Day 84

Acts 6:11-13 “Then they secretly instigated men who said, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God’. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law”.


On Sunday Rob highlighted the ancient Jewish legal system which required the testimony of two men to convict someone of breaking the law. He also pointed out the grave consequences of falsely testifying against someone. Yet, the Jewish leaders of Christ’s day arranged false witnesses against Christ in order to keep their institution and power intact when threatened by the truth Christ was proclaiming. The use of false witnessing led to the crucifixion of Jesus. His murder at the hands of the rulers in Jerusalem was soon followed by the stoning of a devoted follower, also brought about by the bearing of false witness.

One of the most beautiful accounts of Scripture occurs after a group of angry Jewish men from all over the world, who were hanging out at the Synagogue of Freed Slaves (how interesting), became offended by Stephen. Apparently they were in dispute with Stephen about something, but couldn’t make their case as well as Stephen who overwhelmed their intellect with Spirit-filled wisdom. Bring out the trump card - False Witness. These angry men were able to convince some men to falsely testify about what Stephen was saying. In short time Stephen was brought before the council and charged with blasphemy, a crime punishable by death.

Stephen’s defense was to recite a long eloquent review of Jewish history. He finished up by turning the tables and accusing the very leaders he stood before of the crime of executing the long awaited messiah. His words bear true witness and sting “You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One – the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered.”

Now here’s the problem. Stephen is now testifying in court about their act of murder, but he does so alone. He is one man testifying to the truth and according to Jewish law you need a second. But wait, as he finished this accusation he looks up to heaven and sees one of the most magnificent sights recorded in Scripture. And he tells everyone what he sees “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!” There was a second man standing with him testifying to this crime committed by the Jewish leaders. Shortly after this Stephen is stoned to death.

So, this is the thing. We may not always be testifying in a legal procedure, but day in and day out we testify either truthfully or falsely. Jesus stands with those testifying truthfully. In fact, we usually hear about Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father, but that is not what Stephen reports. Jesus is standing and witnessing with Stephen. He is also watching a great injustice being perpetrated upon Stephen. How often do you suppose Jesus stands up to witness injustice in this world and to stand with those on the receiving end?

I don’t know about you, but of all of the commandments, this is the one I want God to put pressure on me about. I don’t want to offhandedly report untruths, or malign someone’s character (like politicians and celebrities). I am tired of hearing myself say things I’m not even sure is true, as a previous blog spoke about. I don’t think I ever want to be the one Jesus is standing against, not with.

Father: Start with our lips and move to our hearts and rid us of speaking in all untruthful and unjust ways. Help us to encourage one another in this way of living. And above all, help us to speak truth, as Stephen did, when we are called upon by your Spirit to witness in this world about your redemptive love.

Day 83

"You must give an account on judgment day of every idle word you speak." Matthew 12:36

"Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth . . . " Ephesians 6:14a

Exaggeration. Selective memory. A negative perspective. These are things that can ruin – friendships, marriages, families. Yet, they don’t seem so bad. We hear people all the time complaining about their lives- soccer moms complaining about their husbands; parents belittling their children; kids actively in battle with their parents or peers.

There was that moment when my friend seemed not to care a bit about my feelings. Somehow in my mind, I recalled times in the past just like this – times I was not good enough, times I let her down. That’s all I could think of.

Some days dinner comes and the house feels happy. Other times, evening arrives like a cloud, somehow darkening every thing in the day that went well and only letting through the bad things – when the youngest child swore, or a coworker laughed at your ideas.

Many of us get in these places where we only see what is right in front of us and it colors everything behind and beyond. Worse, we sometimes react from that place. Our tone with our families is sharp and biting over a gloomy dinner table. Our aggravation with our friends turns into angry silence. These are idle words - the language we think doesn’t matter because “all families talk like that” or “everyone gets mad."

This commandment about falsehood doesn’t just mean things we speak, but also trains of thought and the words that come out of them. The way I think about my child’s request affects how I respond. A tired child’s “can I have a glass of water” can receive gentle or abrasive response. We can build up or tear down. Our friend’s best intensions can be ruined by our reaction to what we have told ourselves they meant.

And, while we are deceiving ourselves by believing false paradigms, our armor – the stuff God provides for us to protect ourselves – gets a chink in it. We need that belt of truth because if we instead put on a belt of self-pity or the continual hat of the victim, we are not dressed for the war we must wage.

Pray: Holy Spirit, please help us to see when we are misleading ourselves. Tap us hard when we allow ourselves to speak ruin because of the lies we choose to believe.

Day 82

"There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers." Proverbs 6:16-19 (New International Version)

I thought the 9th commandment was “do not lie." So if my husband asks if I paid the bills; the policeman asks if I was speeding; or the kids ask if I’ll save their artwork, I need to tell the truth in order to follow that commandment. Check. Done.

