TRUTH ABOUT LIES part three

A coconut tree is not a coconut tree because it gives coconuts. It gives coconuts because it’s a coconut tree! Get the point? It is in the nature of the coconut tree to give coconuts and not mangoes! We cannot naturally change who we really are. There has to be a supernatural transformation in us to bring about a change in ourselves. We are all born in sin, and thus we are naturally “bad.” We have our own DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) which gives evidence of our true physical identity, which is passed down from our parents, and to them, from their parents. We are what we are because of who we are. Just like snow-flakes, there are distinctive “marks” in each one of us which makes us unique, and there is NO ONE else like us on earth. We have our own set of finger prints and personalities. “A tree shall be known by its fruits” Jesus said in Luke 6: 43-45 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. You can tell what a tree is like by the fruit it produces. You cannot pick figs or grapes from thorn-bushes. Good people do good things because of the good in their hearts. Bad people do bad things because of the evil in their hearts. Your words show what is in your heart” (CEV)
The issue is with the “tree”. What or who is the “tree”? This “tree” looks like a lamb but in reality it a dragon! (Revelation 13:11) We all share the nature of the dragon, as the Bible clearly tells us that “There is none righteous no not one” (Romans 3:10). This could be a hard pill to swallow nevertheless this is true that we are naturally part of this “tree”. Lies can manifest it self in many forms. There is a natural tendency in us to deceive, to be dishonest, or to distort and fabricate the truth. Some of us may purposefully misrepresent the facts to make us “look good” or make a false impression to get a job or a mate in life. More serious forms of lies are forgery, slander, deformation of character and so on. All of us in one point in our lives have not been truthful. (Please read “Truth about lies” part one and two)

There is ample evidence that we have a “fallen” or a “sinful” nature which we have inherited from this dragon, who is also called the “old serpent,” “The fallen angel,” “the devil,” “deceiver” and so on, long before we ever reach the age of accountability. Religion and spirituality cannot change the inner nature of sin. I cannot think of a more grotesque example of sin than the fact that in the fall of 1939, Nazi doctors killed tens of thousands of mentally disabled Germans, mostly by the administration of carbon monoxide gas supplied in large metal bottles, and in September 1941 they carried out gassing experiments at Auschwitz, killing 600 Soviet prisoners of war with cyanide gas produced from Zyklon-B, the commercial name of a pesticide based on hydrocyanic acid. Later on they killed many thousands of Jews, as what is called the “final solution.” Denying the Holocaust is like denying the poison that is in cyanide. History shows that many thousands were killed and tortured in the so called “crusades.” Moreover today, we see executions by extremists groups on TV. Such cold blooded killings are executed in the name of God. I have personally seen people who have been shot and their bodies tied to the concrete pillars in one of the railway station of Eastern cities of Sri Lanka. There are people who eat vegetables so that animals won’t be killed. Others believe in a philosophy and profess not to kill even an ant, but go on the rampage, murdering and raping women and killing children. So much for religious ideologies and philosophies!
Why do these things happen? Perhaps it lies in the answer that Jesus gave to the religious leaders of his time. He said, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44. NIV version UK). It’s in the nature of the evil one to speak lies! We too have an inborn nature to lie! So who is our father?
The good news is that there is a promise of a “transformed mind” which comes supernaturally by aligning ourselves to the infallible Word of God. The bible clearly teaches that there must be a conscious decision on our part not to live in obligation to our sinful nature, but to “put to death the misdeeds of our body” so that we can call God “our Father” and share in His nature. Romans 8:11-15 in the NIV goes like this “.. if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
So there you go! We have a new family, and a new father who cannot lie! For, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:19) This means that we come under a new discipline, and are responsible to live according to the guidelines set forth in the scriptures. There is true freedom in the transformed mind! Believe me it’s true. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2 NIV)
It is not reformation but transformation! May God help us all to be TRANSFORMED!