Tag Archives: Religion and Spirituality

What Is Faith?

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What is Faith?

What is faith? One dictionary definition describes it as a belief in something not proven. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith in some ways reminds me of gravity. We know it exists, we know it keeps us anchored to the earth, yet we can’t see it or feel it. We know much about it, much has been written on the subject, and yet we don’t fully comprehend it. Faith and trust are what hold our relationship with God together in much the same way that gravity holds matter together. As gravity is to the physical world, so faith is to the spiritual world.

It would be a very foolish thing indeed, if we tried to live our lives as if gravity did not exist. Along the same lines, it is equally foolish to live our lives without faith. As we have learned to experience gravity in the physical world by seeing things fall, experiencing weight and weightlessness, we can learn to navigate in the world of the spirit by faith. But how do we learn about the way faith operates in our lives? First of all we can examine scripture and see the many wonderful examples of faith and how it impacted God’s people. We can examine our own lives for times when we acted upon faith and God acted in response. Conversely, we can see examples of times in which we lacked faith and the results of this. Like gravity, faith needs to be so deeply ingrained into our sprits that we operate in the world without even giving it much conscious thought. It is just always there. Unseen, but ever present, impacting all that we do in our daily lives. Amen

The Self Created God

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The Self Created God

Sometimes Christians appear strange to the rest of the world. We are from a different world, in a way. We think outside the cultural box, typically. We are called to be this way. God calls us “a peculiar people for His own possession”. This means that He shapes us in a way that makes us suitable and pleasing to Him. However, this may preclude us from being pleasing to others to some extent. Thus we may find ourselves a bit rejected at times.

In seeking to truly follow Christ, we may have the effect of making those around us uncomfortable. This is because we challenge beliefs that others perhaps hold dear. The problem often occurs when those who follow the true Gospel and the God of this Gospel, encounter others who are following a “self created god”. Believe it or not, you can even find this in churches among those who consider themselves believers! A “self created god” may look a lot like the real thing. But if you look or listen carefully you will note several significant differences. Self created gods are often one dimensional. They may be all about love, but absent of justice. They accept everyone and everything and condemn nothing. There is much talk of heaven but no acknowledgement of hell. In short, self created gods look and sound a lot look the culture we live in! When confronted with the true version of a biblical God those who cling to a self created god often become angry and reject the real thing. And in so doing, they crucify Christ once more.

The True God of the Gospel is not a benign entity. He is a God of power, might, judgement, justice, mercy and yes, of course, love. He is a God who longs for a relationship with us, but desires that we allow ourselves to be conformed to His will. He has expectations of us. There is both a call, and a response required. He is Abba Father. As such he both loves and disciplines his children as any good father would. A self created god is typically absent of one or more of these features. To acknowledge and follow the True God we encounter in the Gospel may put us into conflict with those around us, even within our own church. But to deny Him is far worse. So when you find yourself feeling rejected in seeking to truly follow Christ remember this: Jesus said that as the world treated Him, so they would treat His followers. Should we expect anything different?

Tuning the Radio Frequency

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German Heliogen brand radio showing "bask...

German Heliogen brand radio showing “basket-weave” coil, 1935 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tuning the Radio Frequency.

The true nature of prayer seems to me to be a difficult thing for many people to grasp. As I have contemplated why this is the following illustration comes to mind.

Prayer is a lot like trying to find a clear frequency on our car radio. If we turn the radio on and we hear nothing distinct or just a bunch of static, we don’t give up and just turn it off. No- instead we typically search for a station we wish to hear by turing the dial or pressing the seek button. We work with it until something becomes clear and discernible. We work with the radio dials until we find the music we are looking for.

In the same way we should approach prayer. The problem for most people is that they are so distracted with the day’s events or the messages in their head that they simply can’t hear past the static. After running through their laundry list of needs, they simply quit speaking, never bothering to quite “tune in”. Thus they miss the presence of God.

Practicing ” the presence of God” is an art that allows us to be tuned into the eternal at all times. It allows us to always be set at the correct frequency, and to always experience crystal clear reception. When from time to time, life interferes and we lose “the God Station”, we become immediately aware and know to begin retuning.

The difficulty lies in learning how to recognize ” the God Station”. Until we learn to recognize the sound of that which comes over those airwaves we will remain perpetually out of tune. Much of what is wrong in our world is that people don’t realize they are out of tune. They don’t seek the right channel. They don’t recognize ” the God Station” and in fact, are tuned into some other really lousy stations instead. Learning how to tune into the presence of God through prayer, scripture study, worship, is essential to learning to recognize His voice amongst a myriad of other forms of noise and static on our radio dials. So the next time prayer seems to be not working for you remember to adjust your tuner. Search the dials. Wait and listen. Practice the art of listening as well as speaking. Learn to sit in His presence. Be still and know. After awhile, you may just find that you are tuned in quite clearly to ” the God Station”. Amen.

Wise Investment

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Gold Bar and Investment Jewelry

Gold Bar and Investment Jewelry (Photo credit: epSos.de)

Wise Investments

We know from experience that we must be careful in how we invest our money. There are people who are unwise in such things and will gladly spend our money for their foolish endeavors and come back again and again asking for more.

We know when it comes to our time and energy that here we have an even more precious investment. Whereas money can be replaced, a lost hour, a moment of opportunity, those years spent in a trivial pursuit; these things cannot be regained. Time, once squandered, is simply gone.

So then, when it comes to the time we spend with people we must also be wise. Unfortunately, there are some who have no desire to truly grow in Christ. Many who attend church, seek office or position in the church, or call on the phone with a need consume vast amounts of precious time and resources, but in fact have no intention of seeking to grown in Christ.

Herein we must seek discernment that we invest our time wisely with those who are really seeking Him. God knows whose heart is a fertile field, whose is a rocky field, and whose is a hard beaten path. God alone knows whose life is so full of weeds that nothing of His can grow. With so little of ourselves to invest in others let us be wise and discerning in the use of our time. At first glance this seems a harsh position. Shouldn’t we in the ministry be seeking to help everyone all the time?

The life of Christ is a good example of how to spend time wisely. If you look at the New Testament, you will find that the vast majority of Jesus’ time was spent with the twelve disciples. Yes, he also taught the masses and attempted to teach the Pharisees as well, but most of his three year ministry was spent teaching and developing those whom He had called. These men were where He invested His time. He did not waste time on those who did not hear His voice nor answer His call. This self same strategy would serve us well today. Our focus should be on the building and empowering or true disciples instead of watering down a message designed to appeal to the masses. Christ was uncompromising in his message which is exactly what lead to his crucifixion. This is clearly a difficult stance to take today, but it is, I believe, the correct one. We should be seeking to please Him not men. We should spend our time as He did. We should develop disciples as He did. After all, His ways are perfection! Why do we think we know better?