Unlearning the Lies

Half of learning is unlearning sometimes. If you have been taught something wrongly your whole life it is hard to learn a new way. It is like when you move to a new house in the same city. You have programmed your mind to go home a certain way and if you are not careful you will be at the old house and not where you currently live. (I know this from experience) You have to retrain your brain to head down a new path and a new way of going home. It will not become natural for you until you have reprogrammed your mind to the new way and you might even have to work at not heading down the old path.

So many people do not know what they believe or why they believe it and they fall for lies that they have been taught by well meaning people. Many people do not read the Bible for themselves and they are not encouraged to study the deeper things of God and so they just pick up a belief system that is not true. If you do not believe me then ask yourself, why do I believe what I believe? If it is because someone you trusted told you or a pastor told you then you might be heading down a path that is a lie. Not that those people meant to mislead you but we have to be careful to not just take someone’s word for something and to go to scripture ourselves and see if it is true. (John 8:31-32)

This is what happened for years when Jesus showed up on the scene. The people of God were taught a lot of things that just were not true and Jesus had to come and tell them the truth and start the reprogramming process.

Matthew 5:27-28, 38-39, 43-44

27"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'[a] 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'[a] 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[b] and pray for those who persecute you,

Did you hear the relearning taking place? Just because you have been to church does not mean that everything you hear is truth. The people Jesus addressed were listening to their teachers and they were taught the wrong things. My challenge is that no one should ever believe something just because I said it, but because they have studied the word of God for themseleves. People twist the Bible to make it fit their lifestyle rather than fitting their lifestyle to what the word of God says.

If you read John 5:1-9 you come across a man who could not walk for 38 years. He was laying by the pool which he, and many others believed had healing powers. Jesus ask him a question that at first seems very dumb. In verse 6 Jesus ask him, “Do you want to get well?” At first that seems like a dumb question but this man had the mindset that if he could make it into the pool that he would be healed. He was set on the water and what it had to offer that he missed that Jesus was standing right in front of him.

How about you? What things are you looking for to find healing or happiness? What things do you keep running to that you think if you arrive there and no one gets in your way, that you will be satisfied? We all have coping mechanisms that we use to get through life and some are more acceptable than others but that does not make them right. Some turn to drugs, some to food, some to video games and some to other relationships. Are we missing that Jesus, who can heal us, is standing right in front of us?

Romans 12:2 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

What things of the world are you turning to instead of turning to Christ?

What mindsets or beliefs do you have that are more of a pattern to the world rather than to scripture?

Do you know what you believe and why you believe it? If not then you might be looking to a lie for satisfaction rather that to Christ.

What's Love got to do with it?

Everyone is trying to figure out this thing called love. Many songs have been written about it and many have the wrong perception of what love is all about. Taylor Swift sings a love song about Romeo and Juliette. Did she read the story of Romeo and Juliette and how it ends? That would be like writing a love story about a couple who is on the Titanic. Oh wait that happened as well.

If you are looking for something fun to do with your friends or family, just get the words of some of the most popular love songs and try telling them to each other. Some of them are the corniest pick up lines ever.

1 John 4:7-8 says Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God is Love.He does not just demonstrate love but He is love. This means that everything He does is loving. My example is myself. I do not say I demonstrate fat, I say that I am fat. It is who I am. The difference is I can lose weight but God will never lose who He is, which is Love.

The Bible tells us about love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.

With the Bibles definition of love being one thing and the world and all its songs and all it poems, there is a big difference between what love is.

So the question needs to be asked. Who is lying? Either God is lying or the world is lying and you have to choose which one.

"When people say they love you, they mean I love me and I want you" John MacArthur

What happens is many people start believing lies about love and so they destroy their lives as they chase a lie for what is truth.

If you want to know if someone really loves you then you only have to see if they demonstrate 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. If they do not then you know they love themselves and just want you to fulfill some need they have. Basically they are using you for their own benefit.

Because so many students have destroyed their lives with the the wrong view of love it is also important to know some of the other lies they believe.

Lies Students sometimes believe

1) The lie of I can not be forgiven

If you can not earn your way to heaven then why do you think you can keep yourself out of it? Forgiveness is given by God and not earned by anything you can do.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

What Jesus did on the cross was for all sins, no matter how big or small we think they are. Do not believe the lie that you cannot go to God and ask Him to forgive you for whatever you've done. To try and earn forgiveness by any other means is to disgrace Jesus Christ and what He did for us through His death and Resurrection.

2) The lie of since I have messed up, I might as well keep messing up.

Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

This lie is what many teens fall into because somehow they feel as though they have already crossed the line and there is no need to go back. The lie tricks them into believing that since they have fallen into a mud pit they might as well never cleaned up again. Satan distorts who they are in Christ, and just like the prodigal son they try to come back as a slave instead of a child. Or they do not come back at all.

3) The lie of I might miss out on something

I also call this the lie of Adam and Eve because this is how they were tricked. They had all of paradise but Satan made them look at what they did not have. It is like watching a commercial at night about food after you already had dinner. I was not even hungry but after seeing the hamburger, or ice cream or whatever, I am now hungry, again. The commercial showed me what I did not have and had me craving something I did not need.

God had all of paradise for Adam and Eve and they bought the lie that they were missing out on one little thing. Teenagers fall for this lie all the time and they give into things that cost them paradise.

This is why I ask myself this question. "Am I sacrificing the paradise of what is, for the lie of what isn't?

Someone is lying to you and it is either God or the world. You choose.