Truth or Trash

After a message from church one day, my family started playing a game that we play often...it's called Truth or Trash. We will ask the kid squestions like: "if you mess up, God loves you less..truth or trash?" or "you have been created by God, for God, to do great things because of God...truth or trash?" They love it and are learning the difference between the truth of who God says they are and the trash the World says they are. As a wife of a coach and person in ministry, I play this game all the time...it just happens to be random people saying the statements and I have to ask myself is this truth or trash. Paul could relate...

In the book of Acts 27 and 28 we read that Paul was on his way to Rome, as a prisoner, and the ship he was on wrecked and the sailors found themselves on the island of Malta. It was cold, rainy, and they decided to build a fire. This is where we pick up the story in Acts 28:3-6, "As Paul gathered an wood for the fire, a poisonous snake bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw the snake hanging from his hand and said to each other, 'A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live."'But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up and drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn't harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god."

In the matter of about 5 minutes, based on the world's view of Paul he went from being a murderer to a god. The Truth was he was neither. The truth of who we are is not based on what people say we are, we are who God says we are...nothing more and nothing less. As a coach's family, we go through times where people will say that we walk on water (this is usually when we are winning) and then there are times when we will be told we are not a good role model. There will be times people will give you life with their words or try to give you death with their words. We have to learn that truth of who we are doesn't come from the mouths of people but from the mouth of God. Yes it is hard and yes I am tempted to believe the trash, but a wise man once told me "Just keep in mind that everyone has an opinion. Doesn't make them right. Live in truth not opinion."
There are 2 traps to listening to the world: 1) Those that say you are a god 2) Those that say you are a murderer. Paul addresses the first one in Romans 12:3, "...I give each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us."
It is kinda like when my son was playing football and we overheard him tell the coach, "coach, if you want to score, give me the ball." After the game, we talked about what humility is. The very next game we heard him say the same thing. We asked him, "Cale, we talked about this. What is humility?" He replied, "It is when you know that God made you this good." Dad gum it! That is it! He knew he was good, not because of what anybody said, but because he knew he was good because of God....he knew the Truth!

And for those who say that you are a murderer, Paul says in Romans 8:15, "So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now, we call him, "Abba, Father." For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children." You are a murderer...Trash. You are a slave to this world...Trash. You are not good enough....Trash. You don't measure up to other people....Trash. You are a daughter of the King of Kings....Truth. You are enough....Truth. You are a child of the living God...Truth!
The Truth is God and when we know the truth the truth will set us free. Set us free from pleasing people to pleasing God. Set us free from seeking peoples approval and seeking God's. Set us free from living for the world and living for God.
If there is anyone who understands this and can help us through these time is none other than Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. He was paraded through town with people shouting "Hosanna! Hosanna!" and one week later put on a cross by the same people shouting "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" And what did he do? He said, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do." Forgive them because what they say is trash, forgive them because they do not know the truth.
There are going to be times in our lives when we are getting told by the world that we are murderers or gods and we will have to look to God and ask "Is this Truth or Trash?" His opinion of us is the ONLY TRUTH!