Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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It is not blind faith

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God's Undertaker

In response to the idea that religious faith is blind faith, I ran across this paragraph from John Lennox and thought I would share it with you.

“Unfortunately the two ideas – that all religious faith is blind faith and that science does not involve faith – are so deeply ingrained in the New Atheist’s psyche and thus so widely disseminated int heir writings that we need to emphasize strongly that they are wrong. John Haught writes: ‘At some point in the validation of every truth claim or hypothesis, a leap of faith is an inescapable ingredient. At the foundation of every human search for understanding and truth, including the scientific search, an ineradicable element of trust is present. If you find yourself doubting what I have just said, it is only because, at this very moment, you trust your own mind enough to express concern about my assertion. You cannot avoid trusting your intellectual capacity, even when you are in doubt. Moreover you raise your critical questions only because you believe that truth is worth seeking. Faith in this sense, and not in the sense of wild imaginings and wishful thinking, lies at the root of all authentic religion – and science. Haught rightly concludes that this ‘shows clearly that the new atheistic attempts to cleanse human consciousness of faith are absurd and doomed to failure.”

John Lennox in God’s Undertaker

We do not believe in spite of facts to the contrary; ours is not a blind faith. We believe in response to the evidence that is presented to us. Those who do not choose this interpretation see the facts differently. I cannot force anyone to see things the way I see them. The fact that they see it differently does not cause me to think less of them as individuals.

But on the other hand, I would hope that everyone would experience the grace that is found in Jesus Christ.

Why are you amazed?

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Amazed“Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” – Acts 3:12

I can read about miracles in the Bible and not be amazed. The flannel graph presentations of my youth have made the stories so familiar that too often I do not connect with how radical the events actually were. This healing should amaze me but its familiarity masks how marvelous it really is.

But how would I respond if I actually witnessed a miracle of this nature?

In Acts 3, Peter and John passed by a lame man who frequented the gate to the Temple. Rather than giving the man some money, they grabbed him by the hand and commanded him to get up and walk. Not only did he walk, the formerly lame man was jumping around and praising God for the miracle.

Yes, the people who saw this were amazed. Which is exactly how I would be under the same circumstances.

Peter then asks them the question quoted at the beginning of this post, “why are you amazed at this?” The people who witnessed the miracle were coming to the Temple, the place where the miracle working God of Israel’s history was to be worshiped. They should have come to that God with the expectation that he would intervene on behalf of his people.

The people had low expectations as to what God was willing to do on their behalf.

Perhaps I am speaking only for myself, but it seems that those of us who grew up in the church have low expectations as to what God is willing to do for us. Do I pray as if I expect the miracle to take place? Am I banging on the doors of Heaven in anticipation of my petition being heard and a response enacted?

The notion that God’s response to my prayers is in proportion to the faith in which I offer them is dangerous and goes against Biblical teaching. I am certainly not saying that my expectation of being answered is the currency that buys a correct response from God. God is not a vending machine that gives me what I want if I put in the right amount of money. The amount and quality of my faith has nothing to do with it. My expectation of an answered prayer is not something that I can muster up. I don’t need to exercise my “faith muscles.”

What I am saying is that my prayers are tepid because I am not allowing myself to connect with how awesome and powerful God really is.

I need to remind myself that God does want to work in history, this is the major lesson from the incarnation. God does want to bring healing (emotional and physical). God does want to draw people to himself. God does want to bring me through the difficulties of life with my faith intact. I should not be amazed when I see him doing the very things for which I pray.

Then when God acts, I should be grateful but not amazed.

It’s not about do’s and don’ts

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“Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22, NASB)

do's and don'tsThe negative command is to flee youthful lusts, but Paul goes on to give a positive one. Youthful lusts are to be replaced by the pursuit of righteousness, faith, love and peace.  The negative command cannot be successfully accomplished unless the positive one is employed.

