1 For Truthfulness

For Truthfulness!!!

Introduction: On Christ Ascension Day in Germany Thursday (May 25, 2006), a woman with whom my wife was communicating with in the Yahoo Instant Messenger did not like her asking about her health problems because she believes mentioning such agrees with Satan instead of God's truth of "by His stripes, we are healed". My wife asked about what she should pray for and received the same response and a request not to talk about such. This frustrated my wife and I encouraged her to tell her about when she was told to deny her deformed hip for two years because of the same belief and that God wants us to be truthful. Later the lady's husband took over for her and defended her belief. Is this spiritual deceit and should it be condoned? This influenced me to recommend to my wife to send the Bible study I had done in 1983 about deceit and to do this blog post. BTW, I hate the common dialog in churches-- "How are you?" and an obvious untruth "I am fine." in response. The second or third major theme in the Bible is truth. In Philippians 4:8 Paul said it was the first thing to think on and in Ephesians 6 the first piece of spiritual armor is truth. In both lists, faith or one of the other terms could have been put first because of chronological reasons or other reasons, but truth was because the main weapon of the spiritual enemy is untruthfulness in deceit (half-truth statements). You might sort of review the Bible and see how much truth and untruthfulness are indicated, compared to love and grace. This next article was done for a final project in a secular community college business class and I didn't have to take the final test because of this and my previous work in class. The intellectual humanist professor I had for the two business classes respected my truthfulness and compassion without mentioning Bible verses. She said that I was the first true Christian she had met. To God be the glory because the Holy Spirit guided me in all communications with her and my younger classmates and computer lab users. Truthfulness is so important at all times: Notes for Human Relations Course Video Presentation (by Bill Stevenson, January of 1990) Introduction: When I was thinking about what to do for my first video presentation in my life, I first thought about doing a paper on the most crucial, human relation problems. So I sent a query letter to about twenty-five employment agency interviewers and psychologists with a return stamp-addressed envelopes. In the letter I explained why I was asking the questions. The questions were: 1.) What do you think the three most crucial, human relation problems are? (Please list in order of importance or frequency.) 2.) For each of the problems you chose, how would you counsel a victim? 3.) For each of the problems you chose, how would you counsel a causer? The only answers I received are as follows: From an employment agency interviewer (1) "an attitude of 'disposability' regarding employment; example, one says 'If this job doesn't work out or isn't exactly what I want, I'll find another one tomorrow.' This includes poor work ethics." (2) "Drugs (which cause a great deal of loss for the employer and a

