A man was riding his horse off the beaten path and he got lost.  He came upon a farmer and decided to ask him for directions.  

“Excuse me, sir,” said the man, “where is the road that leads to the nearest town?”  

The farmer replied, “I don’t know.” 

 The man said, “well where is the road that leads to some town?”  

The farmer replied, “I don’t know.”  

The lost man now frustrated then asked, “where is the road that leads to any town?”  

The farmer again replied, “I don’t know!”  

As the man began to ride away, he said to the farmer, “well you don’t know much do you?”  

The farmer replied, “no, but I know that I’m not lost.”

John 8: 31-32 (NLT) Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

In 22 years of Christian ministry, I learned to be concerned about folks who desire to be active in the church and be in leadership but are not interested in the ongoing study of God’s Word.  

There can be a lot of good people in a church, even a lot of righteous people, but if a church is lacking in people who are hungry for God’s word it can be a dangerous place.  Knowing the truth of God’s Word is essential to the Christian life.  

In the scripture above, Jesus is speaking to Jews who had started believing in Him as “the Way, the Truth and the Life.”  

When a person comes to know Jesus as their personal savior they begin to know and see how His truth is the truth and by experience see that they are being freed from the bonds of sin by knowing that truth.  

The truth is, the world does not know that they are slaves to sin.  However, most people living in sin do sense that something is not right, that they are bound by something, they just do not know exactly what that is.  

Therefore, we all need the Victory of the Cross of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to not only know about the truth of Jesus, but to be set free from sin and death by living in the truth.  

Jesus goes on in this same chapter in verse 36 to proclaim, “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”  

So, I ask you are you free today?  Do you know the truth of Jesus Christ?  If you are wanting to know for sure, or if you are not sure what it means to believe in Jesus, please feel free to email me at 1stnazpastor@gmail.com

The joke I started this post reminds us of a couple of things.   It is important to know the difference between what we do know and what we don’t know.  

We cannot know everything in this life, but we do not need to worry.  We have access to all we need to know, all the truth we need to know, to know how to be saved.  We have available to us the truth that indeed will set free the life of anyone who will believe that Jesus is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE!  

All that truth is available to all who will engage in God’s Word.  It is never too late to become a person of God’s Word.  

Open His book, receive His truth and you will be free. That Is Good News!

 

Rev. Brad McKenzie is Lead Pastor at Frist Church of the Nazarene, 3810 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, in Orange.