The Titanic Is Sinking

Therefore, anyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on a rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against the house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on a rock.' Matthew 7: 24,25

In the movie Titanic, there is a scene where the lead character is up front on the bow of the ship. Standing there, he is filled with the presence of this magnificent, powerful,  luxurious, and unsinkable ship. While he is in this moment, he steps up on the rails that surround the outer edge of the ship and with feet planted firmly on the rails, his hands lifted straight towards the heavens, and the wind blowing forcefully against his body, he proclaims the picture of a person who is at the top of his world, a man who has built his life on an unsinkable rock. Unbeknown to him, underneath the surface where no one can see, is an iceberg slicing small slivers of openings into the side of the ship. All the hype and proclamations about this creation of man being the first and only unsinkable ship turns out to not be the truth. Whether intended or not, it is a lie and thousands of people have based their life on something that is not true.

What is truth? In John 18: 37, Jesus is on trial for His life, a life that was meant to come and die for the sins of man. While proclaiming why He has come into the world, Jesus replies: "In fact for this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Pilate then asked, " What is truth?" That was and still is today the most interesting and important of questions we can ask. What is truth?     

Truth some say is in the eye of the beholder. The scientific world tells us what we should rely on as truth. The media sells us a good package on what is truth. Our elected officials portray truth as coming from our government system. Our lives are bombarded with ideas of truth, and for many, we have planted our feet on a ship proclaimed by the world as absolute truth, a truth that is unsinkable. "Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14: 6). In Romans chapter 2, Paul tells us we have exchanged this truth for a lie. In the Garden, Satan sold Eve on a truth that turned out to be the biggest lie of all, a lie that changed God's plan for the world. We are in a battle for the truth in our world today. We have a choice of who we will believe and thereby take our stand. Will we place our faith in the world's truth or will we place our faith on the truth revealed to us by God in his word?  

In the gospels of Matthew and John, Jesus relays to us over fifty times,"I tell you the truth," If Jesus is who he says He is, and we want to plant our feet firmly on his side, would we not want to know what it is that He proclaims as truth. And, if we believe He is who he says he is, wouldn't we also believe what he states as true? 

There are so many people today who are like the character in the movie Titanic, they believe they have their feet firmly planted on solid truth, a truth that has come from the world system rather from the One who came to proclaim truth. The Titanic was not sunk by some major and powerful force where everyone could see it coming. The causes and problems that created the disaster were not immediately obvious. It was destroyed by something hidden underneath the surface, slowly but surly cutting away at the hard outer surface of what the ship was made of. So it is with us. It is not usually a situation in which one moment in life we compromise on a really big issue, but it originates with small slivers and cuts into what we hold as truth. As Godly men, dare we look beneath the surface of our lives to see the hidden things that are cutting those slivers into the hull of our life. Are we willing to stand on the truth revealed to us in His Word?

Thoughts to consider

What is absolute truth, does it apply to everyone?

How does God's truth make a difference in your life today?

Where do you see small cuts in our culture today?