Truth is...

As a conclusion to the collection of life lessons and spiritual challenges that people call The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus dropped this truth bomb in the lap of each person who likes to call him a great teacher and leave it at that.

You know the kind of person I mean: "I'm not really a religious person, but I think the world would be a better place if we all paid attention to how Jesus talked about loving our neighbor and getting along."

While I agree that Jesus talked about loving our neighbor ... even to the point of calling it the second-greatest commandment ... I'm not so sure the phrase "getting along" fully summarizes what he meant.

I mean, the same Jesus who said "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39) also said "Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34) So don't think you can fully understand Jesus in the space of a single sentence.

Besides, it's not about intellectual assent or curious contemplation. Jesus doesn't intend for us to hear his words and mentally agree with him, as if to say, "That's really good to think about."

He intends for us to do something about it.

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Truth is... Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of this verse in The Message makes it pretty clear: "If you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach."

      

Isaiah had the uncomfortable task of pronouncing judgment on Judah, but he also got to hold out the hope of God's promised restitution and reward. Very much like the now-classic, "It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming!"

The metaphor of the future being bright  -  with the moon and sun giving far more light than normal  -  isn't just an Old Testament thing. It makes its way into the final book of the Bible, describing the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21:23 (AMP):

The city has no need of the sun nor of the moon to give light to it, for the glory (splendor, radiance) of God has illumined it, and the Lamb is its lamp and light.

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Truth is...We can have the same hope of a bright and glorious future. No matter how dark our current circumstances may be, the all-loving Creator who first said, "Let there be light," has no intention of leaving us alone, fumbling around in the dark forever.

All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light of all people. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.
John 1:3-4 (NCV)

      

A little pity, please, for poor Simon . . . assumingly in the area for Passover and Pentecost, over 1,000 miles from his home in Northern Africa. He's heading into Jerusalem from wherever he was staying during his pilgrimage and is voluntold to join a procession going out of the city; forced to carry the tool of execution for a condemned man who had been beaten to a pulp and was unable to carry it himself.

It was totally unfair. He hadn't done anything wrong. He did not deserve to be carrying that cross to Golgotha.

Hmm . . . Just like Jesus.

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Truth is...We are all called to be just like Jesus.

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Luke 9:23

If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
1 Peter 2:20-21

      

To care at all about this question Jesus asked, first you have to believe there IS such a thing as a soul.

In my days as a health class guest speaker, touting the advantages of abstinence before marriage without bringing religion into it, I was still able to talk about how there is something about us humans that is more than blood and bone and organs and tissue. "There is something here that makes me Me! And that something deserves to be cared for and protected."

According to today's Scripture, Jesus thought a person's soul was a pretty precious commodity. To squander one's integrity for the sake of something as temporary as money or popularity would qualify a person to be considered a fool.

And Jesus wasn't the only one to think so:

Solomon knew what he was talking about, too!

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Truth is...Anything attainable through human effort here on Planet Earth is, at best, temporary. But that something that makes me Me and you You? That is beyond the physical and temporary, and when placed in the care of Jesus, capable of everlasting joy.

BONUS: To hear the Dave Burkum song that today's title was stolen from, CLICK HERE.

      

This verse comes toward the end of a story about Jesus healing a man who had been born blind. The religious leaders were upset that Jesus had worked this miracle on the Sabbath and were grilling the formerly-blind beggar.

It has set me to thinking about what Jesus has done to me and how he opened my eyes.

• Gave me parents who never treated church as an optional thing.
• Gave me a mind that appreciates the logical points of apologetics, showing me that faith in Christ isn't just "because the Bible says so."
• Softened my heart to feel my need for a Savior.
• Made sure Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands a Verdict got published.
• Put a young man named Wendell in my life who modeled excitement for the Word and the power of Jesus to transform lives.
• Moved Bob Stacey to create a ministry named "Christ in Youth."
• Led David Meece to write the song "We Are the Reason."
• Has placed me within church congregations and meaningful relationships that have increased my experience of his love and my internal database of wisdom.

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Truth is...while Jesus is the only way to have intimacy with God, there are many paths that lead to Jesus. What's yours?