The Treasure of Truth

By Rachel Coltharp

(Editor’s Note: This talk was given to a general session of the North American Youth Congress on Thursday, August 6, 2009.)

As Apostolics we are people of faith, but we are not merely a people of faith. For there are many faiths. Hundreds. Thousands even. Every faith has its heroes, its martyrs and its devoted followers. Each faith claims its doctrines to be divinely inspired, divinely revealed. Each has its sacred texts, its prophetic voice and its rules of conduct. How then can we determine what sets us, Apostolic believers, apart from the millions of other believers? The answer is Truth.

Truth, by its very nature, stands alone. And all truth is God’s truth. The trouble comes in when Gods truths are entwined with man’s ideas. There are a thousand non-truths, many of them mixtures of God’s truth and man-made doctrines. In every faith, every religion, there is just enough truth to make it plausible. Mixed in with the teachings of humans we can find smidgins of God’s Truth. And it is that taste of Truth that makes the lie palatable. For all Truth is God’s Truth. Within the soul of every human is the insatiable hunger for truth and when it gets a small taste of it, it recognizes it. How sad, that most of the time that wee bit of truth is merely bait that snares the mind and heart. How tragic that a wee bit of truth is all the truth there is on the banquet table of philosophy and religion as a whole.

No, we Apostolics’ are not merely a people of faith, nor are we merely a religious group. We are the keepers of Truth. Full-Truth. We stand alone in the religious world, for we alone are able to say that we do not hold sacred teachings made by men. To be an Apostolic means that we teach and follow the teachings and practices of the Apostles of the New Testament. Apostles hand-chosen by Jesus Christ, one hand slapped right off his ride on the road to Damascus! These Apostles laid out their doctrines not only in their writings, but in their examples, their actions, their decisions. All found, not in legend or folklore or religious teachings outside of scripture. Oh no, these actions, works and choices are carefully documented in the Holy Scriptures.

Unclaimed Treasure

To be an Apostolic means that we do not accept as sacred the doctrines found outside of Scripture. Not the doctrines of popes, church fathers, early saints or learned scholars. We take the Treasure of Truth to be the far too precious to be added to, or taken away from. Just as Moses took God’s words and inscribed them into stone, we take the words of God through the Scripture and chisel them into our hearts. We wear them on our heads, we wear them on our bodies, we wear them in our words, we wear them in our worship.

There are family treasures that are passed from generation to generation; carefully handed off from father to son, mother to daughter. Along with the heirloom, or treasure, comes the story of its origins. A friend of mine has a family platter which she serves from at Thanksgiving. She can trace it all the way back to the Revolutionary War. She can tell the story of her ancestors who helped fight for independence from England; she has the deed signed by William Penn granting her family their land. And she treasures these things. But without the story of where they came from, and without the understand of what they represent, they lose their value and become just another dish, just another piece of old paper.

For far too many Apostolic people our beautiful heritage and the treasures of Truth have lost their meaning. Because we neglected to listen well, because we chose to listen to the wrong people, many Truths have ceased to be valued for the treasures that they are, and have become just an old tradition. Treasures of truth have been left behind as outdated and unnecessary. But the fact of the matter is this, Truth is truth whether we treasure it or not. You do not have to believe that eating sugar is harmful to you if you are a diabetic for it to kill you. It will kill you anyway. You do not have to believe that wearing a seatbelt is a safety precaution worth the discomfort. Wear it, and it can save your life anyway. It is the truth whether you believe it, and whether you practice it or not. The Bible states that there is a way that seems right to man, but the end of it is death, destruction. Truth is sometimes uncomfortable. Truth is most of the time unpopular. Truth is painful to the human will, contrary to the human rational and difficult for the human spirit. But truth is a treasure—one worth digging out, one worth understanding, one worth loving, one worth living.

Changing Millionaires

We are, as Apostolics, charged with the grave responsibility of not just treasuring truth, but sharing truth. Unlike treasures most families pass on, ours is not kept under glass, in a vault or under wraps. No, ours is that rarest of treasures. The more we share it, the more we give it to others the more there is of it!

It’s the kind of treasure that is shared in board rooms, class rooms, car pools, and neighborhood picnics by people just like you. It’s the kind of treasure that a blind lady in a nursing home shared with a 15 year-old boy who came to read library books to her. He was from a family of intellectuals: his grandfather was a university professor, his father a high ranking intelligence officer in the Air Force. By the time he was 15 he had done a lot of living. He had lived in Turkey, Germany and England. He had been exposed to many cultures, languages and had a lot of book knowledge. But he had never been exposed to Truth. His family had taken him all around the world, but never to church. And though his head was full, his heart was empty. Though his mind had feasted on man’s philosophy and man’s knowledge, his soul was hungry. Hungry for truth. And with all the people he knew, he didn’t know anyone who knew Truth. But God knew him, and knew where to send him. So when he signed up to read to elderly folks in the nursing home, God led him to the room of a blind lady in her 80’s. There, in that little nursing home room where he came to shine a little light of cheer into her dark world, she ended up shining the light of Truth into his dark heart. She shared with him the treasure of Truth, he took it, grew in it, and passed it on to his children. Who passed it on to their children. Just last month his six year-old grandson went garage selling in one of the ritziest parts of a Chicago metro neighborhood. There, among the million dollar homes,he overheard a lady ask his mother for prayer. He had just been filled with the Holy Ghost the week before. Walking over to her, he laid his hands gently on her arm and began praying. In the Spirit. The treasure of truth, heirloom gift passed down from father to daughter to grandson flowed up out of his heart, up through his mouth and onto the heart of a stranger. Someone who, like his grandfather had traveled the globe, been exposed to every luxury the world has to offer, but was still hungry. And now she is a treasure seeker too! Sounds like a great parable, but it’s not. It really happened. I know, because the 15 year-old boy was my father. The six year-old is my son. And I am the one teaching the Bible study to the garage sale lady.

You see, Truth is a living breathing thing and it spreads and flows through willing heart and hand. Breathing life into burned-out minds, healing wounds and mending hearts. Bringing fresh hope to barren dry places. You are never too old to learn, love and give the Treasure. You are never too young. Whether you are 80, blind and in a nursing home, or 6 years old and still in love with your Sunday school teacher, the treasure of Truth can work in, for and through you.

His treasure, your hands. What will you do with it?

ninetyandnine.com

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Rachel Coltharp helps lead the First Apostolic Church of Aurora, IL with her husband, pastor Brent Coltharp. She is fluent in four languages: Infantese, Toddlerspeak, Teenlingo, and Husbandism. She speaks and writes from a lifetime of experiences of mistakes and do-overs. She is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ and an avid disciple of the Apostolic doctrine.