Developing a solid foundation for what you believe

Acts 17:11  "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

The situation described above was somewhat of a rarity for Paul.  He usually encountered angry mobs who had been stirred up by jealous religious leaders.  In fact, immediately before coming to Berea, he and Silas had been run out of Thessalonica by a mob that had been formed by jealous Jews.

The act of examining someone's words and claims for yourself, conducting your own investigation to validate and verify what you have heard, is a lost art.  We live in a world of short soundbites and endless TV channels with opinionated "experts" proclaiming truth.  Rarely, I sense, do people verify the claims of the so-called experts with their own investigation. I know I am guilty of this.

Many reasons may underlie this lack of investigation.  A lack of time to spend investigating claims, a desire to align with one side or another for various perception reasons, relying on your instincts to discern right from wrong, etc.  One barrier may be confusion over what sources of information are reliable and authoritative.  Often it seems our research only uncovers conflicting opinions, not facts.  We may find sources that fit more with our natural inclinations, and those become our trusted sources.  Just ask someone whether they are a Fox News fan or a CNN fan, and you'll see what I mean.  You'll hear that one is biased to the right and the other is biased to the left.  Depending on their natural inclination toward liberal or conservative, most people align themselves with one or the other.  Rest assured, if something is produced by a human being, it has built-in bias.  This is an inescapable fact of human psychology.  There is no absence of bias- there are simply biases that match our own, and those that do not. 

So where can we turn for truth that is undeniable and trustworthy?  The same place the Bereans turned to- the Scriptures.  God's Word is the benchmark and litmus test we should compare all thoughts, ideas and opinions to.  Take the time and effort to investigate what you hear and are tempted to believe.  If it is the truth, your investigation will only strengthen your position and conviction.  If what you have heard is false, God will replace it with truth.