Too often we think of the Christian life in terms of the things we will not do. When this mindset is operational it is easy to become upset at the world all around us who is doing those very things. It is too easy to decry the degradation in the surrounding culture and long for the good old days where such behavior was not tolerated.

Instead of focusing on the negative, Paul gives us something to pursue. Rather than suppressing passions, Paul gives a worthy object for our passions.

Righteousness

When I see the word righteousness, I think of right standing before God. The beginning of this process is when we acknowledge our unrighteousness and accept God’s provision of Jesus as the means of our inheriting righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). At the moment we accept God’s provision, we are declared righteous.

There is also an ongoing component to righteousness. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 that we have to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Elsewhere, Paul uses the analogy of clothing when he tells us to “put off” the old self (Eph. 4:22, Col. 2:11, Col 3:9). The follow-up is to put on the new man and live in obedience to God.

It took a long time for me to understand that this is more than adherence to a list of do’s and don’ts. To really pursue righteousness is to cultivate a deeper relationship with God through the reading of Scripture, prayer and fellowship with other believers. As I deepen in my relationship with God, it becomes less and less about external behavior and more and more about what motivates me and where my desires will lead. Righteousness is all about letting God be in control.

Faith

Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we enter into a relationship with God through faith. Yet that faith can and should grow. On multiple occasions, Jesus challenged his followers because of their “little faith.” The implication is that Jesus’ follower should move beyond the little faith stage to a robust, mature faith.

I am challenged by those who seem to be gifted with great faith. Seeing those, I realize that I have so much room to grow in my own faith.

Love

Jesus told us that the two great commands are to love God and to love our neighbor. I cannot claim to be proficient at either of these and have much room for growth. I suspect that none of us can claim to have fulfilled either command to perfection. To pursue love, selfless love, is a worthy occupation.

Peace

In human terms we think of peace as the absence of conflict. Yet this is not true peace.  As Jesus points out in the Sermon on the Mount, hate is the root of murder and to hate is to commit murder without actually killing my adversary.

True peace is not only what happens on the outside. True peace must take place in our thoughts and emotions. Paul gives us indication of how true peace starts in Romans 5:1, it starts with “having been justified by faith.” This faith brings peace with God which can then begin to produce peace with ourselves and with others.

Conclusion

The Christian life should be so much more than following a list of do’s and don’ts. It should be so much more than a set of passionless rituals. A real walk with God should engage our mind and emotions in a pursuit of the things of God.

Psyched out by the hills and what to do about it

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Bike HillWhen riding my bike I am often psyched out by hills. To my shame, I must admit that I sometimes change my route because of them. When I am not the one choosing the route, I will be thinking of the hill (if I know about it) long before I get to it. The hill has me primed for defeat long before it is time to climb it.

Now, as I ride less often than I used to, I have the excuse that I am not in shape for the hills, but I struggled with the thought of hills even when in good condition. My problem is mental before it is physical.

In considering this, I find that the same is true in my spiritual life. I am often psyched out at the thought of sharing my faith or letting people know the good news of Jesus Christ. I can get overwhelmed at the idea of not being able to handle objections, questions or hostility.

In response to the question of hills on the bicycle, there are two things I can do to overcome this fear. The first is to work on conditioning so that the physical aspect is not the problem. The second thing is to take the hills as they come and not get psyched out before getting to the hill.

In the same way, there are also two things I can do in response to the fear of sharing my faith. The first is to study so that I can present a reasonable explanation of what I believe (2 Timothy 2:15). The second is to take the objections and questions as they come knowing that I don’t have to have all the answers. In Luke 12:11-12 Jesus promises that when his followers are brought before rulers and authorities, the Holy Spirit will bring guidance about what to say. Since we are commanded to make disciples (Matthew 28:19) and the only way to make disciples is to share our faith, the promise must hold true whenever we are seeking to represent Jesus to those who need him.

So, I need to borrow from a Nike slogan for both hills and sharing, “just do it.”

What do you think?

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