What is Truth?

I learned something recently that is very interesting, and here I thought I knew everything about the Scriptures there was to know (haha, not really). Jesus said, "... for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." John 18:37

I always wondered what the "truth" was that Jesus was referring to. (Even Pilate posed that quesion, "What is truth?" in the next verse: see John 18:38). I mean, I assumed it had to do with the Bible, what I consider truth. But what was "THE Truth" that he came to testify to. Someone said that if one is testifying you think of a court room. And why would you be testifying? To defend something on trial. In this case Jesus was defending the truth. And the truth is GOD! God is truth. I should have thought of that specifically myself. I know the Bible says God is love, but I didn't think about the fact that anything that is true is from and of God. God's very essence is truth. He can't be anything but truth. He cannot lie. Everything that exists comes from God. Truth, I always knew, is not abstract. Its not a perception or a feeling, it is concrete. What is more concrete than God? He does not waver, He does not change, He cannot act or behave in a way that is contrary to His nature. It makes perfect sense. Its so obvious, and yet so profound at the same time.

Jesus points out that everyone who is on the side of truth listens to him. So that means, if you are on God's side you will listen and pay attention to what Jesus said. And since Jesus was God incarnate this makes absolute sense. There are many things in the Bible that don't clarify things that we all debate about and wonder about. It doesn't spell out all the answers, although we wish it did. But the truth is there, the essence of who God is can be found in the Scriptures. When Jesus pointed out the greatest commandments are loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind and the second is loving your neighbor as yourself then I see that as what is most important to God. That is straight from the Lord's mouth. Its how I filter all my actions and thoughts and why I would rather err on the side of love than on the side of judgment.

That is why I love GLBT people and invite them to partake in the gift of Salvation Jesus offers and to walk in the light of God's love as they are. If I am wrong in anything I have loved too much and not judged enough. But I think that God is pleased with that. I know He sees my heart and knows that I seek to obey Him and seek the truth. I am not siding with Gay people to be popular. It may be the popular thing to do in Hollywood, to support Gay marriage and to have Gay friends, but believe you me... it is not the popular thing to do as a straight Christian woman and as a member of a primarily Republican, conservative church. If I wanted to do what is easy and "popular"... for me, that would be to side with my church and tell Gays that they need to change in order to be Christians. Or that after they became saved they had to stop loving whom they love and either be celibate or marry someone of the opposite sex. But I refuse to take that stand and to agree with that line of thinking. It actually would be easier for me to do so, but I just can't. My conscience won't allow me. It makes no sense at all to me #1 to a think that being GLBT is a choice #2 that so many people that are saved and GLBT just don't have enough faith or are not claiming the grace of God to be "freed" from their "sinful desires" #3 that its right to force celibacy on any group of people (that is a spiritual gift given to some, not to all.) #4 to force people into "changing" and marrying someone of the opposite sex when it is unnatural for them to do so. None of that makes sense to me, and it is what so many Christians and churches expect. But what makes sense to me I suppose they see as nonsense. But, again, I would rather believe the way I do and err on the side of love than to alienate the GLBT community. I just wish I could find a way to change everyone else minds to see what I see... it just makes so much more sense to me!