The Groomsman’s Journal
“He who has the bride is the Bridegroom; but the groomsman who stands by and listens to Him rejoices greatly and heartily on account of the Bridegroom’s Voice. This then is my pleasure and joy, and it is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:29-30 Amplified Bible
This is my personal journal from the book: “The Bridegroom’s Voice”! I am journeying through this God Adventure with Jesus, listening up to His Voice and keeping a “Groomsman’s Journal” This part of my journal is from Week 34 where Jesus, The Bridegroom spends the week talking and teaching about us “Choosing Truth”. This is day one and day two of Jesus and I working through what He was speaking and teaching on Choosing Truth.
The Bridegroom’s Voice
Week 34 ~ Choose Truth
The Bride asks, “I feel afraid. My insides are quivering and I feel sick when I see how truth is corrupted by white-lies. I am homesick for Heaven. It can’t be OK to tell a white-lie even if the outcome is good? In this generation, if it is politically correct, then a lie is readily disguised as reality. Will 100% kingdom truth ever again prevail?”
The Bridegroom’s Words, Written On Your Heart
WEEK 34: DAY ONE AND DAY TWO
The Groomsman’s Journal: Reflecting, Meditating, and Responding
The Bridegroom speaks with great authority on the importance of choosing the whole truth. How can you be a person of truth?
The Bridegroom Speaks: My Bride, do not despair. Truth is not diseased; it is the human will that is corrupt. Out of this distortion a dysfunctional dishonesty labeled a white-lie has emerged as the new human standard. A white-lie is, simply put, a deceit. It is an appearance of reality that is temporarily established upon a shaky foundation of fallacy with an immoral motive and it is not or could never be pioneered by a genuine fact. Deceit! I will raise a standard of righteousness against it and it will not stand. Excerpt From “The Bridegroom’s Voice”
“Flesh Out”
When I think about fallacy, I know exactly what it is and I won’t accept it. But when I think about a white-lie, I rationalize that I have more wiggle room because a white-lie is streamlined to be good, and the rationale behind that is because “I think” I assume my true motive is to help. Yet, the problem is, I don’t know what I think I know, only God knows the whole picture and that is why He does not ask for our help or need our help. A White-Lie is just that, a lie that we double up the disastrous results with, it is kind of like a two-bomb explosion. The enemy wins big with a white-lie, because of the trickery involved. We think we can handle God’s job; we can help by lying, and we rationalize that it is okay to lie if it is for bringing about a good result. As soon as we lie, the enemy gets his foot in the door of our life and in that situation where we have told a white-lie, it is all downhill from there. A white-lie is not a good lie, there is no such thing as any lie being a good lie. This is the craftiness of our enemy telling us what is good is bad and what is bad is good and he uses this form of deceit to fool many of us.
“Truth In”
Our relationships can get messy, human beings are messy, so sometimes we find ourselves in relational stormy seas, so instead of rocking the boat, we tell a little white lie. We don’t want to lose the favor with another person, so our true motive if we check our hearts, is gaining people’s approval. We lie and we rationalize it is for their good and the good of our relationship, but truly it is a selfish, self-propelled motive. The problem with that is, we take a broad path that will encircle us right back around to the problem that was not solved, because we did not have “The Solver”, Jesus Christ, our Fixer involved, we left Him out to do our own thing in our own wisdom and strength. Failure happens.
Adjusting My Heart
God created relationships, every one that we have is a divine formation of God. He purposefully creates them and He providentially maintains them. In every relational situation we find ourselves in, God’s way of truth is the next right choice for us. We don’t need to step into His position of maintaining what He has fashioned. If we chase after human praise and acceptance, using the white-lie to keep the peace in our relationships, we will lose the Prince of Peace, Who is the only One who can solve relationship issues and keep peace between us messy human beings. What follows a white-lie? More lies, condemnation, guilt, anxiety, and pain. (Isaiah 50) Our best choice is followship of God, leaning into God and letting Him maintain what He has created, trusting Him with our relationships.
“The Bridegroom Speaks: My bride, I love you with a perfect love and that is why I confidently say to you today: “Fear not.” Perfect love is trust without doubt and diffuses all fear. Believe completely in Me and don’t allow yourself to be oppressed by political correctness; take hope in your Heavenly Father who created the very freedom and liberty of spoken truth. My enemy will never be able to diminish the power of My truth. Satan is the father of all lies here on earth, but I ask you to focus on Me. I possess truth that far surpasses this mortal domain. No one on earth can put My truth into captivity, it will infinitely prevail the tests of time! My truth will reign autonomously by My eternal spirit!
