- You don't get the common cold from not wearing your coat on a cold morning despite what your mother says. You get a 'cold' (upper respiratory infection) from a virus transmitted by a sneeze or left on a doorknob by someone who is sick!
- In the days that followed Hurricane Katrina, the news media reported the 'fact' that people were being murdered and raped in the Superdome in New Orleans. It never happened!
- Our President took us to war in Iraq claiming 'incontrovertible evidence' existed proving the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Saddam's arsenal. There weren't any, and Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, says that he regrets making those claims.
Sometimes what we think we know because of our observations and conclusions just simply isn't true. We reach a mistaken conclusion, or worse, are lied to by those we trust. However, there is a source of Truth that is available to the Believer which is a solid rock foundation for life.
When God speaks, when He reveals the Truth to us, we are transformed by the experience. One day Jesus took the men who were being trained to take His Kingdom message to the world to a remote northern part of Palestine called Ceasara Philippi. He asked them, "what are your conclusions about my identity?" "Well, we hear some say you're John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets." Then Simon Peter spoke up. “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16, The Message) How'd he know that? God revealed it to him! "Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being." (Matthew 16:17, NLT)
The truth that God revealed to Simon was a transformational and foundational Truth. Jesus says as much. He went to to tell Simon that his name was now, "Petros," meaning, a stone! Peter was to become a living stone in the great temple called the church because God had given him the Truth. Furthermore, Jesus said that this Truth was the "petra," the granite rock foundation on which the church would be built! And so it has been for two thousand years! The Church rests on one eternal Truth that was first spoken into Peter's heart- that Christ Jesus is God's Messenger: born into this world by God's will, lived sinlessly among us, died for our sins, and was raised to life by the Father, and now sits at the right hand of God, the Father.
When God reveals the Truth to us, we need not worry about a revision, a correction, or a second edition. Revealed truth is unchanging, life tranforming, and eternal. What is the foundation of your faith? Does your faith rest on doctrines of some denomination, or on the religion passed to you by your parents, or on a creed that you recite in church? If so, yours is a foundation subject to failure! Pray that the Spirit of God would reveal the Christ to you, that He would speak to you in your heart and through the written Scripture, giving you a 'know-so' revelation not merely a 'hope so' conclusion.
Then, like Paul, you will be able to say, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day." (2 Timothy 1:12, NKJV) "So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed." (Isaiah 28:16, NIV)
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The Solid Rock
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the o'erwhelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in Him be found!
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
Author: Mote, Edward / Bradbury, William B.Copyright: Public Domain
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