Earlier this year a girl at the school was wearing a funny visor with googly eyes at the end of antennae. I asked her what she was supposed to be and she said she was a lice. I corrected her and told her "lice" was plural. The singular is "louse". She is a louse. I hated calling her that because to me, she is anything but a louse. But we argued if it was lice versus louse. Well, I'm in my 30s and know a thing or two because I've read a thing or two. Lice is plural for louse just like mice is plural for mouse, even though two houses are not hice.
Whether English is consistent or not, I continued my "lousy" point because the truth matters. It may seem like a silly matter, but it is important to distinguish between a childish mistake to call oneself a lice and to admit that alone, one is just a louse.
It is important because of OED's word of the year: post-truth. Now, I don't really take the Oxford English Dictionary seriously anymore because "w00t" was also a word of the year once, and spell-check still doesn't recognize it. It also considers "selfie" and "binge-watching" to be words. More and more we have a society that wants to be free from God and all truth because they want to redefine words and concepts their way.
But freedom from God and his wonderful salvation in Jesus just brings stronger bondage to sin and an eternity suffering God's just wrath in hell if life should end while a person is still in rebellion from God.
Indeed, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." John 8:32. It could be a simple truth like the distinction between singular louse and plural lice. Or it could be a grave truth such as marriage is only between a man and a woman, and sex is to be only within the legally recognized marriage union. It could be an enormous truth such as there is no other name under heaven and earth in which someone can be saved from their sins but under Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me." John 14:6. If Jesus uses the word, "the," then that is an enormous truth that matters. It is a major distinction from the common error which says that people can come to God any way they want, even as atheists. No, everyone has only one way to come to the Father, and it is by Jesus. God did not have to provide his Son, but he did. We must come to Jesus to be saved, and when you are saved, don't worry about your previous life. The Holy Spirit will change you so that you don't desire your favorite sins any more. It will be a life-long struggle, but he carries you the whole way until this life is ended. Amen.
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