PURPOSE TO BE A TRUTHSEEKER by steve johnson
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hen I was a young pastor and one particular man would pray for me, he would pray, “keep him in the truth of your Word.” His fear was that I would stray from the pure milk of the Word and substitute it with something false. That has stuck with me and become even more important for all of us in these days when lies and confusion in our world seem to be more prevalent than ever. Because we fallen people are living in a fallen world, everything, even so-called truth has been corrupted. That means the only source for absolute truth is revealed truth which we have in the Bible. Jesus said, “I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth” (John 18:37). He also said to His Father about His followers, “Make them holy by your truth; teach
them your word, which is truth” (John 17:17, emphasis added). Believers have the Holy Spirit to illuminate us to the revealed truth of the Word. But we have a responsibility to make it our purpose to be a truth-seeker with the Word. We must be like the Bereans of Acts 17:11–12, “They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.” Facts versus Meaning One essential aspect of being a truthseeker with Scripture is understanding the relationship between individual facts and meaning. There is an important distinction. It’s like the difference between a pile of bricks and a brick building. The bricks are like the individual facts, the building is the truth they form. An isolated fact is
