Woven From The Fabric Of Truth

July 26

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve. Jeremiah 17: 9, 10

Once there was a man who was such a golf addict that he was neglecting his job. Frequently he would call in sick and sneak off to the fairway.

One morning, after making his typical decision to call in sick to the office, an angel decided to teach him a lesson. The angel warned him, "If you play golf today, you'll regret it," but the golfer ignored what the angel whispered in his ear.

Thinking it was only his conscience, which he had successfully whipped in the past, the fellow just smiled. "No," he said, "I've been doing this for years. No one will ever know. I won't regret it."

The angel said no more. The fellow stepped up to the first tee where he promptly whacked the ball 300 yards straight down the middle of the fairway. Since he had never driven the ball more than 200 yards, he couldn't believe it. Yet, there it was. And his luck continued. He had long drives on every hole and perfect putting. By the ninth hole he was six under par and was playing near-perfect golf. The fellow was walking on air.

He wound up with an amazing 61, about 30 strokes under his usual game. "Wait until I get back to the office and tell them about this!" he said to himself. Then his face fell. He couldn't tell them. He could never tell anyone.

The angel smiled. Deception always has the last stroke. – Anonymous



Some of us have rather devious minds. Our first inclination when we are in a perplexing conundrum is to resort to a little white lie to cover our backs. Yes, we want to be godly in all our ways, but we are so desirous of having an escape from an intimidating challenge that we don’t even connect the dots of our current circumstance to the fact that we are falling into the trap of lying.

When we default to a lie rather than confront the truth in any situation, we are evidencing to ourselves and to God that deception is far too convenient an ‘escape hatch’ for us, that lies are a cornerstone of who we are. No one but the ‘father of lies,’ John 8:44, is pleased when that fault is laid upon the doorstep of our heart.

When we evade our responsibility to know the truth, and allow the truth to make us free, according to John 8:32, then we are embracing the one area of accountability that can transform our meager human existence into a reflection of the holiness of the life of the Lord. His Word that cannot fail and cannot lie tells us that “He is truth,” John 14:6, and He (Truth) sets us free.

When we make truth the fiber of the fabric of our lives, we are weaving our lives from the essence of the character of Christ. To employ anything less as the material of our walk of faith is to scorn the lofty estate to which we have been called. Our Jesus does not want us to compromise truth, but to hold it close to our hearts where He dwells.