truth

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The Honest Truth Versus Truth – There Is A Difference

I think there is a big difference between truth and the honest truth. 

the honest truth verses truth - there is a difference

With so much information at our finger tips, it seems we have a harder time knowing what’s true. We are the most knowledgeable society that has ever lived on earth, yet discerning the honest truth from the truth is not easy.

And it’s our vast knowledge that is partly to blame. 

It is common knowledge now that you should always read the fine print on anything you sign up for or purchase. 

At one time it was the hope that people would not read the fine (small) print. But so many people were deceived about what they were signing or purchasing that measures were brought in to make the small print larger. 

Now the small print is bigger and more available, but it is still hidden in large paragraphs of legalese print. No one wants to read all that information, so we just sign or purchase … just like when we didn’t read the small print.

I think with more knowledge comes more opportunity to reveal truth, but not always the honest truth. 

Honest truth is when all the bias and desire to form another’s thinking is taken away, which leaves you with just the truth, the honest truth. 

We have trouble doing that in our world because we always want to present the truth in a way that favours us, our own opinion, our our bias. 

For example, my church just changed a service contract because we didn’t like the company’s deception. Oh, they told us the truth, they just didn’t present the honest truth. 

Our contract with them was for service, not repairs. Yet when a repair was needed, they still tried to charge us huge fees to make that repair. 

Fortunately we had an expert in our church who told us to get the repair done by another company. The repair ended up being so insignificant that the other company refused to even charge us for it. They just fixed it for free.

When we tried to end our service contract with the first company, we were informed that it needed to be done in writing six months before the renewal date. Since we were only a month from the renewal date, we were stuck automatically renewed for another seven years.

They had told us the truth – it was there in the small print of the contract. They just didn’t push the honest truth.

It is so easy to tell the truth in the way we want someone to understand it … which means we have to be so much more careful and use all that available information to help us determine the honest truth. 

If we don’t do that, we will actually be living with half truths … and depending on how you look at it, you could consider them half lies.

Here’s the thing: The Bible pulls no punches. It states the honest truth that you must believe in Jesus Christ alone to have your sins forgiven and end up in heaven rather than hell. It’s not a popular truth and it certainly goes against our wants and desires. But the Bible is giving you the honest truth. It’s up to each one of us to believe it or look for something we like that we call truth. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What topic do you need to research more to find the honest truth? Leave your comments and questions below.

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It’s All About What We Believe

In my last post, I wrote about setting goals for the new year (click hear to read). In this one, I am going to share a secret that helps me do that. In my next post, I’ll share another secret.

ball and chain

Normally goal setting starts with dreaming of all the things you might want to accomplish. You brainstorm a million ideas, then select the best ones.

But I didn’t start there – I started in a place I had no desire to go.

I began with evaluating my limits … to be more precise, my limiting beliefs. And that’s very different from my limits.

I’m limited by a lot of things. I could blame my parents that I’m not six feet tall or have the mind of a rocket scientist. But that’s just genetics. I can’t do anything about that.

Everyone has limits.

But limiting beliefs, that’s a different matter. They are not really limits; they’re just a bar we set for ourselves that we don’t think we can get over.

The problem with those limiting beliefs is that we live up to them all the time … or should I say, we live under them every time.

What’s worse is they aren’t necessarily true; we just believe them to be true (limiting beliefs like, “I can’t do that”, “I’m a failure”, “No one cares”).

When it comes to goal setting, they keep us from accomplishing the goals we want to reach.

In the past, my limiting beliefs have been the mastermind behind me sabotaging my own goals.

They come from stories I’ve created based on my past experiences. Still, I believe the stories and live them out time and time again.

These limiting beliefs are ingrained in us and you can only change them by replacing them with new stories – a new story that overwrites the old one.

That’s not easy to do.

But this week as I was listing my limiting beliefs, I found a key to begin the process of overwriting those limiting beliefs.

It starts with a truth. Then you have to trust the truth enough to experience that truth in your life and thus write a new story.

It sounds simple but it takes some work.

For me, two truths from the Bible that I read right after I wrote my limiting beliefs will help me write some new stories.

1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (NIV84)

We can ask God to help us overcome our limiting beliefs. He will hear us and answer.

Then Ephesians 3:20 says “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”(NIV84)

Now that’s powerful! Whatever you believe about yourself – whatever I have come to believe about myself – God is at work within us and can do more than we can even imagine.

The first step is to believe these truths, and then go out and experience the reality of them. If you do, you’ll replace that old story, with a new one.

Here’s the thing: If you want to grow deeper with God, if you want to see God work in your life, then address those limiting beliefs by believing and experiencing these truths from God’s words. Then write a new story through experience.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Do you have limiting beliefs that hold you back from all God wants for you? Leave your comment below.