The Sin of Lying

Prov. 12:17 “He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a false witness deceit.”

“A minister told his congregation, “Next week I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon I’d like you all to read Mark 17.”
The following Sunday the minister asked to see a show of hands. “How many of you read Mark 17?” Every hand went up. The minister smiled and said “Mark only has sixteen chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon, the Sin of Lying.” 

This was a meme on my facebook wall. Yeah, my facebook wall is now filled with many prayer requests, scripture memes, flowers and little tidbits like this. I rarely post on facebook these days and only two people visit my wall so I really see no purpose in facebook anymore except for praying for people in need. That’s a great purpose in my eyes. 

The above meme caught my eye and gave me a little chuckle and reading the comments was interesting too. One woman said, “Everyone tells a little white lie at some point in time.” And another one said, “Now that says a lot.” One woman said, “Wow, they so want to lie.” I’m assuming she meant Christians when she said ‘they’? This is the image people have of Christians. 

I remember Pastor Mike pulling something like this on us when he asked (a trick question) “How many here sin?” My hand went up (too eagerly I might add) while only a couple more hands were raised out of two hundred people. I remembered the scripture all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23) That is the only reason my hand went up so quickly, I know firsthand I’m a sinner. But others were not too quick to admit that because what, they are perfect and never sin? I don’t know. 

Lev. 6:3 “Or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein:”

To me, the question isn’t about the sin per se, it’s more about the reason why people lie about the sin in their lives. Shame, ego, pride? I don’t know that one either, I’m not the one judging you. 

While the term lie is found often in the KJV bible, it is usually meant as ‘to lie down’, bearing false witness is used as ‘to not tell the truth’. I believe one of my biggest faults is that I’m too honest. Many hear my words and think, she has to be lying but let me tell you, I would rather give you the blunt, honest truth than to lie.

Prov. 14:5 “A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.”

The Christian life is not about happy joyful stories where everything goes right in our lives, sometimes our lives mimic the stories in the bible which can be pretty ugly at times. We as humans are no different than the biblical men and women. We color our world to look happy go lucky when deep down inside we suffer daily in pain and we strive on a daily basis to be a better person who doesn’t lie and hate, for what? For me, it is heaven. I long to see heaven and meet Jesus face to face.

Now I know quite a few people who don’t believe that heaven exists and I’m okay with that. I’m not okay with it, for ME but we’re all here to find something to believe in, strive to become something we see in others that we too can mirror. I think of all the people who boldly tell lies in a church to their minister what struggles they must be going through that no one will ever know because they hid so well amongst the righteous of the world. 

“All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” That statement was in a bible study email that we were reading. I don’t know who to attribute it to or I surely would but it really hit me upside the head. We can do good until we’re blue in the face, it doesn’t pave the road into heaven. We can appear to everyone to be the do-gooders of society but that doesn’t mean we’ll make it to heaven.

We can continue to sin up until the day we die and beg God for forgiveness five seconds before we die. We know he’ll forgive us but does THAT ensure us an entry into heaven? I don’t know, I haven’t died yet; I’ll let you know when I get there. 

THAT my friends is NOT what He wants from us. He wants us now in our day-to-day living to be better people than all that have gone before us. He wants us to know that there is a penalty for sin when we do it knowingly. He wants us to be like His son and work toward being with Him. Yes, we all sin. Yes, we will all fall short. No, we will not all make it to heaven. That’s a scary thought to me. 

When Lies Become Truth

Pss 33:4 For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.

You’re a bold writer who can take the truth, twist it into your truth, then sell it to the public overwhelming them into believing your truth is THEE truth.

Take for example UFO’s. You pick up the paper, or should I say you turn on your computer (no one reads the Newspaper these days) and there you see it, UFO spotted here, or UFO spotted there, UFO this, UFO that.  You then begin to believe that UFO’s actually exist!

Then they go on to show you the scientific proof of their existence so again, you begin to believe them to be true because science can’t be wrong, can it? Of course not, it’s science! Even when the government pipes in saying, “It was a weather balloon,” or “It was a TOP SECRET government drill.” Nobody believes the government these days, so people are more apt to believe what the scientists have to say and the eyewitness accounts become more plausible.

Me, being a writer, likes to do research on the matter and form my own truth not something someone wants to sell me. How do I form my own truth? I weigh the pros and cons, never accepting something as truth unless I can find how it relates to my life in a biblical sense. I measure it against my biblical beliefs. My biblical beliefs are formed on what God has shown me through the years, not what a book has told me to believe. To each his own, right?

Where do I stand on UFO’s? I believe that UFO’s are a form of satan wanting to distract us from God. It looks to me he can be very convincing and has quite a few scientist wrapped around his little finger. They feed us lies; we believe them.

Writer’s have readers wrapped around their little finger also. They write lies and there are a few who actually believe it. Take for example the man who had a Tell All book as Oprah’s book club pick. He was on national television telling you a lie and not only did viewers buy it, Oprah was duped into believing the lie too!

Later it was PROVEN to be a lie, and he recanted the story saying it was all made up. It sold millions of copies, so millions were conned into believing his truth! Writer’s have that sword and they wield it to suit themselves.

Take the bible for example. It is made up of stories from well over a thousand years ago and to this day it still stands the test of time. Instead of scientists proving it to be a long drawn out fairytale, they in effect are proving the truth of God’s existence. Disproving the Bible is a challenge to them.

We as believers believe the Bible to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. (Yes THAT term is still said in a court of law) Why? If the Bible is all a lie, why do so many believe it to be the truth?

This is why, as a writer, I need to give you the whole truth. Not a portion, not one I made up myself, not one that scientists feed me, a truth I derive from the very Book that has been delivering TRUTH for centuries.

While I may offend some writers with this logic, please know it is my logic and I’m not forcing you to believe anything I say. Chuckle if you want. Just know, you as a writer hold something in your hand that can shape a persons mind. Wield the sword lightly. Words can help or hurt, the choice is yours.