Facing The Facts

Facing The Facts, Embracing The Truth

There are moments in peoples lives when they are presented with facts. Facts that involve our personal life can sometimes be very hard to embrace. One of the definitions of facts is a truth about events as opposed to interpretation.

I remember when I first was introduced to the fact that Jesus is alive and alive in me. There was nothing, no one, any situation that could tell me otherwise. I had a true interaction with the living God who is truly good. This was now a fact in my life and could not be changed. In that season of my life, that fact caused me to become a true follower of Jesus Christ. Through the different seasons in my life, I embraced the facts embracing God's truth, in other seasons I was faced with facts but because of my own issues in my heart did not embrace truth. I had an interpretation that was opposite of the fact. This did not change the fact but it did change the way I responded.

Over the years I've realized life would have been a lot better if I would have faced the facts and embraced the truths in every area of my life. Our interpretations are clouded, desire driven, deceitful. Our interpretations can keep us going and surviving without the proper truth to heal our hearts, to help us see we are in need of Jesus, to allow us to be human and naked before God's loving eyes, and at times our interpretations are created out of very broken places.

Facing the facts is embracing the truth.

The jews in the book of Acts were faced with some hard facts that would completely deserve a brain blow up emoji. I was surprised to see the two different interactive responses they had to these facts.

I was amazed at the defining difference between two groups of people.

One group of people saw miracles, the wisdom of God and actually encountered God's Spirit. And it's amazing to me that they were so quick to deny it. They even had a man martyred in their denial. So this was not a "no I don't believe that or agree with you." This was a "No, I will kill you if you don't stop." An aggressive approach to truth and facts. What interpretations did they have that were so strong that they would send someone to be murdered to prove their right or to not have to face the issues within? What would it mean personally for them to acknowledge and embrace the facts?

8 Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from some members of the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, and they began to argue with Stephen. 10 But they were unable to stand up against his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.

11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.”a 12 They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came, seized him, and took him to the Sanhedrin. 13 They also presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and the law. 14 For we heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”c 15 And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

As I read on through Acts, I was then surprised of the humility and honor another group of people had for Christ. These were jews as well who came from the same backgrounds, who were taught the same things about God, followed the same laws, and lived the same life responded so differently. A people who started as critical transitioned their hearts after hearing the facts and glorified God.

Acts 11:1-18

1 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received

the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers

criticized him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate

with them.”

4 Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’

8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.

11 “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a messagethrough which you and all your household will be saved.’

15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”

18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

After hearing Peter’s explanation, Jewish Christians didn’t double down on their beliefs. They became silent, and then “glorified God”, and they even took it a step further. Christians in Antioch, when told of the financial and material distress of fellow believers, didn’t sit back idly and let them suffer. They didn’t say “not my people, not my problem.” They moved to action, sending money and food to their Christian brothers and sisters in Judea.

The first group of people saw the facts but because of their interpretations, denied and were unable to experience the fullness and blessing of a life with Christ.

The second group although they had a lifetime of history that said something different than what the facts showed, allowed God to wreck their interpretations and they opened their hearts to what the facts presented in Christ. They were radically transformed as well as the lives around them.

This was such a different response to the miracles, wisdom, and experience of the Spirit of God.

There are so many opportunities in our life for us to embrace the facts, the truth of the Gospel, the truth of God's word. And if there are areas we are not embracing that truth, why? Allow God to deal with the false interpretations of our hearts, to acknowledge where we have fell short or believed falsely for our own sake. The truth is what sets us free John 8:32. It is a response to facing and embracing the truth of the gospel, God's word, and who we are in Him.