version 2 of TRUTH: What Scares Us The Most

TRUTH: What Scares Us The Most

version 2: now with the actual quotes from the Bible that I only referenced earlier and lots of added thoughts!

I left up version 1 to show the changes I made, just for fun.
I also have a version 3 that is edited and ready, but I doubt I'll be putting that up here.

Two things cause most fear:
1) helplessness
2) truth

Some may add the unknown and possible/actual harm, but the main 2 are above. The one I want to focus on is truth. Because when you realize you are in trouble, when you are helpless etc it is because you are realizing the truth.
When we are being deceived, we don't feel fear. When we deceive ourselves, it's also smooth sailing. No, it's when we hear the truth that we get defensive, feel aversion, want to run away and defend ourselves. Why is that? Because lies make us happy!
It's true! You wish to counter argue that, but it's human nature plain and simple. "But", you say, "when I found out I was being lied to, I wasn't happy!"
EXACTLY
Because when you find out something is a lie, you discover the TRUTH, and that is what scares you, makes you angry, upset, sad, depressed, and all those other emotions that aren't peaceful happiness. It causes conflict. We aren't meant to DENY these emotions; we are to hear them out! Otherwise, why would we have the capacity to have them? We just can't let them take control of us.
I'm not saying peaceful happiness is a bad thing. Once we have learned all the truth we need, once we are balanced and in the present, when we are looking within, then we can get peace from truth and love. It's just that happiness from truth is harder to maintain then happiness from lies.
Fear is a warning device. Alarm bells going off. But, what do we do when we feel fear, especially intense fear? We shut out everything around us, we go into fight or flight, we look for a way to escape, to avoid this feeling.
It's called aversion.
We wish to avoid anything associated with what makes us afraid. This is an important thing if done right. It can sharpen our senses and prime our bodies to survive many things. Miracles can happen!
But, too often, it shuts us down. Especially when it comes to something that we associate with a past fear but the present thing isn't really that scary. We move into the past and the future, we loose the present. But, it is the present that is most important if we are going to properly deal with the situation at hand.

Every single one of us is drowning in deception. It is all around and inside us. We judge others and ignore own faults in a happy dance of hypocrisy ... to make us feel better and to avoid the fear of the truth. I'm fine, THEY are the wrong ones and to blame! Look carefully at your life, how many things do you do now that you judged others as stupid or wrong for doing? But, if someone alerts you to this inconsistency, you'll deny it or attack the person, because it is the truth and it causes conflict and fear and thus we avoid it. BACK TO THE HAPPY PLACE, BACK TO THE LIES!
Information can be found to support my arguments in the Bible. Here's a big truth, the Bible is NOT the word of God! God finds a way to speak to us through the Bible, but the Bible is not without it's misquotes. Therefore, one of the ways we allow ourselves to be deceived is through churches and religions. Not that they are 100% lies, that is not how it works here. It is a tapestry; lies and truths get interwoven with each other.
The Bible itself supports my notions, and in fact inspired me to write this essay. The version I quote all Scripture from is the New International Version (NIV) (Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society)
Look to Jeremiah. This is a very important chapter, with a very telling episode in it. Here, the LORD is vexed by how we deceive ourselves. The LORD cannot understand it, this is God we're talking about, and if God is confused and upset by something, it is a way of highlighting a very big issue.
In Jeremiah, the LORD is upset and cannot figure out why his people worship false gods. They build upon their great deception with false priests, false prophets, and false scribes. If that wasn't a big enough problem, the thing that upsets God the most isn't that they defend the deceptions but that they are HAPPY in their deception and that is why they defend them. I cannot place all the appropriate quotes here, but here is a good taste:

False Religion Worthless
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD :
2 "Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim
this message: …
8 “But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are
worthless.” …
I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen;
I called you, but you did not answer. …
27 "When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you;
when you call to them, they will not answer. …
Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. …
" 'How can you say, "We are wise,
for we have the law of the LORD,"
when actually the lying pen of the scribes
has handled it falsely? …
"Peace, peace," they say,
when there is no peace.
12 Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?
No, they have no shame at all;
they do not even know how to blush. …
3 "They make ready their tongue
like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
that they triumph in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.

4 "Beware of your friends;
do not trust your brothers.
For every brother is a deceiver,
and every friend a slanderer.

5 Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.

6 You live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.

7 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:
"See, I will refine and test them,
for what else can I do
because of the sin of my people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks with deceit.
With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor,
but in his heart he sets a trap for him. …
12 What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has
been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? …
See how the LORD speaks out against false scribes? This is what happened to the Bible. You see, we do not have the original books of the New Testament. Nor do we have copies or copies of copies or even copies of copies of copies! We have no reason to simply trust the earliest copies we have because we can se how after them many mistakes or purposeful changes were made, so how can we know that the same thing did not happen to the original words? So, we cannot consult the words of the original authors to ever judge what God’s Truth is. We can still consult this book for some counsel, but it is not the unadulterated WORD. Therefore, we must be careful about being in a religion and preaching it as God’s Truth to ourselves or convert any others or condemn those that do not belong.
I believe this is why God wanted us to fear him in the Old Testament. If we fear God, we will be more open to our intuition trying to warn us with fear to know when we are being deceived. When we stopped fearing God, we made up religious rules and worshiped false gods and let the military/political leaders and religious leaders (a.k.a. Pharisee and Sadducee) to make power plays and to keep their power control us and feed us deceptions. As long as we are deceived, they can keep their power by having us ignore the truth of GOD and fight amongst ourselves and with other groups ... lost in division they gain their power.
Gaining their power as we lose our souls.
This idea that deception is bad is bolstered in the New Testament. The phrases people use to convert people to their "one true church" like trying to get customers to buy from your products more than your competition is actually meant to protect us from them. "Here is Christ, there is Christ, do not believe them ... many will be deceived" and so on. These phrases are shields that are turned into swords, swords to cut us and for us to use to cut whoever they say are our enemies.
Notice how often we are told to be against people or groups that do not think like us or to beware other people or groups trying to deceive us and take us away from the church? But, Christ took this into account when he told us to love our enemies! Anybody who doesn't believe like you do, doesn't do as you would do, isn't as "moral" as you, is an enemy. But, the truth is, we are to love everybody, even those that make us uncomfortable or upset us! It is a tough truth to swallow. But, one also is careful not to fall into deception by loving and forgiving people. This happens far too often as well. We are free to try to reconcile with one who is upsetting us, but if they refuse to cooperate, we are told we can wash our hands of them. The problem is that we often push away those that offer the greatest truths from fear, so that we can stay happy in our deceptions.
One of the most intriguing passages in scripture says that the only unforgivable sin is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