1

hardship on the co-workers." (3) "Personal problems brought into the work place." She added that the last response is directly related to both of the other problems. She wrote "Young people today seem to take a very cavalier attitude toward work. They apparently have not been raised with the same sense of loyalty, dedication, and feelings of responsibility that the previous generations were taught. She also stated that the victims of the three problems are the employers. Her advice for a victim would be to hire 're-entry' people who have a greater degree of maturity and to perform pre-employment drug tests as well as personality profile tests. She indicated that her counsel to an employee with any of the three problems would be complex because, so often, each of these problems is a result of a lifetime of poor training. From an encounter group leader, (1) "Fear and low self-esteem." (2) "Fear and mixed or unclear communication." (3) "Fear and lack of awareness and experience. No education in human relations." His advice for both the victims and the causers of the just mentioned problems would be (1) "Help them discover and amplify their magnificence and never call the victims, victims." (2) "Show the dynamics of fear-negative fantasies, and mediate communication attempts." (3) Take an active part in a group therapy clinic where they have programs dealing with the just mentioned. He stated that he believes that "there are no causers or victims, just people doing the best they can with the limited awareness and experience available." From a counselor, (1) "judgmental attitude and response", (2) "lack of self awareness leading to game playing", (3) "unable to interface a different personality type with one's own". His advice for the victims of the just mentioned problems was: (1) for the victim of a judger, express his or her feelings to the latter; (2) for the victim of the game-player, understand what happens when the such faking action is done; and (3) for the one affected badly by someone else who has a different personality, understand his or her own type and how he or she is affected by the other's personality. His advice for the possessor of a judgmental attitude was for him or her to try to understand the result of his or her way of responding. His advice for the game-player was for him or her to try to understand what games are and how we play them. His advice for the personality conflicter is for him or her to understand his or her own personality and how it could negatively affect someone else. Now for the moment that you have been waiting for, I will reveal how I would have answered the human relation problems questions. No drum roll or trumpets necessary, just give me your undistracted attention. I believe that the three most crucial human relation problems are: (1) untruthfulness which includes gossip, fibbing, lying, and withholding truth; (2) not keeping promises or vows, which causes loss of credibility and respect from children, loss of trust and friendship from friends, and loss of marriage and best happiness from spouse; and (3) selfishness which causes all communication problems in business, schools, politics, religion, and sex. Now the solutions for these three very common problems: (1) Untruthfulness can only be counteracted by truthfulness which includes ceasing to gossip, fib, lie, and keeping secrets. The victim of untruthfulness should try to explain the untruthfulness to the speaker (in private if possible) and forgive him or her (at least in thought). [Bitterness and resentment can be detrimental to the possessor's health.] (2) Promises and vows should be kept. The victim of broken promises and vows should forgive the unfaithful individual and go on. The unfaithful individual should confess his or her wrong and try to reconcile the friendship or/and marriage if possible. (3) Selfishness can only be counteracted by unselfishness or unconditional kindness to others. A victim of selfishness should try to explain the negative results of selfishness with the speaker or/and doer (in private if possible) and forgive him or her (at least in thought). The selfish individual should confess his or her problem and try to rectify the resulting problem if possible. I hope this sharing of ideas about crucial, human relation problems with solutions has been helpful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------TRUTH OPPRESSED (by William L. Stevenson) What is really being taught in politics? What is really being taught in the half-hour comedies on TV? What was taught in TV programs like "It Takes a Thief" and "Mission Impossible"? What is the main tool of Satan and his cohorts? Yes, deceit or/and untruthfulness.

2

These human nature qualities are glamorized and promoted in so many different ways. Truth usually is not. In fact, honesty is usually scorned or/and ridiculed. Think about the TV programs you watch and the literature you read and the movies you see. How were truth and honesty treated? How was deceitfulness and lying treated? Do you now remember a lot of ways truth is oppressed by the media. What about in politics and government? Are you aware that many new United States history school textbooks are almost completely untruthful and anti-Christianity. Also, many business owners oppress or/and withhold truth from their customers and staff. These leaders demand loyalty to the degree that their staff will also not share the truth with anyone. This also happens in churches. Many church/ministry leaders are very dictatorial in their expectations and untruthful about how the offerings/donations are used. Some have abnormal doctrine that they don't share except to proven followers. Even a lot of the teaching going on in churches today is untruthful or/and theoretical. There is very little true Bible teaching occurring these days. So God's truth is being oppressed in the business and religious world. Think about your past experiences with both. The ends do not justify the means. Now to something very prevalent-- fact exaggerating, gossip/rumoring, false accusing, slandering, scorning, condemning. Aren't these all horrible uses of words that go against truth? They oppress truth and they destroy truthful people. Have you ever been a victim of such untruthfulness? Only with God can we go against human nature. The Bible emphasizes two major things-- God's special love full of grace and the importance of truthfulness. Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by Me." There are many examples in the Old Testament which show that deceitfulness and non-truthfulness result in problems. Jesus Christ claimed that His truth and obeying His commandments would free His disciples from sin. (John 14-17) The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:8 that Christians should think about "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report". The order is important! In Ephesians 6:10-18, the Apostle Paul said that the first piece of the Christian spiritual armor is made up of truth mentioned before the armor made up of righteousness, the Gospel, faith, Salvation, and the Word of God. Now the question is, will you be completely truthful from now on and will you do what the Holy Spirit urges against untruthfulness? Poll-When is truthfulness the most difficult? • in relating with non-Christian good friends • in relating to non-believing or nominal Christian relatives • in relating to un-popular people in church • in relating to politicians • in relating to pastors • in relating to others about not feeling well • in relating to new friends • in witnessing about Christianity Saturday May 27, 2006 - 10:01am (CEST)

Please check these websites-http://360.yahoo.com/wls8ger http://www.geocities.com/bibleloverbill http://www.geocities.com/for_sharing_truth

3