Andy Rooney, a popular t.v. commentator in the past, once voiced a truth that the entire world should embrace: “To ignore the facts does not change the facts.” Years ago there was a popular fairy tale that involved a not-so-pretty woman who would gaze into her mirror and ask: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” The voice from the mirror would invariably reply that SHE was the fairest maiden in the kingdom. Everyone who read the story knew that the mirror as lying to the woman, that she was hearing and believing what she wanted to hear and believe–EVEN THOUGH THE TRUTH WAS THERE IN PLAIN SIGHT inside her mirror. Not being blind, she chose to turn fact into fiction and fiction into fact–and to believe her self-generated fiction.

The irony of this situation is that each Sunday morning the people who laughed at the deceived woman would leave church believing what their “mirror” had told them–that among all professing church members in the land, they were the truly saved. This in spite of the fact that GOD’S TRUTH WAS THERE IN PLAIN SIGHT inside their Bibles. Not being blind, they chose to turn fact into fiction and fiction into fact–and to believe their self-generated fiction.

I once read about a famous man, whose name escapes me, who would stand near a large tree with a rock in his hand. He would then pray to God that if he was in good stead with Him, the rock would hit the tree trunk when he threw it. Needless to say, he never missed. The tree was saying to him exactly what the mirror said to the woman, and what the preachers said to the fairy tale readers: “It’s all good. You’re O.K., I’m O.k., we’re all O.K. Carry on.” The woman, the readers of the fairy tale, the rock thrower and church members of this age all have one thing in common: rejection of God’s Word, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS/IS IN PLAIN SIGHT. And the Lord makes sure that they were/are aware of His Truth. Benjamin Franklin spoke to this fact when he noted that: “A man will occasionally stumble over the truth. Then he gets up, dusts himself off, and continues on his way.” Though Franklin was speaking in a social sense, his words apply just as well to spiritual matters. Every churchite occasionally “stumbles” (hears or reads) over the “stumbling Stone” (the Words of Jesus Christ). After a short consideration of God’s Truth, he/she summarily dismisses it and continues on the church way, “knowing” that what he/she had just heard or read was a lie, and that what he/she learns in church is the truth,  and that he/she and the Almighty are joined at the heart. L.J.