“Flesh Out”
Lies put us into the custody of the enemy of our soul. There is such liberty gained in the followship of truth. Our identity should be in Christ, not in anyone but Him, especially not in a wishy-washy political party. I don’t like anything that labels me. I vote by the platform of the person running for office. I don’t position myself underneath a worldly label. In the world of politics in times such as these, there is not much truth. That is sad. But I know I can find truth when I ask the Spirit of Truth, Jesus, to give me the discernment I need, I know He will and I know He will guide me to truth in all the areas of my life. That is why I make sure that I have not labeled myself in anything, but Christ. We can get so compartmentalized in our lives that we push God right out. Jesus wants all of us, He wants total access to the identity of our lives.
“Truth In”
Truth seems to be illusive, it seems to be taken captive in times such as these, by the enemy of our souls. But this can’t be further from the reality that we live in. God’s truth is alive and well and when we seek it, we will find it. Leaning into God more than we do our own worldly viewpoint and the opinions that rise up from that, we will know truth. I always say I need to lean into God’s Sovereignty, lean into His Sovereign Sway. By that I mean, not bucking up my will against my reality of truth I am living in, accepting that God is in the midst of it, surrendering to Him and letting Him lead me the way He wants to.
Adjusting My Heart
Our lives should be all about and for Him and it is very hard to balance that in times such as these. We need to stay wholly-holy aligned with God’s reality of truth, there is so much fake reality thrown in our faces by people who “think they know” but the truly don’t know. Our relationship with God is vital and we need to keep it vertical, making it personal from every moment into every choice. We can make the next choice a right one, positioning ourselves on the side of God’s truth as we stay in followship of Him.
The Bridegroom spoke: In the scriptures this week, search for every precept or thought that will change you into a person who is wholly full of holy truth. Record each bit you learn and write how you can choose truth in every moment, with every choice.
Scriptures For Day One And Two
Psalm 25:1-5 A psalm of David. To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. 2 I trust in you, my God! Do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat. 3 No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others. 4 Show me the path where I should walk, O LORD; point out the right road for me to follow. 5 Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you. NLB
“Flesh Out”
This scripture is perfect because it hits the nail on the real “heart problem” about the white-lie. We are not trusting God; we are walking independently from Him. The enemy of our soul never has a good motive, that is the first trick we fall for. One truth we can take to the bank is that our enemy wants to steal from us, destroy us and kill us. Therefore, we need to steer clear of every form of lie in order to keep him from getting a foot hold in our lives. No white-lies. No assumptions. No speculations. No rationalizations. Stay with wholly-holy truth.
“Truth In”
The thing about a white-lie that is so dangerous is, our enemy now has our ear, we are getting our “bright ideas” from him. We are kindling our own fires and walking by the light of a man-made fire that will flame out and leave us and everyone else in our lives in the wiles of our enemies darkness. Only God’s light of truth remains.
Adjusting My Heart
That truth right now is found in this scripture, it is the way we should be, a path of dependence on God. Instead of relying on a white-lie, we should go to God, ask Him to navigate us by His Truth. Our dependence should never be upon our flesh and a white-lie is definitely a flesh out of our human condition and it will never bring about any lasting good. Lies can’t ever be translated into good, this is a trick of the enemy to snag you in his trap. It is never just one lie. It is never just this one time. One lie sets us up for failure.
John 12:42-50 Many people, including some of the Jewish leaders, believed in him. But they wouldn’t admit it to anyone because of their fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. 43 For they loved human praise more than the praise of God. 44 Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If you trust me, you are really trusting God who sent me. 45 For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the darkness. 47 If anyone hears me and doesn’t obey me, I am not his judge – for I have come to save the world and not to judge it. 48 But all who reject me and my message will be judged at the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken. 49 I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me gave me his own instructions as to what I should say. 50 And I know his instructions lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say!”
“Flesh Out”
We believe God, but do we believe Him? If we truly believe Him, we let truth lead. If we believe in Him and are not wholly-holy-his, we will be wishy-washy in our loyalty to Him. A sure sign of this is trying to please people, even if it means, betraying God. We have a human condition and it thrives on pats on the back, we love being recognized. But what if these acclaims of our flesh don’t come. What then?
“Truth In”
There is a lot of darkness in the human condition, we will either sit in the dark in fear, or we will step out with courage and faith. Light truly makes the difference in darkness, it scatters and shatters it. Sitting in the darkness and stewing in our human condition does no one any good, not ourselves and not those around us. It is truly a life season, a time such as this for us to get up, shake off the darkness, listen up to God, believe what He is saying and do it.
