John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Truth is not "just the facts". There is a spiritual backing to truth which has a motivation connected to it. Truth is honest, made in good faith, and sincere while it is supported by facts and reality.
Our egos would have us pervert the truth by manipulating the facts in our communications. For example, when Abraham was confronted by an adversary interested in Sarah, Abraham indicated that Sarah was his sister:
Gen 20:1-12
AND Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar.
Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, "Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife."
But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, "Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also?
"Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this."
And God said to him in a dream, "Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.
"Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours."
So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid.
And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? How have I offended you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done."
Then Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?"
And Abraham said, "Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.
"But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
Fear motivated Abraham to lie about Sarah as well as his lack of faith in God’s word to him. Abraham did not believe the fear of God was in Gerar. He assumed that his God was not omnipresent but found that God intervened wherever and whenever was needed. Abraham had a covenant with the GOD of Heaven AND Earth. Abimelech agreed.
While having lunch with a friend, we discussed the economy and its expected direction. He said that if he could just know the truth about the various issues of the economy, he could respond accordingly. The noise of opinion and mis-information is deafening. Political speeches contain many facts but what in the speech is being manipulated to promote an agenda? The truth cannot be known and understood without knowing the motivation behind the facts. It is well known and documented that the U.S. Government statistics have been redefined to reflect theoretical economic improvement thus misleading the American public about the state of the economy. The Federal Reserve quit reporting M3 Money Supply numbers to "cut costs". Withholding the truth is just as bad as providing misleading facts.
The world economy is in a very serious economic crisis and the path we’ve been pursuing is leading us over a cliff. The world is at a serious risk of a stampede out of currencies and paper investments into "things". The prices of commodities have plummeted due to substantial decreases in demand yet they report overall demand is down single digits.
Failure to tell us the truth ultimately forces us to move to a protective mode of de-leveraging. The borrower is servant to the lender thus we must eliminate that liability which hangs over our future.
How do you get started in this defensive posture? You must develop new spending habits.
1. Go a week without "eating out" at a restaurant.
2. Go a week without using your credit card, then a month.
3. Pay extra on your home mortgage payment, even if it is only $10.
4. Give away 10 items you don’t use or need and trash the items if they are of no value to others.
5. Focus on relationships with others. Develop face-to-face activities that encourage fellowship.
6. Plant a vegetable garden this spring. Go research at the library and learn to grow your own food.
7. Conduct an energy audit of your home. Determine how you can decrease your energy usage.
8. Revisit you budget. Determine your needs versus your wants.
9. Do an act of service to your neighborhood or community. Help the needy, hungry, widows, or orphans. Plant some seeds of giving.
10. Most important: Spend more quiet time with Our Heavenly Father. After all, you have a covenant with HIM whether you know it or not!