28I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will
be forgiven them. 29But whoever blasphemes against the
Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."
30He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit."
(Mark 3:28-30)

and a similar passage in Matthew:
“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be
forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit
will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
(Matthew 12:32)

So, what is the Holy Spirit? Well, John tells us! John records Jesus saying that the Holy Spirit is truth.

15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I
will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to
be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot
accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. …
25"All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the
Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in
my name, will teach you all things and will remind you
of everything I have said to you.” (John 14)

So, the phrase now reads "the only unforgivable sin is to blaspheme the truth" and how do you blaspheme the truth? By believing instead in lies! And believing in lies is not living in love and not living in love is not living in GOD and not living in GOD is the only true death a soul can ever have.

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God,
and God in him. …There is no fear in love. But
perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to
do with punishment. The one who fears is not
made perfect in love. … Whoever loves God
must also love his brother.” (1John 4)

He also speaks out against false priests and also false prophets:

Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying
lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or
spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions,
divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds.
(Jeremiah 14:13-15)


This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Do not listen to what
the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false
hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from
the mouth of the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:15-17)

8 " 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says
Because of your false words and lying visions, I am
against you, declares the Sovereign LORD. (Ezekiel 13:9)

And so on.
It is better to risk the scorn of your fellows that believe in such lies then to suffer the scorn of the LORD, for following what they say has no impact on your soul but not following the Wise Counsel of the LORD is directly connected to the future of your soul. It is better to let them curse you, for if you turn away from their lies and instead turn towards the truth of the LORD (because the LORD is TRUTH and LOVE) then the LORD will gather you into his arms and love and protect you. Beware, because the Truth of the WORD is opposed by the lies of the WORLD, and you will feel the heat of its anger of you abandoning it. But its anger at you leaving it is nothing compared to what will become of your soul if you leave God for their deceptions.
The thing is, the results are worth it! It's like anything else, the effort gains the results. Like exercise! It can cause pain and discomfort and we'd rather be lazy, but if we just keep at it we will be healthier than if we took some stupid pills! My friend Jozie brought this up and it makes a perfect example for this essay. Not giving into deception is like exercise. You have to constantly keep it up, but also not overdo it because being too skinny can be unhealthy as well! So, again, it's about balance.
There are some that can awaken the truth within us, but it is human nature to be just as taken by those that deceive us. This is why it's important to continue to seek the way, seek the truth. If we think we know it all now and no longer need to look anymore, then we are still being deceived! That is, if we think we are getting the answers from somebody else, be it from our family, friends loved ones, church, religion, government.
One of the biggest obstacles to this is in what we think is meant to make us happy. We look to others expectations of us. This is a part of it, as I said it is about balance. But, if we keep doing things to please others, or to avoid their displeasure, then we are not doing things to make ourselves happy, but others definition of it.
We often define our happiness so strongly with others that we cannot see that it isn't really our happiness. People will choose their careers and lifestyles making themselves actually miserable inside and get upset at those closest to them. They close themselves off. This not only hurts them, but those around them as well, and it certainly harms God a lot! They live in a world that is about extremes: denial of truth and emotions and over-excited bursts of emotions leaving their prisons when they can no longer deny the truth. This is where the idea of aversion comes in, because we stay in the cycle of deception to try to ease their pain and ours. We stay with the false happiness of deception and avoid the helpful fear and discomfort caused by a glimpse of the truth.
Again we come to the idea of balance, because one can care too little about others. But, that is caring too little for ourselves. We often get caught in between trying to please ourselves and pleasing others.
Recall that the kingdom is within. In your heart. Read the book "The Biology of Transcendence" by Joseph Chilton Pearce to find out that we are actually biologically BUILT to transcend! But remain aware that we are not born with a truth gene. That we have the knowledge of good and evil but we often equate happiness with "evil" or deception and often feel fear for the unknown and discomforting "good" or truth. It is not about avoiding deception, but simply recognizing it and calmly moving back towards the middle ... towards truth.
So, be heartened! Live in the moment and befriend your emotions! Know that the biggest deception is to think that our thoughts racing through our head when the mud at the bottom of our clear water gets agitated by strong emotions are facts. Don't compare yourself as you are now with how you might be, because comparisons are useless! "be as the lilies in the field", simply BE! It's all good! The truth is never absolute, so just keep yourself aware that you are being deceived, and it will be OK. It will be OK.