Just The Facts, Please!

According to the cultural professors we are living in the Information Age. I can not dispute that fact! Any story, graph, or statistic is just a call to Siri or Google away. It still seems strange to talk to a phone asking for advice, but that is where we are today. What we now see with facts is that they are being hijacked by personal agendas and political persuasion. The tongue in check joke used to be "I read it in a checkout tabloid". We all knew those stories had no facts, just sensational stories to make a buck. Today, the tabloid printed on paper has succumbed to the internet and social media. What has not changed in the fact so much is based on sensationalism, personal agenda, and of course political persuasion. How we long for the simple days where Joe Friday, detective on the old TV show 'Dragnet' would ask "Just the facts!"

How we would love to have just the facts concerning all cultural issues we face today. With all the personal agendas ruling our media, that is doubtful. This is the world we live in. But there is hope! Thanks be to God that we as believers have our facts come from another realm, the Kingdom of God realm. As we read the bible we see God's people faced with all manner of earthly facts. Hostile people groups, giants, fear, oceans, mountains, sickness, demonic possession, the list goes on and on. Those were facts, not to be ignored or kept in a closet of shame, fear or guilt. The Apostle Paul faced many of these facts. He admitted it, yet one fact that allowed him and will allow us to overcome is what Paul states in 2 Timothy 4:17. Paul states people have left him, in this realm he was abandoned yet he writes,

For in spite of this, my Lord Himself stood with me, empowering me to complete my ministry of preaching to all the non-Jewish nations so they could all hear the message and be delivered from the mouth of the lion (satan)
​(Passion translation)

Let all us remember this fact; in spite of all that is going on in our nation, and in this world, the Lord of Hosts stands with us. So many Christians are like the servant of Elisha. He wakes up one morning, looks outside, and the enemy has surrounded the city. This was a fact, he saw them with his natural eyes. Full of fear, he runs to Elisha asking what to do. Elisha's calm response: 'do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.' Elisha prayed for the servants eyes to be opened and the Lord opened his eyes to a whole new realm! God's Kingdom in all it's splendor and glory with horses and chariots of fire all around!

Fact: In spite of it all, the Lord is for us! The Psalmist declares: I will never fear what men can do to me. For you stand beside me as my hero. This is a fact!