On Faith

Part 1 in a series on faith.  Some lessons learned from a 3-4 year period of great darkness and deadness in my life when I didn't want to live by faith but wanted certainty in everything.  I am convinced that we go nowhere and do nothing without faith.

Faith is simple

On one level, faith appears to be a simple thing.  According the writer of Hebrews, it is confidence in the reality of something we do not see, or something that we are looking forward to.  Similarly, Mirriam-Webster’s definition includes the words “firm belief in something for which there is no proof.“ This seems plain enough.  Isn’t such faith a part of our everyday existence?  We have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow morning.  We can be fairly confident in this faith, because we’ve seen it happen thousands of times, and have been told that it’s happened thousands of more times (which we believe by faith), but it’s faith nonetheless because it hasn’t happened yet.  We also show faith when our friend agrees to meet us at a certain time and place and we show up at the agreed upon time and expect him to be there. The level of confidence that we place in our friend may be slightly less than in the sun rising because we have not witnessed the consistency of our friend’s promises as much as the sun, and besides that, we can think of several reasons that would cause him to break his promise.  In both of these situations, we place our trust in something that is not certain.  This is faith at its simplest, most fundamental level.

Faith is risky

When it comes to faith in a god or as a basis for determining our worldview, faith doesn’t always show itself to be so simple.  One reason for this is that faith is risky.  By its very nature, it carries with it an element of risk.  While the risks may not be all that apparent in small, everyday matters, they are more obvious in matters of beliefs about life.  All faith involves placing our trust in something that is not certain.  Whether we are trusting in the ability of the government to rule rightly or in the historicity of the Bible’s claims, we place our hope in something we cannot prove.  We can be confident in the object of our faith but not certain.  We always risk being wrong.  We always risk being made the fool.  When we are talking about our friend meeting us, the risks are nothing more than the time it takes to get there and feeling slightly foolish when he doesn’t show up.  However, when it comes to a worldview, the risks are much greater.  Here we are choosing to base our whole existence on faith. If we are wrong, we are living by a lie and it has eternal implications.  We also leave ourselves open to ridicule and critique by those who don’t share our faith.

How we often get it wrong...

The good news of Jesus (i.e. the gospel)...

is not...about your attempts to get to God

is...God’s fervent, persistent attempts to get to you

is not...about your good works outweighing your bad works

is...about God showing mercy for even your smallest

sin which is an all out offense against your Creator God

is not...trying harder and doing better

is...acknowledging your need and receiving mercy by faith

is not...what you can do for God

is...what God has done for you

is not...comparing yourself to the “really” bad people in order to feel better about yourself

is...comparing yourself to Jesus and knowing your are in desperate need of a Savior

is not...being confident in your own basic goodness

is...despairing of the selfishness and evil rooted even in your good deeds

is not...being good enough so that God owes you a good life now and for eternity

is...receiving mercy from God though you are fully deserving of wrath and separation from God

is not...your fulfilling God’s expectations of obedience and good living

is...Jesus fulfilling God’s expectations in your place

is not...blaming others for the problems in the world

is...realizing you’re a part of the problem

is not...about pride and despair

is...about humility and confidence

is not...about fear

is...about hope

The Risk of Faith

I wrote this song about six years ago now.  Still speaks volumes to me.  Faith is risky.  But it's worth it.  We rarely have all the answers but we have evidence.  Everybody lives by faith.  We are all taking steps of faith all the time.  We choose to believe something or not to believe something (which is simply choosing to believe something else).  We will move in one direction or another.  What evidence do you find worth the risk? 

“How We Rise”

Verse 1

There’s no arrival, but no denying

There’s something in you that is worth finding

There’s no completion, with only reason

There’s no movement, without believin'

There’s more than these two eyes are seein’

By faith it’s finished, by faith we rise

By faith is every step alive

And this is how we rise…

Verse 2

Careful in choosing, the claim that I’m making

But never moving is just as confusing

In this indecision, I’m losing direction

The world and its wonders, we all love to ponder

But safe are the borders in which we wander

We must venture onward to where we don’t know

For beyond the lines we come alive

And this is how we rise…

Chorus

So a risk I will take and I’m letting it go

My need to be right, and my fear of unknown

With a chance I’ll be wrong, and a chance that I’ll fall

I’ll collapse in your arms, cause this is how we rise…

This is how we rise…

There’s no arrival, but no denying

There’s something in you that is worth finding

Bill Maher and "Religionless"

Anlee and I recently watched Bill Maher's documentary on religion, "Religionless".  Interesting work.  If you're not familiar with it, it is an attempt by Maher to show that all religion is crazy nonsense.  He doesn't seem to be a proponent of atheism; rather, he states that the best and most humble position on the big questions of life is to simply say, "I don't know."  So I guess he's an agnostic.  While agnostics traditionally view the existence of a deity as unknown or unknowable and are comfortable with more uncertainty and unanswered questions than both theists and atheists, Maher sure seems certain that all religions are nonsense.

