Facts versus truth

  

     You know, facts often get in the way of truth (reality) and vice versa.  You may have the fact that it is raining. Oh, you just love the rain!  However, go outside when the temp is cold and the reality of the rain will make you uncomfortable.  The truth is, we human beings, Christians being no exception, live in an odd dream world.  Our dream world is often built on facts, but not reality.  We are sold a way of life with facts but then the reality catches up with us and we are unhappy and a bit confused.  Politicians know this and use it to manipulte the whole country.  They will will throw out facts by the bushel and we vote "yes" and then the reality sinks in and we realize we have been had. 

     Religious people are even better at this.  In fact, perhaps, maybe, the politicians learned how to do this by going to church.  Who knows?  Religious voices, using Bible facts can and do manipultate people, rob people, cheat people and do it all with facts.   Of course, the reason the church in America is not growing, is not doing what they should is that we are overloaded with facts and skimpy on reality.  We are those the Bible speaks of who are ever learning but never coming to the reality, the experiential knowledge, of what  they know.  And, worse, if the reality of the facts does manifest, we are very apt to reject the reality and cry out "just the facts, just the facts".  That was the plight of the Pharisees when Jesus came to them.  They had the fact that there was a coming Messiah.  Then He came.  They stuck with the fact and resisted the truth. The same thing is going on right now on a much bigger scale.  Across the whole church world, we believe the fact that there is a Holy Ghost.  But then.....He shows up and His reality makes us uncomfortable so we go back to the worship of the fact and dismiss the reality.  They are great with the story of men who appeared as drunk when baptized in the Holy Ghost, but let it happen in their church and they will fight it tooth and toenail.  They are comfortable with the fact, but not the reality.  That is a strange bondage indeed!  But, it is what we have.

 

   When Jesus said to them they would be made free when they knew the truth, this was what He was referring to.  The reality of something frees you from the fact of that something.  The word "truth" as Jesus so often used it actually means "verity" or "reality".  He said the Spirit was coming to lead us into "all truth / reality".  There is tremendous resistance to this.  In the church world we think we are doing great, just hanging on to those facts but actually, we are being robbed.  Religious people, legitamizing this theivery, say "oh,we don't want experiential theology, we will just stay with the facts". That is their big criticism of those of us who live the Spirit-filled, faith, life.  Yet, that is exactly what Jesus has promised us.  The Bible is not just a book of facts, like Webster's Dictionary.  It is a book of facts that when allowed, the Holy Ghost can give life and experience to each and every fact.  He can turn facts to experience.  And, He wants to.