The Truth

May 27, 2000

Truth Demands a Response

Teach me Thy way, O Lord; I will walk in Thy truth.

Psalm 86:11

One foggy night, the captain of a large ship saw what appeared to be another ship’s lights approaching in the distance. This other ship was on a course that would mean a head-on collision. Quickly, the captain signaled to the approaching ship: “Please change your course 10 degrees west.”

The reply came blinking back through the thick fog: “You change your course 10 degrees east.”

Indignantly, the captain pulled rank and shot a message back to the other ship: “I am a sea captain with 35 years of experience. Change your course 10 degrees west!”

Without hesitation, the signal flashed back: “I am a seaman, fourth class.

You change your course 10 degrees east!”

Enraged, the captain realized they were approaching each other quickly and would crash within minutes. So he blazed his final warning: “I am a 50,000-ton freighter. Change your course 10 degrees west!”

A simple message winked back: “I am a lighthouse. Your call !”

Like the sea captain, we may need to change course when confronted with the truth. That’s what happens when we make it a priority to spend time reading and applying God’s Word. It is eternal truth. It doesn’t change, so we need to adjust our lives to walk in that truth.

So many of us spend our lives avoiding the truth of God’s Word because we don’t want to walk in it. Christ said in John 8:32 that “the truth shall make you free,” but as Herbert Agar wrote in A Time for Greatness, “The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.”

What is the Bible to you? A collection of nice stories? The foundation of a conservative worldview? Or is it God’s Word, “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword?” (Heb. 4:12). Does anything keep you from obeying God’s Word in every area of your life-your business, your marriage, your family? Do you need to adjust the course on which you are heading today?