The Thursday Update

OCTOBER 9, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

The Bible is often quoted and used as an expression by people in our culture. Many times they have no idea that it comes from the Bible, but use it anyways. One of them is this one: “The truth will set you free.”

This phrase came from Jesus in John 8:32. The words Jesus spoke right before this statement are super important to understand its full meaning in context. In John 8:31-32, Jesus said: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

So before the truth sets us free, we have to know the truth. And it’s only when we hold to Jesus’s teaching that we can know the truth. Then, after knowing the truth and holding on to it as we live our daily lives, we can then be set free…. truly free!

So many people in our world know so little truth because they know so little about the Bible. That is frightening, but it’s no big surprise that our world is in such a moral mess. Isaiah the prophet’s words are being fulfilled right before our eyes: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” (Isaiah 5:20-21, NIV). Since I believe we’re living in the last days, this is what we should expect because the world is on a steep decline in the ability to discern truth from error.

What concerns me more deeply is that people who profess to be Christians know so little truth because they know so little about the Bible. It’s no wonder that they are struggling so much and not living the “set free” life.

If you doubt that, consider these two statistics:

1. 51% of church attenders do not believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven (despite what Jesus claimed in John 14:6).

2. 65% of church attenders believe that Satan is not a literal person (and that’s just how he prefers it, 2 Corinthians 11:14).

Wow!!!

Lakeshore exists to help people know God’s truth, hold on to it, and then be set free by it. Set free from all kinds of bondage, all kinds of addictions, all kinds of depression, all kinds of discouragement, all kinds of unforgiveness, all kinds of meaninglessness, all kinds of lies, and all kinds sin. But to be set free by the truth, we have to know the truth.

Midweek Bible Study is for anyone who wants to know the truth and better understand it in the Bible, God’s only objective source of truth. It kicks off today, October 9, with a series called, What They Really Believe: Understanding Cults And World Religions. We’ll study what these groups believe and then see what God’s truth in the Bible says about them. In the process, we’ll all go deeper in our theology and grow deeper in our faith and then know the truth that sets us free.

Regardless, I hope that you will be someone who studies the Bible to learn God’s truth, and not just someone who reads it. As always, we’re here to help you do it better.

Vince
Senior Pastor