{"id":63,"date":"2009-03-11T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-11T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/the-moment-of-truth.html"},"modified":"2009-03-11T09:40:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-11T09:40:00","slug":"the-moment-of-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/the-moment-of-truth.html","title":{"rendered":"THE MOMENT OF TRUTH"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

It sneaks up on you unawares
While you are preoccupied
It catches you quite unprepared
Enthralled as you are in your pride.<\/p>\n

Blindsided, you flinch instinctively
When suddenly you are accosted
You realize in an instance \u2018it\u2019s now\u2026\u2019
Or else you\u2019ve totally lost it.<\/p>\n

All those years of pure preparation
All those long times of careful thought
Have arrived at this destination
So why do you feel you are caught?<\/p>\n

Shocked by the sudden challenge
Your defensive reflex, a surprise
Call up the \u2018the hope that\u2019s within you\u2019
And look them right in the eyes.<\/p>\n

Like fumbling with keys in the doorway,
You find you\u2019re at a loss for words,
Why suddenly this ineptitude
Your nervousness seems absurd. <\/p>\n

And there is no graceful exit,
No quiet bowing out
No way to delay the inevitable
You\u2019re in the ring, no doubt.<\/p>\n

\u2018Speak now, or else forever
Forever hold your peace\u2019,
The questioner is insistent
She seeks some sort of release. <\/p>\n

When the moment of truth is upon you
And you have no time to prepare
Will you know what to say in that instant
Will you find out how much you care?<\/p>\n

Will you call on the Spirit for guidance
Will you ask that the cup might pass
Will you be alarmed by your feeling
That the moment is here at last?<\/p>\n

Will you feel like a total coward
A child without his homework
Will the force of the question flatten you
Will you turn your head with a jerk. <\/p>\n

Will you say \u2018I don\u2019t know him\u2019
Will you deny him multiple times,
Will you say \u2018I must be leaving\u2019
When recognized, turn on a dime?<\/p>\n

When all your learning fails you
And all your bravado too,
When you have no cup of courage
And you don\u2019t know what to do,<\/p>\n

Will the moment of truth unmask you
And reveal the imposter inside,
Are you really his true disciple,
Or are you just along for the ride?<\/p>\n

In the moment of truth you find out
Just exactly where you are,
Either someone whole-heartedly committed
Or someone who hasn\u2019t gone that far. <\/p>\n

Are you flirting with being his follower
Without fully embracing his grace
And when the road gets bumpy
Are you wanting out of the race?<\/p>\n

The moment of truth reveals all,
It gives you a progress report
As to whether the truth is within you
Or is it still something you court? <\/p>\n

But the moment of truth need not define you
It\u2019s not a final exam,
Even Peter\u2019s denials didn\u2019t end things,
\u201cIt need not decide who I am\u201d<\/p>\n

And when you see another failing
Fumbling, falling down,
Don\u2019t turn away in scorn,
It could be you on the ground. <\/p>\n

But for the grace of God,
We all would come up short
When the moment of truth comes calling,
Christian faith is no spectator sport. <\/p>\n

March 10, 2009<\/p>\n

BW3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It sneaks up on you unawaresWhile you are preoccupiedIt catches you quite unpreparedEnthralled as you are in your pride. Blindsided, you flinch instinctivelyWhen suddenly you are accostedYou realize in an instance \u2018it\u2019s now\u2026\u2019Or else you\u2019ve totally lost it. All those years of pure preparationAll those long times of careful thoughtHave arrived at this destinationSo why…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nTHE MOMENT OF TRUTH - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/03\/the-moment-of-truth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE MOMENT OF TRUTH - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It sneaks up on you unawaresWhile you are preoccupiedIt catches you quite unpreparedEnthralled as you are in your pride. 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}