We have had a big weekend! Our 6-week group was included in the activities for the 1st OCCA Alumni Reunion and Commissioning Day Service at St. Andrew's Church for the Wycliffe Hall students as well as the 24 OCCA 1 year students. The 24 OCCA students are from all over the world and they are receiving the Oxford Certificate in Christian Apologetics. They are in their twenties and early thirties. Many of them are already in a profession, (doctors and lawyers, investments, etc) and wanted to study apologetics in depth to be more effective in their Christian life, work and witness. We have enjoyed getting to know many of these young people. Last night OCCA threw a nice graduation party for them. We got to attend as well. They literally rolled out the "red carpet!"
I wanted to include today some thoughts by Os Guinness on the subject of "Why Does Truth Matter?"
1. Truth Honors the God of Truth: Our Lord is the one whose covenant loyalty may be trusted and the entire weight of our existence staked on Him.
2. Truth Reflects How We Come to Know and Love God: There are 3 main reasons why we believe:
One: We come to faith in Christ because we are driven by our human needs
Two: We come to faith in Christ because He seeks us and finds us.
Three: We come to faith in Christ because we believe his claims and the claims of the gospel are true.
Our faith goes beyond reason because we as humans are much more than reason. We are given a firm, clear conviction that it is true.
3. Truth Empowers Our Best Human Enterprises: Without truth, science and all human knowledge collapse into conjecture. Without truth, the vital profession of journalism dissolve into rumor. Without truth, the worlds of politics and business melt down into rules and power games. Without truth, all human relationships lose the bonding element of trust that is binding at their heart.
4. Truth can Undergird our Proclamation and Defense of the Faith: Truth is God's truth. We welcome all ideas and arguments and beliefs that pass the muster of God's standard of truth. Our stand for truth must begin in the church. We must resist those who downplay truth for methodology, activism, entertainment or seeker sensitivity.
5. Truth is Sufficient for Combating Evil and Hypocrisy: Postmodern thinking makes us all aware of hypocrisy but gives us no standard of truth to expose and correct it. For all who hate hypocrisy, care for justice and human dignity, and are prepared to fight evil, truth is the absolute requirement.
6. Truth Will Help Our Growth and Our Transformation in Christ: We are called to follow the way of Jesus. Not just to believe the truth or to know and defend the truth, but to so live in truth that truth may be part of our innermost beings, becoming people of truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
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