A volcano–pagan-rooted name for a mountain of fire–the ultimate natural agent for reconstruction at least at the outset.

All of earth is not solid, but sustains life floating above a sea of fire, which regularly resurfaces this terrestrial home.

Is the truth really that different?

Historical, evident, specific, general, absolute, situational–you may smash a rock to atoms, but the Truth? Can you build it on a shifting foundation of fire?

No. The Truth may have been viscous and immaterial at first, but it has become material. It upholds all things by its existence. Things that really exist, are because the Truth is. But Truth is become material, and when it did, it did not become a rock, or a planet, or any element. It became Human. Jesus Christ revealed that deeper than objective reality there is a personal reality.

Now this has led many to question the solidity of truth. Perhaps it is merely whatever melts the heart into whatever shape I would take according to myself. But no. There may be a strain of the pattern of true humanity recognizable in us, but equally recognizable is that our humanity is so thoroughly misshapen. It takes fire to melt, but it takes a mold to be recast. And the fire of the Word of God became real in a person: Jesus Christ.

This is the basis of so called “Christianity”: not objective truths which philosophy arranges per cultural speculation, but a Person living today in relationship with others. The bedrock of our faith is a real person.

Could it be that many who are, as some put it, “deconstructing their faith” do so because they are missing the Person? Or that Christianity has been an egg shell with no living creature inside it? Having been taught Truth as if it were an impersonal thing, for fear that the personal would cause a person to drift away from what is not in keeping with their own caprice, have we merely traded an “all consuming fire” for a ideological idol of invisible stone? What is the alternative?

The beginning point of reconstruction is Jesus, anointed by God. “Listen to Him!” Not in the sense of hear what he has to say, but chew on it, do it, and become it. You’ll have a house built on the rock. He is the foundation. See 1 Corinthians 3.

We seek so many proofs before we trust, but really it is faith which is the decision to obey before all the proofs are given. This is the real terror that drives many deconstructionists away from the faith. They would rather be their own master, lost in a room with only the voices to which they would rather listen to, than the One who is proven to be the supreme Person by his rising from the dead. Do not seek to dodge His call. He is the “Truth.” He Himself calls himself that. Get to know him and see that he calls you to walk a narrow path.

Many on the “Christian” road today are lost. There is a broad path and a narrow path of what is culturally called “Christianity.” I say truly, there is a broad path of by-name Christianity that still leads to destruction. The difference between a Christian on the narrow road that leads to life and one on the broad path that leads to destruction is this: one is out to gain life for himself. The other is out to . . . oh why is it so hard to even articulate this? It’s like the twisted weakness of sin in me refuses to let it out. Lord grant me the grace to even say it. The second has already lost his life and seeks now only to live for the One who is truly worthy of all blessing, honor, glory, and power. Can I say it more clearly? The narrow path of Christianity is the path walked by the Prophets leading to Christ, and the Apostles leading from Christ. The narrow path of Christianity is the way of the Cross, which Jesus called people to carry, not around their necks, but upon their backs. The narrow path of Christianity expends the self for Jesus with joy. The broad path seeks to expend Jesus for self with pride and avarice.

Reconstruction is not chaos. It is willingness to be lost, so that you can be found, or as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 3– “to become a fool that one may become wise.” But if one in search of wisdom references all according to his own heart, he is just as much a fool as he was at first. After all “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool” (Prov 28:26) even if the divine fire warms his chest.

So then how does one go about it? This is the starting point of how to find the truth about what real Christianity is: “Meet Jesus.” Talk with Jesus like He is there, and you’ll discover that He is, or you are not oriented toward Him. In encountering Jesus, you will find the answer to that which your faith questions.

Where does one meet Jesus? With someone who has been changed by Jesus. Next time you meet someone who calls themselves a Christian, ask them, “Would you say you’ve been changed by Jesus, and if so, how?”

He who has ears to hear let him hear!