2 Timothy 3:7

Sunday morning I was listening to the BYU channel and I heard this story that I have not been able to get out of my head.

During WWII in Europe a man needed to get his wife and child to a safer place with family and he had to stay at his post.  He put them on a train.  When the conductor took their tickets, he told them they would get off at the first Stop.  The mother dozed a little and so when the train stopped a passenger nearby woke her up and told her this was her stop.  The mother and child got off the train.

Later the conductor came back and asked where the mother and child were as their Stop was coming up.  The passenger said he had awakened her when the train made the first stop and told her that was where she should get off and so they did.  The conductor said, "That was not the first Stop, that was just where we took on water."

Although help was sent from the next town to go back and look for the mother and child, help was too late, they had already succumbed to exposure from the severe weather.

Question--Did the passenger have good intentions?  Yes  Did the passenger think he was telling the truth?  Yes  Did the passenger have authority and real knowledge?  No

It reminded me of two things.  One was the day in Seminary in 1978 when we studied  "This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come." 2 Timothy 3:1 and then it listed all about conditions of the last days.  I had made a special chart of headlines from newspapers and articles as examples of "important things to know" and when we came to verse 7 I held up the chart as we read "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."  And we talked about what we would need to do to be able to recognize truth and not be fooled by false claims of truth.

I had put into my daily prayers the plea to "help me to have a clear mind and be able to recognize the truth" from that day and it is still a part of my prayers and now we are so in the last days and we see all of the conditions in 2 Timothy 3 coming to pass and there are so many "experts" out there telling us how to live and think and be and so many of the old values have been cast away for the new and better way to live and where is truth--who has it, which messenger has the truth.  Do they all have good intentions?  Mostly  Do they think they know?  Probably  Do they all have authority and truth?  No

It also reminded me of the trip I took in 2000 to Scandinavia.  James had set me up with someone I did not know and paid for my ticket as her daughter could not go and he knew I wanted to go to Sweden.  It was a great trip and she was a lovely lady and we had a great time.  There was one problem though, she was one of these people who loved to "help" and whenever people would ask for directions, she would assertively give them and I thought she knew what she was talking about but I soon learned she did not.  Did she have good intentions?  Yes  Did she think she knew?  Probably  But did she have authority and accurate knowledge?  No she did not.

So the question is, where is truth, how do you recognize it, what do you believe, what do you choose to live, who do you listen to?  That is the challenge for everyone on the earth today.  What "Voice" do you listen to and accept as Truth?  How do you know?