Faith

"What is faith?"

As Christians, we often tell people that we have "faith" and that our "faith" is in Jesus Christ. But just what is this faith that we speak of? What does it mean to have "faith"?

Hebrews 11:1-3 & 6(NIV)
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

For reasons only (fully and truly) known by God, we (mankind) have been called to have faith in God.

Why am I telling you this?

To simply acknowledge that it does indeed take faith to be a follower of Jesus Christ. In previous posts, I have talked about how unshakably true the Word of God is and how the Christian faith and the Bible have withstood the fiercest scrutiny. Yet, even when the facts stack up and all things point to the Bible being true... you come to that point where you have to have faith. You've never seen God, you've never heard God, so you don't know that He is real (a lot of times as humans, we don't believe it unless we see it), but His Word tells us that He is and He asks us to have faith.

"How can I REALLY, TRULY know that God is real? If He is real, why can't I see Him? Why can't I hear Him? Why......"

John 20:24-29 (NIV)
24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." 28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Continue reading →

Hang-ups

Take a moment, clear your mind, and answer this question as honestly as you can:

What is hindering you from believing in God? What is keeping you from accepting the person of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

If you reject the Christian faith, if you reject the Bible, if you reject Jesus, let me ask you this:

Why? REALLY...... why?

Do you have a reason? If so, have you considered your reasoning? If you've been hung-up on something you don't understand about God, Jesus, the Bible or the Christian worldview, have you pursued answers to your question(s)? If you haven't, I'd encourage you to do so.

Here's one example of what I'm talking about:

Do you reject the Christian faith because "Christians are hypocrites."? If so, I'd suggest that you reconsider this reasoning. The Bible tells us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) Have you rejected Christ because people who have talked to you about Him have judged you and said or acted like they were better than you? If you've thought, "They're no better than me!", you are correct... they aren't better than you. The Bible also says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:9) They have not attained salvation by their own doing, salvation is a free gift from God that you cannot earn. They don't "deserve" to spend eternity with God in heaven, anymore than anyone else.

Jesus dealt with this very thing in the gospels. The Pharisees were confident in their knowledge of the law, and how they had kept the law. Jesus said in Luke 11, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." God is fully aware of hypocrisy and when Jesus came to earth, He definitely addressed the issue head-on.

So what? What's the point?

Say for instance you truly don't believe there is a God, but then... you die, and you find out there really IS a God. What do you have to say for yourself? Will you blame your disbelief on those pesky Christians who acted like they were better than you? (They shouldn't do that by the way, I'm not suggesting that they don't have a responsibility to act right.) What would God say in response to that if you did? I believe that He covered every possible angle. There are no loop-holes. If you read His Word, you will find that it's VERY clear:

Acts 4:12 (NIV)
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

There are no excuses... He has provided a way for mankind to find redemption. There is ONE way to God the Father, and that is through His son, Jesus Christ. And His Word (The Holy Bible), which tells us about that way... is being spread all over the world so that all may know that the payment for our sin has been paid by the blood of Jesus Christ.

God isn't asking you to accept the "truth" and actions of man... He is asking you to accept His truth and His actions. He sent His son Jesus to die for your sins and mine. Christianity is ultimately about Christ. He was born of a virgin, He was crucified, He died, and He rose again. Through Him, we have victory over sin and death.

So, what's your hang-up? What are you struggling to accept? What's keeping you from following Christ? Continue reading →

Dangerous Times

I say to you - we are living in dangerous times, not because of attacks from outside of this land, but because this land no longer knows what it believes. Until we know what we believe here, and what it is that is worth preserving, we will never know what it is that's really being attacked.
-- Ravi Zacharias

What is destroying the moral and spiritual foundation of today’s society?

Ravi Zacharias: I believe a convergence of many factors has taken place. Much of education in the 1960s came unhinged from any moral absolutes and ethical values, to wit the book Excellence Without a Soul by Harry R. Lewis. We have seen this happening the last 40 years. There have been many voices alerting us to this. But more than just a philosophy took over; a mood took over.

First, secularization generally held that religious ideas, institutions, and interpretations have lost their social significance. People liked the idea of a secular society and a secular government. But in terms of moral values and ethics, they never checked into the internal assumptions of secularization that made it wide open to almost any view on any subject. Beginning in the 1960s, the moods of secularization ultimately led to society’s loss of shame.

Next is pluralization, which sounds like a practical and worthy idea; and in many ways, it is. In pluralism you have a competing number of worldviews that are available, and no worldview is dominant. But smuggled in with pluralization was the absolutization of relativism. The only thing we could be sure of was that all moral choices were relative and there was no point of reference to right and wrong. This resulted in the death of reason.

Last is privatization, which is an accommodation to the religiously minded. If secularization and pluralization were going to hold sway, what does society do with the large number of people who are spiritually minded?

Being spiritually minded was okay as long as people kept their spiritual beliefs private and did not bring them into the public arena. The irony of this was the fact secularization — which had its assumptions on absolutes and anything of the metaphysical nature — was allowed into the public place. In fact, its very trust was to bring it into the public place. But anyone who believed in a spiritual Essence, an Ultimate Reality, and the fact there were transcendent absolutes that needed to be adhered to was told to keep those beliefs private. That ultimately paved the way for the loss of meaning.

These three moods — secularization, pluralization, and privatization — brought about loss of shame, loss of reason, and loss of meaning. How was this authoritatively pontificated in the social strain? This is when philosophy stepped in, the moralizers against morality came in, and political correctness came in. These gave society some parameters that allowed it to expel the moralizing from outside the secular realm.

