels wrong. My flesh usually rises up first and balks at any attempt to correct me — be it offered in love or otherwise.  Then the reality hits me; I usually need correcting. By this point, I have usually compounded any problem that inspired the attempt at course correction to begin with, but at some point the cycle must be broken, and I have to change the way I feel about correction, discipline, if I am His child. The first five chapters of Revelation make this need for the ability to accept correction crystal clear just in case I missed it in the preceding 65 books. And lest I question the authority of the author, who by the way was not John but Jesus, here is His affirmation found in the message to Laodicea when it lay in need of repentance: “These are the words of the Amen, the trusted and faithful and true witness, the Beginning and Origin of God’s creation” (Rev. 3:14b, AM

Hebrews prods us to encourage others in Christ who are struggling. Today. As I read through the book again today, Hebrews 3:13 stands out, as it always does but with a better understanding that doing so also helps to protect me from being hardened (or settling into rebellion, as the AMP version offers) by sin’s deceitfulness. There is the reciprocity of the giving of encouragement as well as the receiving of it from others. I am not to always and only give encouragement (maybe that would mean I have been deceived by sin and hardened to the point of being proud or arrogant); I am not to always and only take it (maybe that would mean I have been deceived by sin and hardened to others’ need for encouragement, selfishly thinking I need it more). So how do I do this, practically?  Hebrews 4:14 offers the encouragement to HOLD FAST to my confession, to cling tenaciously to my faith in God’s unique ability to save in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 3:14 tells me to HOLD FIRM to my “newborn confide

Recently my husband showed me a short video that looked to be from the ‘80s and featured a very mature band singing a startling rendition of a very secular-sounding rock song. The adaptation, if I remember correctly, spoke of the “hotness” of God’s holy Word. It was interesting, to say the least, but if I had to guess, it was an early attempt by the demonization to interest young people in the music of the church. I have to say if I had been a youth in that church, I would’ve been hard pressed not to just laugh out loud at the absurdity of the performance that also featured back-up singers dressed like Jackie O and swaying in the background. In all seriousness, much of what churches do today to appeal to people, to just fill their pews, might one day be just as laughably absurd as that video was to me, but it really isn’t a laughing matter, this pull to make the church just like the world. Today as I was rereading 1 Timothy, the thing that jumped out at me is Paul’s mentioning of spir