Make Sure Your Blocks Are Stacked

When the Spanish conquistadores marched into Peru in the 1500’s, the land was ruled by the Incas. Upon invading, the Spaniards found Incan walls and foundations built of stones fitted together without the benefit of any mortar. Many of these walls still stand today. Some of the stones used in the construction weigh in at over 100 tons and took hours upon hours of painstaking labor to shape using other, smaller “hammer” stones to chip away the excess rock on the faces and to smooth the rough edges of the block so that it would match exactly with the contours of the adjoining block. The stones were fitted so carefully that even now it is impossible to insert a razor blade between many of them.

In 1950, an earthquake shook the mountains of Peru and destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the capital city’s modern buildings. Upon inspection, only a few of the joints in the Incan walls had shifted a small amount, but the walls, undamaged, still stood firm.

I thought about this today when I read Titus 1:1 where Paul writes of the “acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness.” The word Paul uses that is translated as “acknowledgement” doesn’t mean that God’s truth is given a courtesy nod, but it speaks of a precise knowledge and correct understanding of the truth. This understanding in turn accompanies (or “accords with”) godliness or reverence for God.

Our personal beliefs sometimes may fail to match God’s truth precisely. We might adopt and adapt truth to “fit” our scheme of thought, but in reality, when we try that approach, we weaken the entire structure. If we desire our beliefs to stand the shaking and the uncertainty that rises daily against them, we must have a correct and precise knowledge of the truth. Beliefs must be established upon, shaped by, and conformed to an unchanging standard, fitted so carefully that nothing can wedge itself between the belief in the truth and truth itself.


Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org