As a result, everything became pragmatic. Philosophers and naturalists stepped in. In this new century, we have lost all definitions of what it means to be human, and what sexuality, life, and the home are all about. We are on the high seas, battling the storms of conflicting worldviews without a compass. Continue reading →

Worship

How do we regain or retain the integrity of worship? The risks we flirt with today in the Christian world, where worship has become an experience rather than a way of life, is a very very risky proposition. How do we keep worship holding it's theological integrity, and finding its existential relevance? If we do not understand how to retain its integrity and maintain relevance, we will lose one of the two in the process and the church either becomes irrelevant or loses truth in the process.
-- Ravi Zacharias

Secularization: Its Control and Power
by Ravi Zacharias

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• Part 1 of 2

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Trusting in a Culturally Relevant Gospel

Whether through creating trendy worship services, writing books about how Christ can be seen in current movies, or mirroring hot bands playing on MTV, Christians often try to make their faith more culturally relevant. But Os Guinness says that this desire to be fashionable is exactly why Christians are now becoming marginalized. In a lecture for the C.S. Lewis Institute in 2002, he said that the only thing that is always relevant is the Gospel.

Interview with Os Guinness at www.christianitytoday.com

I realize that this particular post doesn't quite fit in with most of my other blog posts, but I thought this was a really great article and definitely something for Christians to think about. Continue reading →

Who am I?

"The reason why the question 'Who am I?' bothers us is because it's an essential question. It asks questions about our heart, which... if we are honest - we are not happy with. And it doesn't matter what you do, it doesn't matter what patterns of thought you've mastered, and it doesn't matter what experiences you have, you can never change yourself - it's impossible. No one can change themselves, have you noticed that? It's impossible... no matter how hard you try. But if you look at any secular system of counseling or even other religious systems, they'll say, 'Look, you're not happy with who you are, but what you need to do is you need to do certain things, think certain things, have certain experiences...... you do all of that, you'll eventually become the person that God wants you to be and the person that you want to be.'

Jesus Christ did something completely different. Jesus came into this world and He offered to start where everyone else wanted to finish. Jesus said, 'If anyone comes to me, they are a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come.' Someone came to Jesus at one point and said, 'What must I do to inherit eternal life?' and Jesus said, 'You must be born again.' Literally, your very being must be taken and changed. You must be born anew a second time.

Have you ever thought about that?

The reason Jesus Christ is unique is He is offering to do something that no one else has ever even thought about."

-- Michael Ramsden, RZIM Itinerate Team Member

Who am I?
By Michael Ramsden

• Part 3 of 3
• Part 2 of 3
• Part 1 of 3

I've tried to change... numerous times in my life. I've been unhappy with who I am, how I act, how I look, and how I feel. I've tried to change who I am, how I act, how I look, and how I feel, but never with much success. Most of the time, I found that I was unsuccessful because I was doing these things with the wrong motives. Out of pride and jealousy, I've tried to lose weight. Out of shame and embarassment, I've tried to change how I act. Out of fear and frustration, I've tried to change how I feel. But, I can honestly say that the changes were never permanent. I made changes outwardly, but they never seemed to change me inwardly.

I've known Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior since I was a young child. But...... I'm just starting to realize that I can't really change without God. I tell you the truth - God is helping me change how I act, God is helping me change how I look (because I really need to lose weight, I'm a big guy), and God is helping me change how I feel. He's changing who I am, for His glory. Before I submitted to God and humbled myself and asked Him to help me change... I was trying to change for my own glory. Really, I was. I was concerned about my reputation.

Things are different now. I'm trying to trust and obey the Lord and change for Him, not for me. As Christians, we are constantly in a state of regeneration, not degeneration (as a close friend kindly reminded me of recently). That's good to know, because sometimes I get down on myself and I can't figure out why I'm not better than I am when the One who indwells me is perfect. I must remember that I am free from the bondage of sin, but I still have a sin nature. Becoming a Christian doesn't make you perfect, but it gives you a relationship with God, who is perfect.

Do you have a relationship with God? Have you been set free from the bondage of sin and death? Have you been reborn and given new life?

Romans 8:1-8(NIV)
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

Romans 10:9-13 (NIV)
9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Acts 4:12 (NIV)
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

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What is Truth?

There are a lot of articles, books, videos, etc. that make an attempt to answer the question, "What is truth?" Many of them are really good and many are really bad. There are many good ones that I could share, but I decided to settle on this one. I think it appropriately answers the question, "What is truth?"

This is the very question that Pontius Pilate asked Jesus. In the irony of the ages, he stood toe to toe with the personification of truth and yet missed its reality. Postmodern people are in much the same position. They stare at truth but fail to recognize its identity.

First, truth is an aspect of the nature of God Himself. Thus, to put on truth is to put on Christ. For Christ is "truth" (John 14:6), and Christians are to be the bearers of truth. As Os Guinness explains, Christianity is not true because it works (pragmatism); it is not true because it feels right (subjectivism); it is not true because it is "my truth" (relativism). It is true because it is anchored in the person of Christ.

Furthermore, truth is anything that corresponds to reality. As such, truth does not yield to the size and strength of the latest lobby group. Nor is truth merely a matter of preference or opinion. Rather truth is true even if everyone denies it, and a lie is a lie even if everyone affirms it.

Finally, truth is essential to a realistic worldview. When sophistry, sensationalism, and superstition sabotage truth, our view of reality is seriously skewed. The death of truth spells the death of civilization. However, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn discovered, "One word of truth outweighs the entire world."

-- Hank Hanegraaff, The Bible Answer Book

John 18:37-38
"You are king, then!' said Pilate. Jesus answered, 'You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.' 'What is truth?' Pilate asked."

I would highly recommend The Truth Project. Here is a promo video for The Truth Project:

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