The morning after the Fourth of July, I was sitting in one of those big velour cushion chairs at the Starbucks on Sheridan Road near Loyola University (my new neighborhood before the month’s end as I move in temporarily with a friend who owns an 18-th floor lakefront condo where Lake Shore Drive ends at Hollywood Avenue) when a man sat down directly across from me in a matching cushion chair.

He was barely settled before he blurted out, “Don’t be so down—you haven’t done a G-D thing wrong!” I was certainly taken off-guard and I chuckled half-heartedly, responding, “Oh, okay, thanks. I’ll cheer up.”

I then spent the next five minutes glumly thinking, “If he only knew HOW much I’ve done wrong to be in the state I’m in!”

Just as I had forgotten his presence and was absorbed again in my online bill-paying, he asked loudly, “Who wrote the Bible—God or man?” Now he had me thoroughly engaged!

We spent the next 20 minutes going back and forth about the reliability of God’s Word and whether hell was real, etc., and how could I believe in a God who would send innocent people of different faiths there.

He got more and more belligerent as I shared the gospel in between answering his anti-God of the Bible questions, and after I handed him my self-written salvation tract, he looked it over for 30-45 seconds and put it down.

There was silence for the next 7-8 minutes and I noticed his left hand visibly bouncing as his right foot jerked up and down from its cross-legged position. Then, without warning, he jumped out of his chair, coffee in hand, and muttered a bunch of swear words toward me as he exited.

I tell you, he was the trick to pulling me out of a real funk that morning and I hope I never forget him for it! For certain, I thought about him on and off the rest of the day with real affection, grateful as could be for him not only initiating a conversation with me about the Bible, but for letting me talk to him in my very direct way that I’ve been told by others—including family and friends—is a real turn-off.

Obviously, as I’ve realized so many zillions of times before it’s criminal that I don’t seem to ever get the lesson, talking to strangers about the Bible is a huge key to me feeling better. There’s nothing else that works like it! God, in fact, designed us as humans to have a basic need for meaningful spiritual discourse.

*****

In the Bible, there are many names for God describing aspects of His character and one of the ones that really serves to encapsulate all of who He is in easily identifiable symbolism is the name the Rock.

As Moses so eloquently defines God in Deuteronomy 32:4, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”

On this classic verse, Jordan explains, “God never does anything that isn’t just and righteous and right. All of His decisions are right. He’s absolutely, eternally reliable. He’s never going to tell you something and not stick by it.”

Jordan continues, “In the Bible, truth is more than just being right all the time. Truth in the Scripture is something far bigger than that. It’s the ultimate basis of reality. What makes what’s real? God is.

*****

“Have you seen the new Indiana Jones movie yet? At the end, everything resolves itself. In the end, they figure out the mystery they’re looking for in the crystal and Indy says, ‘Well, did they go out into space? And the other guy, he says, ‘Yes, the space between things.’

“And you know what he’s talking about there is not outer space, but you take an atom—

and it’s got all those neutrons, protons and electrons—and they circle. What’s between all that?

“You know that table is solid, but there’s another sense in which it’s not when at the atomic and sub-atomic level. Well, what is it that makes reality then? What’s reality really made of? Well, in the Scripture, the ultimate source of what’s real—

not illusionary, but what’s real—that’s who God is.

“He’s truth and you can always rely on Him. Do you know there’s not any other person in the universe you can do that with? Not just because we all fail, but because He’s the only one who has the capacity in every circumstance to be that way—a God of truth.

“In John 17, Jesus says to the Father, ‘Sanctify them by thy truth; thy word is truth.’ You could never know God if it weren’t for the fact He made himself known. That’s why the issue of His word being truth—His word being perfect, complete in all of its parts with nothing lacking—is critical.

“Because in God’s Word, He makes His word equal to Himself in that it’s His word. It’s His integrity. It’s His statement. It’s His truth that’s at stake. That’s why you can’t take a low, hesitant view about the written Word of God.

“As the verse says, ‘God is light and in him is no darkness at all.’ Aren’t you glad of that? Just and right is He. He’s always upright; He’s always just. When Ephesians 1:3 says, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ there’s the God we’re talking about! That’s who He is! Who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? He’s the Rock!”