Truth Is....

  On May 11, 1846, President James K. Polk stood before Congress and declared that Mexico posed an immediate threat to the United States. Foreign troops, he said, had crossed the border and “shed American blood upon the American soil.” So Congress declared war on Mexico.  

 The next year a new congressman from Illinois began to question his claims. He challenged the president to show him the spot on U.S. soil where American blood had been shed. This ‘spot resolution’ was labeled by Polk as treasonous. The congressman said that we would gladly take back his statement if the President could “answer with facts and not with arguments”.  He never did.  The issue stalled out however with the war nearing a close and folks more concerned about the territory gained than the reason the conflict started. For the young congressman, the issue stunted his career. One of his constituents branded him "the Benedict Arnold of our district," and he was denied renomination by his own party.

  Yet the truth was on the side of that congressman. The ‘attack’ was provoked and not on American soil at all but in disputed territory. –The whole thing was a way for Polk to grab territory from Mexico that they were not willing to sell.  

  Don’t feel too bad for that congressman, standing for truth might have set him back but in the end, he would be in the White House as one of America’s greatest men, Abraham Lincoln.

 Jesus had a lot to say about truth. In a world that thinks lies that get us what we want are acceptable, his words clash. Yet if we are to be on his side we must be on the side of truth (John 18:37). The first duty of every Christian is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth. Without a commitment to what is true, we fall into Satan purview. We must have ‘facts and not arguments’. Truth must be a language we speak at all times (Ephesians 4:25).

  Standing for truth may not be easy it might not be popular, it may be ignored but it is always right!