by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n
There it stands in all its unvarnished, audacious boldness. It dares us to grasp it, to apprehend and understand it, to obey it. Truth tells us what we don’t want to hear (turn from sin!<\/em>) and urges us to do what we don’t want to do (be baptized for your forgiveness!<\/em>). Then it compels us to live in a way that is ostracized, ridiculed, and scorned (be faithful until death!<\/em>)<\/p>\n Sure, sometimes the truth hurts, but it’s the lie that scars and kills.<\/p>\n “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron<\/em>” (I Timothy 4:1-2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Zeke Flores There it stands in all its unvarnished, audacious boldness. It dares us to grasp it, to apprehend and understand it, to obey it. Truth tells us what we don’t want to hear (turn from sin!) and urges us to do what we don’t want to do (be baptized for your forgiveness!). Then…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-91008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-truth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23699,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-it-matter-what-i-believe\/","url_meta":{"origin":91008,"position":0},"title":"Does It Matter What I Believe? (Sermon)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Kings 18:25-40 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal in I Kings 18 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It wasn\u2019t that the false prophets were insincere or had no belief at all \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They cut themselves, danced in a frenzy, and spent a day calling on their god. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/truth-and-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":91008,"position":1},"title":"Truth and Love","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Truth and love are not at odds. Both are needed simultaneously. Truth without love can be unkind, cold, and heartless. Love without truth will be arbitrary, compromising reality, and without standards. However, together, united, truth and love will be purposeful, compassionate, and committed to what is best\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63446,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/seeing-only-what-you-want-to-see\/","url_meta":{"origin":91008,"position":2},"title":"Seeing Only What You Want to See","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Psalms 50 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I would like to share a portion of a letter I received: \u201cI am in love with this girl who loved me too. We loved each other so crazily but at one point I realized that she had been lying to me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46230,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-pilate-philosophy\/","url_meta":{"origin":91008,"position":3},"title":"The Pilate Philosophy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Pilate Philosophy is to wash your hands of responsibility and to pretend there is no way to know the truth. \"What is truth?\" (John 18:38), he asked Jesus. There was also a \"cancel-culture\" mentality in his presence in the Jews wanting to get Jesus canceled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/top_52_bmp-249x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39791,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/on-thinking-we-are-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":91008,"position":4},"title":"On Thinking We Are Right","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer One of the consequences of postmodern thinking is that we can think whatever we want, but we aren't allowed to think that we are actually right. In other words, there is no capital T in \"truth.\" To think we are right is to commit one of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87571,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/not-wanting-the-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":91008,"position":5},"title":"Not Wanting the Truth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Larry Rouse Good quote I just saw: ...\"most people don't want the truth despite what they say. What they want is constant reassurance that what they believe is the truth.... Those who are skilled in the arts of deception will always find an audience willing to be deceived!\" \"The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}