“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.” Proverbs 12:22
Have you ever wondered why lying is such a big deal to God? Who cares if we tell “white lies”? Is it really that big a deal? Well, based on the verse above, the answer is YES!
And the reason why has less to do with the impact of our lies on others, and more to do with the impact of our lies on ourselves. Check out part 4 in our No Big Deal? series above to see for yourself.
Read More
A lie believed as truth will affect your life as though it were true.
(read that one more time please)
I once did a little experiment on a Sunday morning. At the start of the sermon, I told all the people that I had secretly placed four $50 bills underneath seats in the church. I explained it as random act of kindness and I fully convinced them that this was true.
Of course it wasn’t true. It was 100% false. It was a flat out lie (which I've already repented about and confessed :) ). But the fact that it was a lie didn’t matter. What mattered is that people THOUGHT it was true. The reality of it being a lie wasn’t as important as the perception that it was true.
Read More
I hate being wrong. Of course no one enjoys it when they are mistaken, but some people tend to be more experienced at it than others and therefore better able to deal with it (wink wink).
Once upon a time, back when I was just a young lad in 4th grade, I learned a valuable lesson about self-deception. I learned that being “wrong” is bad; but what’s worse is being wrong and having everyone else realize it except you.
My 4th grade teacher had given us an assignment to create a large poster with all the creatures of the sea that we had just learned about in class. So I – being a studious young man from a young age – took great care to systematically go through the chapter and draw each animal that the textbook mentioned (we didn’t need to draw them all, but as you can see I was an overachiever from a young age).
Read More