Orange Moon Cafe "The First Question"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe… 

"The First Question"   

     "What is truth" asked Pilate of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is a good question.  Pilate did not, however, ask the first question (John 18:38).

     "I am… the truth" (John 14:6).

    The essence of truth is personal rather than conceptual.  The triune God revealed in Scripture is truth.  Before anything else existed, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit constituted the center and circumference of reality, or truth.  "From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" declared the Psalmist to the only One of whom this can be said (Psalm 90:2).  Thus, truth in its essence must be viewed in terms of the triune Personhood of our Lord.  "Who is truth?"  This is the first question, which applies to everything in our temporal and eternal existence.  

    Why do I exist?  What should I do today?  How do I solve this problem?  What will the weather be like?  When will this situation change?  How should I deal with that difficult person?  Where is that missing sock?  All of these conceptual questions have conceptual answers.  However, if we analyzed each inquiry, the "Who?" of God actually serves as the primary answer.  As we deal with the issues of life, we don't always directly think in such terms, nor is it required that we do so.  However, it must be established within our hearts as a fundamental doctrine and principle that who God is directs everything He does.  "Thou art good, and doest good" (Psalm 119:68).  Moreover, who God is concerns everything in our lives, whether we know it nor not.  We all "live and move and have our being" in Him" (Acts 17:28).  Thus, we live God-saturated lives, which means that the essence of reality - His triune Personhood - affects everything in our existence and experience.  

   "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?  Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?  If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there.  If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me" (Psalm 139:7-10).

   The question of this moment, and of all that will follow, is "Who?"  We do well to plant the stakes of this tent of reality deeply in our thought, belief, and conviction.   Truth, in essence, is personal, the personal God of the Bible.  When Saul of Tarsus met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, the experience so revolutionized his being and existence that he finally asked the first question.  We close with the record of his inquiry, and with gratitude that Saul became the Apostle Paul whose epistles so richly reveal the personal reality of God, and how such truth concerns everything in our existence…

"And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?  And he said, Who art Thou, Lord?"

 (Acts 9:4-5)

Weekly Memory Verse

    "How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings."

 (Psalm 36:7)

  

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