Maher certainly has a knack for finding the wackiest people to represent each of the religions that he looked into.  As a Christian, I rolled my eyes with most of the people or businesses that he chose to to speak for Christianity.  There were a couple of positive exceptions, namely the scientist Francis Collins.  However, it seemed pretty obvious that Maher's conversation with Collins was significantly edited to support Maher's thesis.  It's amazing how easy it is to support your case with the power of editing. 

We must admit that there are some wacky people out there and that some of them identify with Christianity or other religions.  Do we judge the validity of the religion by the silly things that some of its adherents do or say?  Do we judge the non-religious viewpoint by the equally silly things that some of its adherents do or say?  I think you find silly people wherever you are.  You might be one of them!  

I guess the other thing I feel must be admitted is that all religions include aspects, beliefs or practices that seem crazy to non-adherents.  A dominating belief today is that this universe is a completely natural entity, explainable by science, with no supernatural elements.  If this is one's assumption, of course any belief system that contains a God or miracles is going to seem a little crazy.  The big question is, is there a supernatural element to this world or not?  I think the answer is a resounding yes, but each of us have to answer this question for ourselves.

I just don't think you get something as orderly and intricate as the galaxies, as the human body, by purely natural means.  If you were to walk into your bathroom and all the toilet paper had been unrolled and each individual sheet had been folded into a little decorative swan, you would not think, "Oh, look what nature did all by itself over a long period of time."  You would obviously think someone had invaded your bathroom and played a weird trick on you.  I look at the world and I think, Somebody must have had a hand in this.  This can't just have happened.

I found this video interesting-Bill Maher led a promiscuous, cocaine dealing atheist to Christ.

Why Jesus?

Why Jesus?  What difference does Jesus make?  You can't get away from the centrality of Jesus in the Bible.  I have been studying 1 John recently and while the author discusses many subjects, he never strays from the centrality and significance of Jesus.  

He opens the letter with a prolonged appeal for the historical, physical reality of Jesus.  We have “heard...seen with our eyes...looked upon...touched with our hands."  John has eyewitness testimony that Jesus really lived and walked on the earth.  Yet John also argues that Jesus is more than just an extraordinary person: He was "from the beginning."  He is the "word of life."  He is the Christ, God's anointed one.   Jesus is God incarnate, God among us. 

What does this have to do with us?  How is Jesus relevant to our lives in the 21st century?  As I discussed in a recent post, everybody worships something.  We are worshipers by nature.  In a similar way, I believe that everybody looks to something for salvation, something to justify themselves and make them acceptable to God (even if the God they look to isn't a real god). 

The Bible is clear that salvation is found through Jesus alone.  He is the "way, the truth, and the life."  We can't get to God apart from Jesus.  This is the exclusivity of Christianity.  Christianity is both inclusive and exclusive.  It is inclusive because all are invited, all are welcome.  It is exclusive because there is one way to God and salvation-Jesus Christ.  

We look for salvation and rightness with God in many other ways: religion (what I do for God), morality ("I'm better than you so I must be good enough for God"), spirituality ("I'm in touch with the spiritual world and that's all that matters"), hedonism ("God just wants us to have a good time on earth so I must be in his will"), etc.  But God has provided one way to a right relationship with Himself.  It's not through anything we do but through what Jesus has done.  

He lived the perfect life that we should have lived.  He died the death that we deserved to die.  He rose from the dead and conquered death once for all.  He defeated all the powers of the the devil and darkness.  The life of Jesus as a historical reality makes all the difference in the world.  By faith and trust in Him we have peace with our God and Maker and freedom from guilt and shame.  

We all need salvation.  We all look for salvation in some way.  God provided Jesus to meet our greatest need and our greatest desire.  

Changing hearts

First John 1:6 says, “We are from God.  Whoever knows God listens to us.  Whoever is not from God does not listen to us.”  As Jesus is quoted as saying in the Gospel of John, “I know my own and my own know me” (10:14).  And again, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God.  The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God” (8:47).  Those who belong to God and are indwelt by His Spirit will recognize the truth.  God’s people will know God’s voice. Those who don't belong to God will not recognize the truth.  There is a seeing and hearing that require more than our physical eyes and ears.  There is more to this world than what meets the eye.



In preaching and evangelism, we need not take on the burden of making people listen.  We have the burden of preaching and presenting the gospel as best as we can, but we can’t cause those who don’t belong to God to understand it.  There are changes in people that we as humans can’t make.  Only God can cause blind eyes to see and deaf ears to hear.  We must put forth effort to lovingly preach and evangelize, praying for God to change hearts, but in the end we must trust the work that God does.  We water and plant but only God can cause the growth. 

Functional gods

Tim Keller and many others are fond of saying, "Everybody worships."  The question is not "Do you worship?" but "What or who do you worship?"  It's not only religious people who worship.  We are all worshipers by nature.  We all will give our devotion, time, money and allegiance to something or someone-money, popularity, respect, image, possessions, comfort, business, sex, family, spouse, buying things, the weekend, vacation, work, children...the list could go on.  To what do you give most of your time, thoughts and money?  What do you value the most?  What, if you lost it, would devastate you.  Not just disappoint you, but make you lose all hope in life? 

