"I Promise..."

The words used to be, “I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me GOD!” It was at a time in the history of the world when an oath was law. This was back when a hand shake was all that was needed to seal a deal. Even in the movie Oh God! , with George Burns playing God, he said, “I promise, so help me, Me.” Somewhere along the life line of history things started to get grey or if you want, a little fuzzy.
Let me read from page 1294 of the Universal Dictionary of the English Language, “Truth: Moral quality of being true and honest; sincerity, loyalty, trustiness - conformity to fact and reality to the utmost extent that these are discoverable by the human mind.” So, what happened?
First they took the Bible away. No longer do you have to place your hand on a bible to make this oath. The reason they say this is, it may violate their personal belief system. The real reason could be, they don’t tell the truth anyway and they don’t believe in the Bible or anything in it. No sense in doing something you don’t believe, or is it, “Let’s do it and fool everyone. They will think I am telling the truth if I put my hand on it.”
At one time society knew what it meant to place their hand on a bible in a court of law. Placing your hand on the bible and reciting this oath was the equivalent of calling on God to inflict on you any and all the curses found in the bible if you did not tell the truth. Much like the line, “May God strike me dead.” Don’t see too many people using that line during a lightning storm.
Back to the grey and fuzzy. As much as the world thinks there are grey areas, there are few. And those few are in areas of life not directly outlined in God’s word. I still believe my definition of sin fits, - Sin is doing anything that hurts someone else. Hurt others, hurt self, hurt God.
When the band started back in September I sat them down and we talked about a number of things related to the band. One of them was they should always tell the truth. I continued, “If you lie you have to remember what you said, to whom you said it and who all their friends are.” A funny thing about telling the truth, it never comes back to bite you.
When the world gets back to connecting with God, truth will again reign supreme. Grey areas will disappear and the only fuzz will be in our pockets or under the bed. Roman’s 14:11 quotes part of Isaiah 45. It says, “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness (also read, truth) And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath. He shall say, ‘Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength.”
One place or another, the truth will come out. It will be either here in this world or on a bowed knee before God. It’s up to us. Rob
“You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32.