But the NIV instead says “you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." NLT: “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor." The Message: “No lies about your neighbor." Throughout the NIV version of the Bible, when I look up “false testimony” or “witness," I find a very formal situation- sometimes a trial.

Formal situations often start from the informal. A friend of mine stands accused of a felony--flashing children in a public place. It started with a nanny who was there with her girlfriend and the kids she was watching. She was across a large room from him but she is positive it was him. Two weeks later, the police arrested a man of similar description who was caught at the same library flashing people. That man admitted to doing it before in that exact location.

But the nanny told her employer she was sure and now, it seems, she can’t back out of her statement. She became sure when a police officer showed my friend’s photo to her before the lineup. Lo and behold during the line-up 30 minutes later, his was the face she chose. She doesn’t want her employer to think she wasn’t paying attention. . .

So 18 months later, my friend's life is still on hold. The prosecutor can’t get anywhere because there really is no evidence. But he can’t drop the case either – he committed, he dug his heals in, he was positive this guy was scum and said so. The mother of the children is dedicated to seeing this through, too. And so a year and a half into this, this family’s neighbors all think the dad is a sick person. His kids and wife are ostracized. Because a woman, chatting with her friend in the library, felt guilty and said she was positive.

This doesn’t happen every day to us -or does it? The other day my daughter returned from summer camp and told me that her counselor was a "barking drill sergeant." The stress created by this woman was so bad that another child in my daughter’s cabin wrote home about the leader’s constant biting comments. So rushed was their every moment that my daughter, who has a history of rampant tooth decay, was not even allowed the time to floss her teeth.

When I called the camp, they had me speak to the counselor, who was beyond kind. “I never raise my voice unless it’s a life-threatening situation,” she said. Bells went off in my head. The counselor had to stay with preteen girls 24 hours a day and manage them every waking minute. I’m a mom. I thought, “Come on – you never have a bad day? Never raise your voice? Hmmm.”
Yet it appears my daughter’s story also had some inconsistencies. She could have flossed in the morning or during rest time if it was so important. "Maybe she was talking instead of flossing at night in the bathroom," the camp director suggested. That wouldn’t be the first time she was talking instead of doing her task.

Each person, in exaggerating the truth, bore false witness – they did not represent their fellow man (or woman or girl) accurately - and to very serious results. A man and his family are devastated. A child has lost the complete trust of her mother. A camp will lose business.

Pray: Lord Jesus, bind our tongues that we might only say what is completely true. As we speak, help us to see that our words are spoken in your court.

Day 81

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Exodus 20:16

I would say that this commandment is fairly straight forward. Lying about someone usually results in major damage to that person. One aspect that especially strikes me about the topic of bearing false witness is when someone believes false things about themselves. I have seen the damage it can cause. Children and teens, for example, are especially impressionable to opinions about them. When they believe false things about who they are, their emotions can run the gamut -- from feeling bad about themselves, to feeling worthless and not wanting to live. Some of those early wounds can set the tone for adulthood struggles with false impressions of oneself.

Even situations in adulthood can get us questioning our worth. Job loss, broken relationships, physical appearances and other elements that we tend to measure ourselves by may catch us in the trap of falsehood. When people measure their value to man’s standards and not to God’s word, they get off track.

But who are we to insult God’s "knitting?"Psalm 139:13-15 says, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."

This bring me to when Moses is being directed by God to be the voice of Israel, and Moses, knowing his speaking troubles, says in a sense to God: "You got the wrong guy." In Exodus 4:10-12 Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."

When Jesus sat with tax collectors, prostitutes, or other hurting souls, He made a positive impact on them, because He saw through their roles in society or the mistakes or bad choices they made. In a sense, Jesus saw the truth about them and helped them see it themselves.

We are all unique and we do a disservice to ourselves when we compare ourselves to others, especially when we use man’s measuring stick. Are we not bearing false witness to ourselves when we measure by our standards or someone else’s standard as opposed to God’s?

In our culture, if you make a good salary and have a high position in a company with a nice house, car and vacation home, you are considered a very successful person. Yet you do not find these standards in the Bible to describe a successful person. Not that achieving those things in themselves are bad, but if we start seeing ourselves as "not good enough" because we don’t have these things then we are getting off track. Remember that Jesus himself was homeless . . .

Bearing false witness is not good and if we believe false things about ourselves are we not bearing false witness to God’s creation? God is great and His Word, Works and Ways are perfect. Knowing that you are made by the perfect creator is the true stamp of your value. The deceiver would love for you to forget or fail to recognize yourself as perfect and worthy, because then you would start to feel worthless and might even become withdrawn, which ultimately would not reflect our great Creator.

