Facts do not flex and will not stretch. Not for your preferences or your convenience. Not for your interpretation, your slant, or your opinion. Not even for your feelings. And certainly not for your agenda.
If you “adjust” facts with any of those, you no longer have facts.
If you want facts to remain facts, you have to stick to the facts.
I get very exercised when people present their interpretations, surmisings, and opinions as facts. So the following really clicked for me:
Facts first, then opinions. With God, facts and opinion are one and the same. There’s no slippage between the two in His marvelous, omniscient mind.
But with us mortals, there’s a whole spectrum ranging from what the Bible tells us is true, to what we think may or may not be the case, to what we know we don’t know. There’s nothing wrong with speculations along the middle of that spectrum. But things get dangerous when folks can no longer discern which category they’re thinking in—when they start treating facts and opinions as if they were interchangeable. If we want people to pay attention to our opinions, we should start by being careful with our facts. If you’re sloppy with your facts, why should anybody trust your opinions?
Sloppy with the facts — that’s just such a great way to put it.
So is this: “treating facts and opinions as if they were interchangeable.”
And I am so blessed at this realization: in the mind of God there is no slippage between facts and opinion. That is so amazing!
When anyone reports to me what happened or what was said, I want him to be faithful to the facts. I want to trust the accuracy of his report. I hate mistrusting others.
Don’t say anything corrupted!
For myself, I hereby renew my commitment to truth, accuracy, and faithfulness. I throw my lot with the One who is the way, the truth, and the life. I reject the ways of the deceiver and father of lies whose seduction of Eve went so “well.”
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