Truth Be Told: A Blog by Pastor Bill Alderson

There are a number of references in the Old Testament of God’s storehouses, a place where all the provisions for His creation are found. In Deuteronomy 28:12, it identifies “ His good storehouse, the heavens ” as the place where He keeps rain for the land as well as the blessings of “all the work of your hand”. It’s also the place He will make those who obey Him the head and not the tail (verse 13). When I think of a storehouse, I think about the end of the movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the massive government warehouse where the Ark was finally stored. It is the place where God fulfills the disciples’ prayer to “ give us day by day our daily bread ” (Luke 11:3).   Some of these storehouses contain snow and hail “ which I have reserved for the time of distress, for the day of war or battle ” (Job 38:22-23). In Psalm 33:6-8, the psalmist writes, “ By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea togeth

We live in a world filled with corruption. In Romans 8:21-22, Paul says, “ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now .” The culmination of this condition does not take place until there are new heavens and a new earth. In the meantime, we are stuck with a world system infected with the influences of the devil’s agenda to kill, steal and destroy. Yet God is still speaking through the prophets and through His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). In Old Testament times, the prophets were the method God used to encourage and rebuke His people. Jeremiah was commissioned early on to be God’s spokesman in one of the most difficult times for the Hebrew nation. He would spend his entire public ministry warning the people of impending judgement, yet they refused to accept his warnings. This is why he is called “the Weeping P

There is a battle going on in the world for the control of the minds and hearts of man. This is a spiritual battle and centers on the issue of truth verse the lie. The Greek word translated truth is aletheia and it means that which is true or real, “the unveiled reality lying at the basis of and agreeing with an appearance” (Zodhiates Complete Word Study). Truth is a matter that rests on authentic facts to reveal that which is real. Truth originates with a person, Jesus Christ (John 14:6) and then testified to by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13). Truth is also the language He uses in speaking to His followers, the voice of truth. When Pilate was interrogating Jesus in John 18:37, Jesus told him, “ for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice ." In John 10:27, “ My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me ”. There is another voice which is brought contrary to the truth. Its intention is to distort the truth

Two important New Testament events occurred in an upper room. Most Christians are aware of the first one: the Last Supper. The second one took place after Jesus’s ascension in Acts 1: the 10-day period waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. A look at these two events may give us special insight into the introduction of the New Covenant as manifested at Pentecost in Acts 2. The upper rooms where they happened were in many homes a room in the upper part of the house, used to receive company, hold feasts, and retire for meditation and prayer.  In Luke 22:11-12, Jesus instructs His disciples where they would celebrate the Passover meal. He told them that the owner of the house would “ show you a large, furnished upper room; prepare it there ." It was in this place that Jesus celebrated His last Passover until His Second Coming, alluding to the New Covenant promised to Israel and the house of Judah in Jeremiah 31:31-34. The account then tells us that Jesus broke the matzah bread

  As a follow-up to my blog on “A Biblical Basis for Addictions”, it will be good to examine four steps that are required to find total deliverance from addiction. These are 1. Define triggers, 2. Have an accountability relationship based on agape love, 3. Rebuild broken walls, and 4. Feed wholeness through a spiritual community. The process begins with an acknowledgement of the problem, that one has a particular weakness that is destroying his life and something has to be done. It is helpful when the addict recognizes that God has the ultimate answer. So much of the process is directly related to willingness, a willingness to allow things that have been kept private to be brought out into the light. Most of us have a tendency to maintain a secret life with no one allowed in, not even God. A successful road to recovery from any addiction requires the assistance of others who will provide leadership, direction, accountability, and support. Bringing light into dark places defines the r

Psychology Today defines addiction as “ a condition in which a person engages in the use of a substance or in a behavior for which the rewarding effects provide a compelling incentive to repeatedly pursue the behavior despite detrimental consequences . ” Spiritually speaking, the unbeliever is vulnerable to all kinds of maladies and infections because he is subject to his environment. He has no defense against the wiles of the devil who enslaves by corruption the hearts and minds of the unsuspecting. It is an invisible war that controls many to their own destruction.   The devil will employ ones “ who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority . Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties ” (2Peter 2:10). In verses 18-19, “ For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corrupt

Relationships are complicated. Because of the various roles we play in life, the way we relate to others is usually controlled by those roles. For instance, I am a husband, father, grandfather, friend, etc. and these roles govern the way I relate to different ones in my life. As a husband, I have a unique relationship with my wife that governs the unique way I relate to her. But my wife is also the mother of our children and grandmother of our grandchildren and those relationships also affect the way I relate to her. The same is true for my children who are also parents of my grandchildren. The question is, have I taken time to know my children as individuals, the particular way they think or am I seeing them only as ones to be parented.   In the same way, my children relate to me based on the fact that I am their father. Have I made the effort for them to get to know me as a person, the way I think and relate to the world around me? This is an area where I have fallen short. If my p

  When I was first introduced to studying the Bible, it was in the context of the King James version and I had a hard time with it. The Old English employed in King James left me searching for meaning to many idioms of speech that the original translators utilized. For example, what does Romans 11:29 mean when it says, “ the gifts and calling of God are without repentance ”?   After studying what was behind the various translations, I came to adopt the New American Standard (NASB) as my primary source because of its attention to both accuracy and readability. By the way, the NASB translates “without repentance” as “irrevocable” and that gives me the right perspective on that verse. Having the right perspective is critical in properly understanding divine truth. So much of man’s troubles are attributable to his lack of understanding and applying truth because his point of view is either wrong or distorted. This distortion leads him to make many wrong decisions. Proverbs 23:7 tells us

  According to Wikipedia, shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion typically associated with a negative evaluation of the self, withdrawal motivations, and feelings of distress, exposure, mistrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. It is different from guilt in that guilt involves a feeling of responsibility for some action (real or imagined) while shame is derived from the consciousness of something dishonorable or improper that is done by oneself or another. Since shame can be either deserved or undeserved, it is therefore used mightily by the enemy to destroy people from within. God uses shame as a means of challenging actions such as idolatry and lawlessness. In Isaiah 44:9, “ Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame .” Since God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5), to broker graven images raises His ire against those who entertain any rival.

On Saturday , September 26 th , a bunch of us from the church ventured down 95 to Washington, DC to be part of a great gathering of Christians at the Mall to pray and to recognize together America ’ s need for God to move. It was a glorious display of unity with tens, maybe hundreds of thousands there, representing different factions  of the universal body of Christ. It reminded me of Ephesians 5:27 where Jesus presents to Himself “the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle”.  When the Bride of Christ  comes together in a divine mission  to petition His throne for His answers,  it manifests the  glory of His church. Twila Paris wrote a song about the  Body of Christ :   How beautiful the  radient  Bride   who waits for her Groom   with His light in her eyes.   How beautiful when humble hearts give   the fruit of pure lives   so that others may live.   How beautiful ,  how beautiful ,  how beautiful is the body of Christ.     We got to the Mall just in time to hear Jonathan