Five Things I Know Are True...

I've been mulling over the sermon that Pastor Dave preached this week, and he used an example of this woman at a conference who asked people to write down five things they knew were true. When people compared their lists, they were wildly different, and the woman said it was okay. People just needed to live by their truth. Not THE truth, their truth. Live your truth, was the point of her message. I was thinking, "What if somebody's truth is that they need to rob somebody else to get the things they want? If everybody lives by their own truth, chaos is going to result. This is what happened to the Israelites: "In those days, Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes." (Judges 21:25) And if you read further, they wind up exiled and scattered throughout the world.  So I don't want to live by MY truth, but by THE truth. Five things I know are true:

1.There is a God.
The fact that I'm alive and well is proof enough to me, but when I look at the beauty of nature around me, I know that somebody created all this. And that someone is God.
2. God loves me and cares about my life. 
Jesus said, "Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to Him than a whole flock of sparrows." (Matthew 10:29-31)  This is good enough for me. But if I need more proof,
3. God gave His Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins.
Jesus was without sin. I am not. I'm all too aware that I am not, and won't be until He returns to claim His church.  He is my Savior, and everything I am now, I owe to His death on the cross and His resurrection. There is forgiveness for my sins because of what He did.
4. Jesus was resurrected on the third day. 
He was brought back to life so that we could all be brought back to life. He is the first of many who gained new life. The empty tomb and the many eyewitnesses who saw him after all point to his resurrection. 
5. Where there is light, darkness cannot be. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 
"In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God and He was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that He didn't make. Life itself was in Him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." (John 1:1-5)

Writing this blog post, I just realized there are many more things that I know are true. These aren't my truths, they are the truth.