I think it's true to say, as many have said, that whatever it is that we answer those questions with exists as a functional god in our lives.  It occupies a place in our lives that God alone is meant to occupy.  Jesus said, "Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Mt. 22:37).  What do we love with everything that is inside of us.  What do we delight in and enjoy more than anything else?  It is either God or a functional god. 

I like to use the analogy of the children's game King of the Hill.  In a way, life is a continual battle to keep God on the top of the hill of our lives.  Many other things are constantly vying for the throne of our lives and devotion; we are constantly allowing God to be pushed off the throne and giving our affection to other things.  But God alone deserves to be the King.  We were made to worship Him alone and will find our greatest joy in worshiping him alone. 

We all have our functional gods that seek to push God off his rightful throne.  The good news is that Jesus died for idol worshipers like you and I.  He died to free us from our self-imposed slavery to our idols and draw us to himself.   He died to free us from our devotion to things that lead to death (even good things that become ultimate things) and call us into devotion to the one thing that leads to life-Himself.  It's God's mercy, patience and kindness that lead us to repent of our idol worship and turn to Jesus as Lord (most valued) and Savior (most needed).

For further reading on this subject, see Tim Keller's book "Counterfeit Gods."

Come and see vs. go and tell

As I've stated recently, I summarize God’s mission like this: “God is on a mission to rescue people from sin, darkness and death and to bring them into his love and eternal life!”  Certainly there is a lot more to it than that: the glory of God as the ultimate reason for the mission, the centrality of Jesus and the cross to the mission, the sin and brokenness that necessitate the mission, the love of God that empowers the mission, etc.  But this one sentence helps me to grasp and communicate the essence of what God is up to in the world in a concise and relatable way.  

God is up to something, something so big that He became one of us, lived among us, and then died and rose for us.  In one sense, God’s work was finished in Jesus life, death and resurrection.  In another sense, the work still continues.  God has chosen to use the church as his instrument to accomplish his mission. 

We pick up on the nature of God’s mission throughout scripture.  Perhaps it is most clearly seen in Jesus’ Great Commission.  After his resurrection, Jesus left his disciples with the command to go and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:19-20).  This responsibility to make disciples of Jesus is the main thrust of the mission that God has called the church into existence to accomplish.  

We also catch a glimpse of this mission in 2 Corinthians 5.  Paul says, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (20).  Paul presents God as one reaching out to the world, making an appeal for reconciliation.  God is on a mission.  Yet God’s chosen means of reaching out to the world is, in the immediate context, Paul and the early church leaders, and by implication, the church down through the ages.  

Yet from my experience and observation, this mission of God to the world, through the church, has not been emphasized by many churches.  It seems that many churches have been content to reach the unchurched through attraction rather than through intentional mission.  Ed Stetzer writes, “For years Christians in North America had the luxury of depending on attractive churches and programs to be their proxy evangelist to our culture.  It is ‘bricks and mortar’ evangelism” (Transformational Church, 206).  In other words, many churches have focused much attention on those that come through their doors and little attention on those that don’t.  

Yet the place of the church in American society is shifting and is causing many to reevaluate their strategy for reaching the unchurched.  The cultural influence that the American church once held is lessening.  In light of this, Stetzer speaks of the need for churches to transition from a "come and see evangelist church to a post-Christendom go and tell missionary church” (206).  I believe that this renewed focus on the outward mission of the church is extremely important and is bringing some much needed correction and balance to our understanding of the church's role in society.  Our mission is less about getting people to come to our services and programs as it is looking for opportunities to become a part of their life and world that they might see the kingdom of God in action.

Cultural Christianity

I recently had a class with Ed Stetzer.  It was awesome!  One of the things Ed has been writing about is the rise of the "nones" (article in USA Today). When polls are taken that ask people to identify their religion, more and more people are marking the "none" box.  While many take this to mean that the number of Christians in America is declining, Stetzer points out that there is more to it than that.

What is actually happening is that cultural Christianity is declining.  Christianity's cultural prominence is lessening.  Those who used to claim Christianity because it was culturally acceptable, even culturally beneficial, are no longer doing so.  It's not that true, committed Christians are in decline; it's that nominal Christians who used to claim Christianity for it's cultural benefits are no longer doing so.

While many Christians hear the news that Christianity is losing its cultural and political force in this country and bemoan the situation, I think this is actually a positive thing in many ways.  Let me explain.  As the number of those for whom Christianity means nothing yet still claim the name decreases, it will become increasingly clear what a true follower of Jesus looks like.  The confusion caused by "name only" Christians whose lives go unchanged will decrease: either they will be convicted of their hypocrisy and give their lives fully to Jesus or they will, as the surveys are discovering, stop identifying themselves as Christians. 

We are called to be the light of the world.  As the blurry lines between those who belong to Jesus and those who don't become more clear, the light will shine brighter.  As nominal and cultural Christianity wanes, authentic Christianity can only become healthier and stronger as a result.