Cotton Candy vs. Truth

Do you remember the first time you tasted Cotton Candy? I can remember going to the Putnam County Fair and theme parks and enjoying a little cotton candy as a child. I now see this excitement in our children’s faces as they peer upon this wonder-filled snack. It always looks like you are getting a 25lb bag of it when they hand it over the glass to you. However, the colorful beauty quickly disappears with each bite. It simply dissolves into a small crumble of sugar.

Words, when developed into lies, remain attractive for a time just like cotton candy. Lies seem to have the appearance of knowledge, beauty, solutions, resolve, and excitement at times. However, when they unravel and dissolve, they will leave you lost, with doubt, with more problems, and depressed.

In this world we can easily be deceived. We can be scammed into becoming passionate about lies spoken. These passions serve as termites to our relationships with some of our closest friends and family if they disagree with our world view. Every flavor and color of cotton candy is available in this world. I would venture to say that each of us have at least one or possibly a few flavors that we tend to gravitate toward that lead us to empty and lost results.

Romans 1:
20 There are things about God that people cannot see—his eternal power and all that makes him God. But since the beginning of the world, those things have been easy for people to understand. They are made clear in what God has made. So people have no excuse for the evil they do.
21 People knew God, but they did not honor him as God, and they did not thank him. Their ideas were all useless. There was not one good thought left in their foolish minds. 22 They said they were wise, but they became fools. 23 Instead of honoring the divine greatness of God, who lives forever, they traded it for the worship of idols—things made to look like humans, who get sick and die, or like birds, animals, and snakes. 24 People wanted only to do evil. So God left them and let them go their sinful way. And so they became completely immoral and used their bodies in shameful ways with each other. 25 They traded the truth of God for a lie. They bowed down and worshiped the things God made instead of worshiping the God who made those things. He is the one who should be praised forever. Amen. 26 Because people did those things, God left them and let them do the shameful things they wanted to do. Women stopped having natural sex with men and started having sex with other women. 27 In the same way, men stopped having natural sex with women and began wanting each other all the time. Men did shameful things with other men, and in their bodies they received the punishment for those wrongs.
28 People did not think it was important to have a true knowledge of God. So God left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking. And so they do what they should not do. 29 They are filled with every kind of sin, evil, greed, and hatred. They are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, lying, and thinking the worst things about each other. They gossip 30 and say evil things about each other. They hate God. They are rude, proud, and brag about themselves. They invent ways of doing evil. They don’t obey their parents, 31 they are foolish, they don’t keep their promises, and they show no kindness or mercy to others. 32 They know God’s law says that anyone who lives like that should die. But they not only continue to do these things themselves, but they also encourage others who do them.

Truth: JESUS

Romans 5:
8 But Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and by this God showed how much he loves us. 9 We have been made right with God by the blood sacrifice of Christ. So through Christ we will surely be saved from God’s anger. 10 I mean that while we were God’s enemies, he made friends with us through his Son’s death. And the fact that we are now God’s friends makes it even more certain that he will save us through his Son’s life. 11 And not only will we be saved, but we also rejoice right now in what God has done for us through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is because of Jesus that we are now God’s friends.

Romans 6:
3 Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ Jesus when we were baptized? In our baptism we shared in his death. 4 So when we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and took part in his death. And just as Christ was raised from death by the wonderful power of the Father, so we can now live a new life.

12 But don’t let sin control your life here on earth. You must not be ruled by the things your sinful self makes you want to do.
14 Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.

Romans 8:
14 The true children of God are those who let God’s Spirit lead them. 15 The Spirit that we received is not a spirit that makes us slaves again and causes us to fear. The Spirit that we have makes us God’s chosen children. And with that Spirit we cry out, “ Abba,[b] Father.”

31 So what should we say about this? If God is for us, no one can stand against us. And God is with us.

Romans 12:
So I beg you, brothers and sisters, because of the great mercy God has shown us, offer your lives[a] as a living sacrifice to him—an offering that is only for God and pleasing to him. Considering what he has done, it is only right that you should worship him in this way. 2 Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.

Romans 16:
25 Praise God! He is the one who can make you strong in faith. He can use the Good News that I teach to make you strong. It is the message about Jesus Christ that I tell people. That message is the secret truth that was hidden for ages and ages but has been made known.

Seek, Find, and Share Truth. Share Jesus. Praying many blessings your way this week.