"A Sure Foundation for This Generation"

“Steadfast in a universe of wavering standards…” That’s it!!! I grabbed my scissors and quickly snipped the advertisement from an exercise magazine. I stapled it as the centerpiece for our dorm room collage. Over 20 years have come and gone, but still the statement commands our attention. Looking back on my past years of college ministry, the recurring theme appears to be a question of our long-term stability in Christ.

As Christians we are called to run and finish a marathon, not a sprint (Mt. 24:13, Lk. 14:28, 2Tim. 4:7). In a day of doctrinal whirlwinds, moral earthquakes, and floods of lies, will our house of the LORD’s testimony (our Christian life and walk) stand or fall? While covering various topics related to “This Gospel of The Kingdom,” this repeated emphasis has come to receive our undivided attention. Are we being wise master builders, laying and building upon the sure foundation of Jesus Christ? Are we steadfastly continuing in the faith, grounded and settled, immovable concerning the hope of the Gospel? God is confronting and correcting the faulty foundations and shoddy craftsmanship of our lives and faith. Although, HE who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion, the timing and ease of this process is often related to our yielding and obedience.

Many Christians today have come to a “crisis of belief.” For every generation there are giants. This principle is true for every segment of society. In fact, many historians measure a generation’s success by the size and number of giants they have conquered. Spiritually speaking, even as the Joshua Generation faced the sons of Anak and David battled Goliath, so this generation has its giants to face. If this generation is to fulfill their destiny, it must face and defeat “the Giant of Amorality.”

I recently was reflecting back on 1996, when we targeted this “American Amorality” with a series of outreaches at Florida State University. On Feb. 21 we ministered to over 100 students and athletes on “The Pursuit of Excellence.” During this meeting, a clear Word was spoken on God’s standard and the cost of discipleship. Many were confronted and challenged by this preaching of the Cross. On March 14, our friend Ken Dew gave a multi-media presentation, “Indecent Exposure.” This power packed production is a stunning expose on the “Sexual Revolution” and its devastating impact on our society. This 2 hour presentation was like the stone hurled from David’s sling, finding its mark and laying the Giant to rest. About 30 students came forward for counseling and prayer, as the Holy Spirit brought many through painful tears of guilt, rejection, shame, and abuse to the purity and healing that is only found in Christ. One freshman from F.S.U. said, “Indecent Exposure was very beneficial…setting the standard of purity in Christ and abstinence before us. This presentation mends wounds and plants god’s life and truth in hearts.” The 120 students at this meeting left knowing: 1) True freedom is not in self-indulgence, but self-control (Rom. 6:16). 2) You have freedom of choice, but not freedom of consequences (gal. 6:7-8). 3) This is the will of God, even your sanctification (1Thes. 4:1-8). 4) Christ Jesus our Lord has the power to forgive, heal, and set us free from the bondage of sin and death (Ps. 32, Rom. 8:2).

I remember those days and life changing meetings like they were yesterday. My heart still burns as I hope and pray with fervency again for God to visit and call out a generation of young radical Christians from the high school and college campuses of our land. As young leaders we had an all consuming passion to know God and live holy. The Holy Spirit used Holy Scriptures in holy moments to mark us eternally with a Heavenly fingerprint. The foundation of faith in Christ alone works its way deep into our hearts to purify and refine us. We then may be fitly framed into God’s work/house as pillars of testimony to the One True Living God.

“Steadfast in a universe of wavering standards” speaks truth of a smooth stone that can slay “The Giant of Amorality.” This stone of truth is not a concept or idea, but a person. He can’t be read, memorized, or learned, only known. It is the stone cut out without hands that smote the image of heathen dominion and brought in Kingdom power, the stone that the builders rejected that is become the headstone of the corner, and the rock of stumbling and stone of offense that is become the rock of our salvation. It is the LORD JESUS CHRIST. He wants us to see, stand on, believe in, and follow Him and Him alone (not our understanding, experience, knowledge or agendas). Christ is our life, and must be “made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” As we stand upon HIM, “our all in all,” we will stand before the slain giant of a generation that once shouted the curse of no morals, no standards, and no absolutes. Then we will know, and boldly proclaim “on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” Selah.

"The Testimony of Truth"

… “Pontius Pilate entered the judgment hall again”… (Jn. 18:33). There before him was Jesus, the presumed convict from Galilee. In the midst of a tornado of accusations, Jesus stood silent, faultless, guiltless…silent. As the prosecution pressed for the death penalty, his only rebuttal was a claim of the witness of truth. “What is truth?” thundered Pilate as he stormed out of the room (Jn. 18:37-38). This is the cynical spirit that pervades our relativistic age. It implies that truth cannot be known, or does not even exist. The love for the truth is its only antidote, and will be costly in this hour.

Contrary to popular opinion, truth is absolute. God has dropped a plumbline of absolute truth down from heaven—Jesus Christ. Relativism contends, “that may be true for you, but not for me…it all depends on how you look at it…nothing is black and white…” However, the universe does not approximately hold together in partial perfection because there is nothing approximate or partial about God (Jas. 1:18, Ps. 19). Jesus is not approximately true or partially right. Think of that! Jesus Christ is absolute…absolutely holy, absolutely right, and absolutely true. The spirit of the age and worldly wisdom constantly try to undo absolutes and obscure the truth, creating a gray haze of convenience to justify personal desires and actions. Nevertheless, common sense and conscience add their agreement to the “testimony of truth.” There is nothing relative about stop signs, poison warning labels, or a question on a mathematics exam.

In Jesus Christ, the light of absolute truth was seen and heard. There at the hall of judgment, the Gabatha Pavement…Jesus took the judgment seat and trumpeted truth in a sin-shattering silence. Yes, in quietness and confidence, Jesus “published the name of the Lord…a God of Truth and without iniquity, just and right is He” (Dt. 32:3-4). Then, in the face of relativism, the citadel for Adamic rebellion, a standard was raised. As a plumbline, Jesus became God’s sovereign instrument of separation and judgment (Mt. 3:12, 13:91, Acts 17:30-31). Everything becomes black and white as the Spirit and Word agree, separating light and darkness, right and wrong, truth and Lies.

“What is truth?” Pontius Pilate never asked a more important question. The man Christ Jesus, born to bear witness to the truth, had spoken loud and clear. He need not answer to absurd accusations, for the truth He held was self-evident and exposed all lies. He need not speak up, because to utter a single truth would have been to obscure the living truth that He was (Jn. 1:14, 7:18, 14:6). If Pilate, or any other judge and skeptic could not see the truth before him, then nothing he might have heard could have saved him (Lk. 16:31).

May God the Father open our eyes to see the truth that is ever before us; and kindle anew a love for the truth, which alone saves us from perishing in this deceptive age of relativism (2 Thes. 2:10). May the Lord Jesus Christ inspire us to seek and obey the truth, that God’s house would testify to the world as “the pillar and ground of truth” (1Tim. 3:15). May the Spirit of Truth lead us in the will and way of God; for therein are we established in the present truth, revealing the life that is the light of men (2 Pet. 1:12). May we desire truth in our inward parts (Ps 51:6) that God’s glory may be seen as all grows dim before the rising daystar, the coming sun of righteousness.

“I believe that in the end the truth will conquer.” --John Wycliffe

“The Generation that strips itself of every impure motivation and loves Christ for His sake will usher in a mighty visitation from heaven! Such ones will see the risen and glorious Jesus!”

--David Smithers