Adjusting My Heart
This world is a dead end. We were not created to stay here; this is a temporary place. Many of us have stumbled over that truth, we have gotten way to comfortable in this world, making our ow way. It is time to change it up, to wholly-holy align ourselves underneath the Authority of God, living out the rulership of His love. Be teachable, we were created to be taught by God. Open your heart wide to God and He will fill it.
James 4:4-8 What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, jealously longs for us to be faithful ? 6 He gives us more and more strength to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say, “God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble.” So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.
“Flesh Out”
Pride and the white-lie go hand in hand, it is an unending circle, one feeds off of the other one. Our faithfulness, our loyalty is to God, yet we allow our enemy to lead us to taking matters in our own hands and using a white-lie to do so.
“Truth In”
We like to feel comfortable and we don’t like anything to shake up our comfort zones. We desire this “comfort” between people in our relationships more than we do God, His way, truth and life. This needs to change up.
Adjusting My Heart
It starts by saying no to the white-lie and learning to look up to God for help, instead of leaning into our “know it all” flesh that truly knows nothing. Resist the devil and humbly come to God, ask God for help and He will draw close to us in that way only He can and He will navigate us through the storms of relational strife
Romans 8:11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you. NLB
“Flesh Out”
Independence from God. We emancipate ourselves from His Supremacy, the only true, pure and right Supremacy and the only One Who is Supreme. We decide we are better than God, we don’t need Him, so we go off and do our own thing. We actually think we can become the savior and flip-flop our lives from saved to savior. This does not end well.
“Truth In”
Christ in me, this is my hope. I am never far from Him, He is in the midst of my situations, guiding and directing me in so many creative ways. He has the farthest reach. There are those times, we feel so far away from Him, those times when our worldly viewpoint is all up in our face and our enemy is screaming in our ears that dreadful lie that we are all alone. This could not be any farther from the truth, because the truth is that nothing keeps us from God, we never lose His love and His pursuing of us to know Him best.
Adjusting My Heart
I need to do what it takes to stay positioned underneath the authority of God’s love. A vital-vertical relationship with God is my number one life necessity and I need to order my priorities to reflect this need to be personal with God, in that heart to heart kind of way that He has made such a priority for.
Galatians 6:1-10 Dear brothers and sisters, if another Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody. 4 Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct. 6 Those who are taught the word of God should help their teachers by paying them. 7 Don’t be misled. Remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow! 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 9 So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time. 10 Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to our Christian brothers and sisters.
“Flesh Out”
Frustration! Yes, the Father of all lies is truly spreading a ton of them in our generation causing so much confusion and chaos. It is so frustrating. The worst part is the spirit of accusation, where people are throwing up all kinds of false narratives at each other in the name of political parties. Everyone has their spin. The most aggravating thing is when people falsely accuse you of the things they are actually doing. This is where I have to be careful of, this is where the enemy likes to trap me in offense.
“Truth In”
Deny~Accuse, this is a tactic of the enemy that I truly despise. We are responsible for our own behavior. What a good truth to follow after. Can you imagine if people were only caring about themselves and trying to make themselves better? What a difference it would make in our culture. Right now, we have a cultural war going on, people are sowing so much hatred, anger, violence into the culture we live in, and it is a mess. Everyone labeling everyone else with titles that they can’t even begin to know are correct or not, but it makes them feel “better than”, and this fake reality usually leads them down paths they never thought they would go. We have to walk away from this type of behavior and model our responses by the character of Christ. Are you aggravated by the foolishness of another human being? Well stop looking at them, because when you look in the mirror you are the same human condition. Frustrated with people? Look to God, let God speak His heart to you first before you react. You will find your response is way different than you thought it would be.
Adjusting My Heart
We are living in an “I am better than you” season of life. It is easy to get tired of doing good, when what is good is said to be bad and what is bad is said to be good. Yet, we have to keep sowing all the characteristics of Christ into our lives and living out of them. We will defeat evil by continually and faithfully responding to it by doing good, being good.
Thanks for stopping into The Bridegroom’s Café today at the Groomsman’s Table. These individually prepared meals are delicious for our soul. They are filled with the flavor of God Relationship. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you purchase the book: The Bridegroom’s Voice so you can keep your own Groomsman Journal on your personal “Journey With Jesus”. God bless you, MUCH, KimberlyMac