Say What?

 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” 

Colossians 2:8 (NIV)

My family and I went to a unique restaurant this weekend. It was full of dinosaurs - all shapes and sizes and names that none of us could pronounce. But what interested me more than anything were the “facts” included on a plaque by each dinosaur figure. 

For example, the stegosaurus holding court in one of the dining areas “lived more than 150,000,000 years ago. It was 30 feet long and 14 feet tall but it had a small head and a brain the size of a walnut.” How much of that statement is actually true and a fact?

A tyrannosaurus rex kept watch over us as we ate lunch. It lived “65 million years ago and weighed as much as 9 tons.” Again, is that 100% accurate? As we ate lunch, we were surrounded by what the waitress called “facts about our amazing past” but I kept thinking “How could someone claim all this information as fact?”

That applies to us as Christians, too. We are surrounded every day by bits and pieces of truth woven together with an untruth or half truth. For example, an acquaintance once told me that the Bible says that “God helps those who help themselves.” When I asked her where that sentence was found, she didn’t know. “But it IS in there, exactly like that,” she insisted. Nope.

What about “charity begins at home.” In the Scriptures? No. But often quoted in a sentence preceded with “The Bible says . . .” Colossians 2:8 states clearly that we can be fooled by “deceptive philosophy” in this world. If we do not spend time in the Word daily, we are going to struggle with what is true or half true or completely false.

And if we listen to everything this world offers without stopping to dig for truth, all those facts which aren’t facts will begin to mold together so that it’s harder and harder to separate out truth, just like the information we read about the dinosaurs.

Always remember: when someone shares something as Scripture that you are not familiar with, don’t hesitate for a second to respectfully ask them exactly where it is found and then look it up in the Bible. If it does not line up with God’s Word, we can write it down and repeat it all we want, but it is not the truth from the only One who speaks truth: Jesus Christ. 

Father, help me to stay in your Word daily so that I can base my life on the Truth of Jesus and not the fiction of the world. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . . 

Reflect

• Have you ever believed something that you heard was Scripture based, only to find out later that it was not from the Word? 

• What did you base your belief on?

Apply

• Carry note cards in your purse or pocket with you every day.

• When you hear someone quote something from Scripture, write it down. Research in the Bible to see if it is truth from God’s Word or a worldly belief.

Power 

• Colossians 2:8 (NIV) “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” 

• Romans 12:2 (NIV) “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

• I John 2:17 (NIV) “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”