The word "faith" can mean many things. We can have faith in things - for example, that our favorite team will win it all this year. We can have faith in people - believing that the politician we voted for will make good on his promises. We can even have faith in ourselves - "I think I can do it this time."
This week’s comment is a quote from the book "Why Jesus Matters" by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz:
" Although we may consider these to be tangible beliefs, we really have no control over the objects of such faith. The star player on our favorite team could get injured, ruining the chances for a championship. Our elected representative may do the opposite of what he or she promised. And something may happen that prevents us from accomplishing a set goal.
Many people think that faith in God is similar. You can have faith in God, but ultimately you have no control over the outcome, and in the end, there's no way of knowing whether or not everything you believe about God is true. Worse, you really aren't absolutely sure that God is going to be there at the end of your life. So you start to wonder: Maybe all of the God and Jesus stuff is an illusion, invented by someone who wanted to make everyone feel better.
This kind of faith in God is sometimes referred to as "blind faith." The perception is that it's faith for the simpleminded, who have nothing else to carry them through life. It's faith based not on reason and truth, but on wishful thinking. It's faith that has no business in the life of someone who truly wants to know God.
Our faith in a sports team, a person, or even ourselves might be blind, but there's no reason why our faith in God has to be that way. In fact, as R.C. Sproul says, faith in God is the antidote to blindness, not the cause of it. faith in God is not a weak emotion placed in some unseen and unreal "force," but a strong a dynamic confidence built on the reality of God, who is everything He says He is.
And how can we know God this way? We can know Him confidently through Jesus. When His followers asked Jesus the way to God, Jesus replied, "From now on you know Him and have seen Him!" This statement shocked the disciples, who were always taught that no one can see God. How could this flesh-and-blood person called Jesus, despite His spectacular miracles and extravagant claims, be God in human form? It was a mystery to them, just as it is a mystery to us today.
Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh, God in human form. It's not easy to wrap your mind around this astounding concept. If the first-century followers of Christ, who were around Him every day, had trouble believing it, where does that leave us, two thousand years removed from being able to see Jesus in person? What are we to believe? That's where faith comes in, but not blind faith in myths and legends. There is evidence in the form of reliable documents, eyewitnesses, and historical events, which make it possible to have a faith based on reason. All it takes is a willingness to open your heart to the reality of God as seen in the person of Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus matters to you and everyone else who has ever lived.
Of course, you don't have to have every one of your questions answered before you come to faith. You just have to say, as the philosopher William Lane Craig observed: "The weight of the evidence seems to show this is true, so even though I don't have answers to all my questions, I'm going to believe - and then hope for answers in the long run." Maybe that's what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote:
"What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see."
Ultimately your faith is only as strong as the "object" of your faith. Is your faith placed in temporal, tangible things, or is it rooted in the eternal and the intangible? The choice is yours. "
By George Konig
October 15, 2006
www.georgekonig.org
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