Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]
Free Indeed

Free Indeed

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And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 

John 8:32  

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. 

John 8:36

How does knowing the truth make us free? The second portion of our text answers that question. As Christ is speaking to the Jews who believed in Him, He says. ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.’ After that, He explains that to commit sin is to be a slave to it and that such a person is not a member of the household of God as a son of the family would be. He follows that explanation with the second portion of our text. Thus He ties knowledge of the truth and freedom to Himself. In the most straightforward manner He links these things together. If we want to know truth, we must know Christ. If we know Christ, Who is the embodiment of truth, we will be free. This is true freedom, and not some delusion. Many people believe that freedom means being able to indulge in what satisfies our natural desires. Christ frees us from the addictive dependency we have on those things. We become no longer slaves to those things. Instead, He makes us free with our knowledge of Him which He equates with our knowledge of the truth. We are then free indeed.  

Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. 
We praise You that, as we know You, 
You make us truly free.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Into All Truth

Into All Truth

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However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  

John 16:13-14 

How can we know truth?  The context of our text is Christ’s discourse to His disciples at the last supper. In that discourse He reveals many things about the work of the Holy Spirit. Our text is one of those revelations. We have begun to consider truth, knowing truth, and the freedom that comes with that knowledge. Our text ties into that discussion because it tells us how God reveals truth to us. He does so through the work of the Holy Spirit. According to Christ, the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. How does He do it? The second portion of our text makes it clear by saying that the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ and take what is Christ’s and show it to us. Thus our knowing the truth is inextricably tied to Christ. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to guide us into that truth. He does not magnify Himself, but Christ. This is an exciting prospect. The Holy Spirit will show us what we could never know by the most diligent effort we could muster without Him. He is our never-failing Guide to reveal Christ to us. 

Our Wise and Gracious God,  
we rejoice that You have given us the Holy Spirit. 
We praise You that He brings us 
to know the truth that is in Christ.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Knowing The Truth

Knowing The Truth

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And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 

John 8:32 

Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 

John 14:6 

What is truth? Pilate asked Christ this question. It is a question for the ages. What is truth and how can we know it? In the first portion of our text Christ makes a statement which is captivating because He asserts, first, that there is truth, second that we can know truth, and third that knowing that truth will set us free. This is valuable for us in the light of the second portion of our text where He says, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ If we lay these two statements side by side, we arrive at the conclusion that if we want to know the truth, we must know Christ. Herein lies the path to freedom. He follows shortly after the first statement of our text with, ‘Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.’ Christ makes the connection for us between knowing the truth, knowing Him, and the freedom He gives to us. This encourages us to contemplate Him constantly and consistently. As we dwell upon Him, we learn what is important in life, in death, and for eternity. What is important to Him becomes our values. He makes us free.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You have revealed Yourself to us. 
We praise You that, by knowing You, 
we come to know truth.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

All The People

All The People

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Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery…. 

John 8:2-3 

What did all the people who witnessed the exchange between Christ, the woman and her accusers see on that day? It is most important that we understand this because we are the inheritors of their experience. We are observers as they were. They saw a woman who was guilty, shamed, embarrassed and terrified. Perhaps some of them identified with her because they also were guilty and had their sin been exposed as hers was, they would have been just as terrified. They also saw self-righteousness and hypocrisy in all its’ ugly reality, devoid of compassion and full of venom. They saw Christ’s response to that self-righteousness. From His response they would have learned His attitude toward the moral aristocracy. They also would have seen the ever-loving, overwhelming compassion of Christ Himself. Everything about Him was attractive. He was an utterly winsome, engaging character. The exchange between Him and the woman was tender and kind. Here is a Christ worth knowing. Here is a Person worth imitating.  

Our Good and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that You continue to show us Christ. 
We praise You that as we observe Him, 
we learn to follow Him.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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