Last time on the Blog, we looked at various lies Satan tries to pass off as truths in our lives. This time, let\u2019s dig deeper into how exactly you can learn to identify the lies in your own life.<\/p>\n
First of all, you need to know the truth. The more you are rooted and grounded in the truth, the more easily you will spot Satan\u2019s lies. The more you know someone, the more you know of their life and character. With this knowledge, it is\u00a0difficult for strangers to deter what you know is true about that person (i.e., you know that your friend is\u00a0dependable because you’ve worked with them for several years. So, when the new employee tries to tell you your friend isn’t faithful, you have truth to fall back on)..\u00a0In the same way, the more you know Christ and His character, the less influenced you will be by the lies of the world<\/strong>.<\/p>\n During class, Pastor Shaw demonstrated how to identify half-truths, and if there even is such a thing. He asked the girls for petty examples of lies\/truths, to keep it lighthearted. One example was, \u201cShe does not have green hair,\u201d and \u201cHer hair is blue.\u201d The statement about the resident NOT having green hair was a truth; but the sneaky comment about her hair being blue wasn\u2019t the truth at all! In this example, someone added something to the truth, and it immediately became false.<\/p>\n Just as in this silly example, when you modify the truth with anything, it becomes anything but the truth<\/strong>. Armed with this principle, you can quickly identify truth and lies concerning the gospel. For example, anything that adds to what the Bible says regarding salvation is a lie. The Bible clearly says that salvation is \u201cby grace\u201d and \u201cnot of works”\u00a0(Ephesians 2:8-9<\/strong>). If you start playing the game \u201cgrace plus\u201d you\u2019ve lost the truth and won the lie.<\/p>\n The second in-class example Pastor Shaw used is when something is subtracted from the truth. The example was \u201cshe does not have blue hair\u201d and \u201cshe does not have hair.\u201d This example shows how easy it is to jump from one lie to another<\/strong>. Since we know from the previous paragraph that \u201cshe has blue hair\u201d is a lie, we \u201cjump\u201d to the opposing extreme, \u201cshe doesn\u2019t have hair.\u201d It is easy to entertain such extremities in our own lives as well. Let\u2019s return to our Gospel example from above. We are saved by works that we do, right? \u201cNO,\u201d says our conscience, so we jump to the opposite extreme: \u201cwe are saved, and we don\u2019t have to do anything!\u201d This is a sneaky lie, did you catch it? Read it again; one word makes or breaks it. The word is \u201cdon\u2019t.\u201d<\/strong> It would\u2019ve been perfectly truthful to say we \u201cdidn\u2019t\u201d<\/strong> have to do anything to save ourselves (we simply had to accept what was already done for us). However, we are now called to \u201cdo\u201d things as saved persons. We are called to love others, called to sanctification, and called to make disciples (See Ephesians 4:17-32<\/strong>, John 13:34-35<\/strong>, and Matthew 28:19<\/strong>).<\/p>\n After reading all this, I hope you feel slightly more equipped to identify the lies in your own life and in the lives of others. If you still feel at a loss, ask God. He gives generous doses of wisdom and does so without backlash!<\/strong> Feel free to comment with questions or prayer requests regarding truth and lies. My prayer for you is the same as that of Christ Jesus in John 17:17<\/strong>, that you be sanctified in the Truth, His Word is truth.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last time on the Blog, we looked at various lies Satan tries to pass off as truths in our lives. This time, let\u2019s dig deeper into how exactly you can learn to identify the lies in your own life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[12593,12590,12587,12635,119,21],"yoast_head":"\n