Del Tackett: Truth Observed

Del Tackett may end up being one of the most influencial men in my life.  Creator of the Truth Project ( http://www.thetruthproject.org/ ) and a professor at Focus on the Family’s Leadership Institute ( http://www.focusleadership.org/ ), Del has influenced many lives and helped mold many people’s beliefs and worldviews.  He is extremely personable, a great teacher, and one of the most intellectually sound and qualified men I have ever met.  A humble man chasing after God’s heart.  I say all of this because I believe that you will be truly blessed by tuning in to his website http://deltackett.com/ (I have also added it to the blogroll).  Journey with Del as he observes the absolute truth of God in every day life. I hope you enjoy!

                                                          

Walking in Truth

1The elder,
To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth -

2because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

3Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

4It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

5And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.

6And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

7Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

8Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.

9Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

10If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him.

11Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.

12I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

13The children of your chosen sister send their greetings.

2 John 1:1-13

Destroying Dualism

The very concept of this project is one that is often intentionally avoided by Christians in today’s society. The purpose, I believe, is to renew our biblical worldview. It is to reveal God in every sphere of not only society but in every sphere of our lives. The overwhelming purpose of this paper is to tear down the veil between the sacred and the secular and start believing that God’s commandments and promises apply to everything and He should never be compartmentalized or placed in a box. “Christian discipleship forces us to recognize duality in life: either we serve the Lord or we follow idols” (Middleton and Walsh 95). Dualism is the idea that there is a separation between religious or sacred things and secular activities or objects.  It separates certain areas of one’s life from redemption, salvation, and even God.  “Dualism blurs the valid duality between obedience and disobedience because dualism identifies obedience, redemption and the kingdom of God with only one area of life.  It sees the rest of life as either unrelated to redemption (or the sacred), or worse – under the power of disobedience, sin and the kingdom of darkness” (Middleton and Walsh 95).  Dualism is the biggest and most foundational problem facing Christians in the world today.  Our world views have become so distorted by the way we view the world in the church and the world outside of it that it is ruining our witness and our credibility in the Great Commission.  “A dualistic world view makes a Christian cultural witness problematic at best, impossible at worst.  Earlier in this chapter we asked why Christians in our society tend to fit in so well.  The answer is dualism.  A dualistic world view splits life into sacred and secular realms, and most human culture gets identified as the realm of the secular” (Middleton and Walsh 100).  It is because of this that when one hears the idea or word “Christian”, they don’t envision the crazy, radical, different, and obedient followers of Christ and leaders of the world that we are called to be.  Unfortunately, “Christians see the world in one of three ways: either as second best in comparison to the life of faith, or as an unavoidable evil, or as something to be fled” (Middleton and Walsh 101). “‘Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;’” (Matthew 10:37-38 NIV).  When I read this passage, it speaks to me.  If we, as Christians, don’t integrate God in every area of our lives, then are we truly worthy of Christ?  If I love my girlfriend, laughter, gossip, etc more than the foundational commandments of the Bible, what am I accomplishing?  Dualism would be effectively crushing my world view and my witness.I want to take the principles that I should build my entire life on and root them into my social life and into my free time.  I must pray for God’s mercy as I try to break free of dualism and root myself in Truth.  “Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26 NIV). This project has helped me discover the severity of the dualism complex, especially in the world views of the American (Westernized) Christian.  Not only are we compartmentalizing God and putting restrictions on the areas of our lives that He is in control of and the center of, we are in direct disobedience to Him.  Due to this, we become more meshed with the immorality of the world unto the point where the believer and non-believer are indistinguishable.  Instead, the only things with specific and finite differences are not Christians and non-Christians but instead the secular and the sacred.  As long as our world view as Christians has us being stirred into the melting pot of the world, a complete missional and evangelical movement is almost impossible because we are no different than the world.  Not, to mention we are still in direct disobedience to the Immortal God who spoke the Earth into existence.  Dualism must be destroyed.  God’s promises, commandments, and the Truth of His Word must reign supreme on earth so that more unbelieving souls may see Him reign supreme in heaven for eternity.

Testify to the Truth

“Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

What is truth?” Pilate asked.”

– John 18:36-38