Pray: I pray that we would not only recognize that bearing false witness hurts those to whom it is directed but that we would also see that bearing false witness against ourselves, Your own creations, is damaging. May we see anew the stamp of our value in how You made us; unique and wonderfully. There may be roles, behaviors or choices that we have made that bear false witness to who we truly are. Jesus, help us to see with your eyes the true value of who we are beyond the false witness. Thank you Lord for loving each of us for who we are and for reminding us in your Word that we are made in your image. Amen.

Day 80

"I am the way and the truth and the life.”
John 14:6

What's the big deal about lying? We all do it in so many subtle ways. We're so accustomed to lies, that we no longer make a fuss about them. Often, we don't even recognize them. Lying is way down there on the commandment list in more ways than one. It's one of the little sins. Does it even belong on the Big 10 along with murder and adultery? No pastor ever got sacked for lying. We actually expect our politicians to lie. And don't even get me started on advertising.

Why are we not outraged? Could it be that we want the out for ourselves? Judge not and all that . . .

Why is the truth so important? First, Jesus says that He is the truth. So if we deny the truth, it's as if we deny Him. Jesus is very big on truth. Sincerity, expediency, and good intentions mean nothing if they fail the truth test. Beyond that, Jesus says that Satan “is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44) Can there be any question about how seriously Jesus takes truth and lies?

Second, violating many of the other commandments involve a violation of the seventh as well. Adultery? It's a lie to the spouse. Stealing? A lie of possession. Murder? A lie about the value of life. Graven images? All lies. Peter Kreeft said it well: “Obeying this commandment completely will lead to obeying all the other ones. For all sin is a lack of honesty.”

Not lying is not good enough. We must revere truth. We must cling to it, spread it, and live it.

And we must learn to discern truth from lies. Too often we fall for lies and even spread them. Check out that rumor before you email it to everyone you know. Question the “facts” you hear on talk shows, whether left or right politically. We must resist lies even as we resist their father. It's what Jesus would – and did – do.

Prayer: Lord, you are truth. Your word is truth. Forgive me for playing fast and loose with the truth when you take it so very seriously. Please don't let me speak lies or fall for the lies of others. You are my Father. Amen.

Day 79

“ . . . the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

The truth of Jesus, the truth of His Good News is that we are free from sin, free from the past, free from anxiety, free from fear. We are also free to love unconditionally, free to forgive others, free to follow the dreams God grants us. The truth really does set us free in a way that no lie ever could. The fact that I don't always experience the freedom His truth offers is not a failing of that truth. It's a result of me buying one of the lies the world is always selling.

On the flip side, if the truth sets us free, will a lie make us captive? You betcha.

When we lie, we create a new false world where we have to live a parallel life, pretending that the lie is true. Then we get into trouble when we forget which world we are living in. There's a true story of a Hollywood producer who was embroiled in a phone conversation. At one point he became confused. He covered the phone and turned to someone in the room with him and said, “Which lie did I tell?” He had lost track of the worlds he had created with his fabrications.

Another prison that lying puts us in is that of mistrust. I don't have much wisdom to share, but one of my favorite sayings to my family is, “It takes a lifetime to build trust. It takes an instant to lose it.” One lie and it will be a loooooong time before you can be trusted again.

And mistrust breeds mistrust. The weird thing is, the more I lie, the less I trust others. Psychologists call it projection. We project our failings onto others. Thus the lie doubly ensnares us. We are not trusted and we don't trust others.

So the choice is laid out for us: Truth sets us free. Lies imprison us. I wish all choices were this simple. Now if I could only live it . . .

Prayer: Heavenly Father, you have set me free with the truth of the Gospel. Yet I'm so used to living in chains, that I struggle to live the freedom that truth brings. It's all there in my head, Father, but putting it into action is beyond my strength. Change me from the inside so that I might live by your truth and power. Amen.

Commandment # 9 (Sermon)

91 of 10 Commandment #9 (Stream) (Download)
August 16, 2009 Speaker: Rob Strong

Day 78

“You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.”
Exodus 20:16


This, the 9th commandment, deals with testifying falsely, or lying. Rob helped to flip this commandment on its head Sunday, explaining that when we lie, or when we alter the truth about what defines us, and what has shaped our lives, we break down the very image of God that we carry.

The deeper issue about ‘testifying falsely’ is an issue of grace, and issue of trust. Do we trust God to have His way in our lives, or do we need to lie, to alter the truth of who we are, of what we do, or are capable of. Every issue you have ever dealt with in life, every pain, every joy; every moment of glory and triumph, and every moment of bitter defeat is etched on who we are. We wear our experience as a badge of honor, testifying to lives of experience, both good and bad, but always seeking to turn it over to God.

Lying becomes a hindrance to living the full, true life that God has designed you for. The scripture is clear in this: that God works in all things for the good of those who love Him, and those whom He has called. Let’s choose to trust God, to be honest, to embrace the path he has set for us, and allow our experiences to buoy others who may be dealing with similar things.