What we test and what we don't

You know, sometimes when I am buying shoes or something of relatively low value, I spend months and weeks trying out different ones to decide what I want.

I put them on, walk around in them, look at myself in the mirror and ask my wife what she thinks of the shoes.

The house I am living in - I didn't even sleep the night in it before buying it!

What about new beliefs?  Do I fully check them out before buying them?  Do I test them, do I see if they check out, do I talk to others about them?  

I Thessalonians 5:21 says "Test everything.  Hold onto the good."

Some things we do test.  The thoughts and beliefs we actively choose to pursue are likely to be tested - that is the front door so to speak.

But there are many other thoughts and beliefs coming to us that we don't seek out.  These come through the words and actions of others (and ourselves), our culture, our church, our surroundings and media sources to name some.  The unspoken assumptions and inferences that are behind what people say and do come to us and present themselves as the truth.  They try to enter in the backdoor and windows of our heart and mind.  They may not get the test unless we realise what we are receiving and measure it, test it, check it out to see if it is a truthful belief or not.  

II Corinthians 10:5 says "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ"

Be alert to what you are building your life on and make sure it aligns to the Truth of Jesus

Spin

Spin is the euphemistic term we use to describe misuse of information.  It was previously known as misrepresenting the truth or bluntly, lying.  The trick of spin is it is a degree of lying mixed with a degree of truth.  It purports to be the whole truth though.

Politicians are well known to use spin as one of their tools, listed businesses also.  When it is used from one country to the next we call it propaganda.   But what do we call it when we use it as an individual?

Pride, boasting, egoism, denial, twisting the truth, fibbing, lying!

It is not merely putting your best foot forward, it is claiming that your foot is better than it really is, that you are more that you really are.    

How often are you willing to let people think you contributed more to a project than you really did? That success was due to you more than it really was? That your faults are smaller and your strengths greater than they really are?  If truth is your goal, then spin cannot be.