Confidence in the midst of doubts

I found a great statement in my reading for school this week.  It is by Anselm (a really old guy), and he is explaining his faith to a new Christian.  Anselm (through the character of his disciple) makes this statement:

“I come not for this purpose, to have you remove doubts from my faith, but to have you show me the reason for my confidence [in the Gospel].”

We often think that we must lay our/others’ doubts to rest before there can be belief in the Gospel, however faith is different than having all of our questions answered.  Faith is stepping forward – based on what we do know – and trust that God will/ has taken care of the rest.  It is normal for us to have doubts even after we are a Christian, and we need to make sure that we help our non-Christian friends understand that their doubts are ok as well!

If we knew all of the answers, faith in Christ would be the most logical decision in the universe.  As it is, we act on what we know, what the Spirit has revealed in our hearts, and we call it faith!

Thanks for reading!

Mickey

66 books… 1 story

The picture above is a visualization by Chris Harrison and Christoph Romhild.  The picture can be seen in much better detail on their website, and you can read about how it was developed there as well. The following is their explanation of the visualization:

The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc – the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.

This visualization demonstrates the connected nature of all of scripture, and it shows how the whole Bible is one interrelated story of God’s faithfulness: God continually brings sinful man back to himself through his son, Jesus Christ.

The picture fits nicely on the background of a laptop, and it is a great intro for sharing the Gospel when people comment on the strange looking graphic on your computer!

Thanks for reading!

Mickey

No better Gospel

A good friend has used a reference to the following quote by Spurgeon to bring me great reassurance lately, and CJ Mahaney challenged many with a similar quote at T4G08. The excerpt is from a Spurgeon sermon on Ephesians 2.8:

I am led to remember this by the fact that a somewhat singular circumstance, recorded in my memory, connects this text with myself and my grandfather. It is now long years ago. I was announced to preach in a certain country town in the Eastern Counties. It does not often happen to me to be behind time, for I feel that punctuality is one of those little virtues which may prevent great sins. But we have no control over railway delays, and breakdowns; and so it happened that I reached the appointed place considerably behind the time. Like sensible people, they had begun their worship, and had proceeded as far as the sermon. As I neared the chapel, I perceived that someone was in the pulpit preaching, and who should the preacher be but my dear and venerable grandfather! He saw me as I came in at the front door and made my way up the aisle, and at once he said, “Here comes my grandson! He may preach the gospel better than I can, but he cannot preach a better gospel; can you, Charles?”

This last statement is encouraging to preachers, but is should also be challenging to every Christian as well as we share the Gospel in our daily lives. Sure, Billy Graham, Luis Palau, or our local pastor might could do a more effective job of sharing the good news than we can, but no one can preach a Gospel that is more true or more effective! God puts us in our place in the world for a reason, and we must trust His plan.

The Gospel that we proclaim is the same as what Peter declared at the Temple and that Paul taught in Athens. We point to the same Jesus, and we are empowered by the same Holy Spirit.

We can always improve our presentation, but let’s be careful to never let doubt of our ability to share the Gospel seep over and spoil our faith in the power of the Gospel that we proclaim!

Critical Question

Much of life is made up of seeking answers to our questions. Some questions we must find answers for, while other questions are not answerable, and much of life is defined by how we respond to the unanswerables. I hope to look into this some more soon, however right now I would like to pose the single most important question ever asked of man: who is Jesus?

It sometimes seems that there are as many answers to this question as there are people, but there is only one right answer, and it matters. Jesus himself confronted his disciples with this question in Matthew 16:

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? 14 And they said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. 15 He said to them, But who do you say that I am?

And what is the answer?

16 Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

How do we know that this is true?

17 And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Now I ask every reader of these words, both now and in the future – who do you say Jesus is? Do you agree with Simon Peter, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? If not, why not? I encourage you to check this out, and study the Gospels (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament) for Jesus’ self revelation to you. Read, read, and re-read the Gospels!

If we answer every question correctly but not this one, all is lost. But if we get Christ right – and accept in Him as Lord – God will take care of the rest.

What do we offer?

The following is Charles Spurgeon’s description of his search, at the age of 15, to remove the burden of his sins that he had committed against God:

After going to Newmarket he attended services at first one church and then another, hoping he might hear something that would help remove his burden. “One man preached Divine sovereignty,” he says, “but what was that sublime truth to a poor sinner who wished to know what he must do to be saved. There was another admirable man who always preached about the law, but what was the use of ploughing up ground that needed to be sown. Another was a practical preacher… but it was very much like a commanding officer teaching the manouvers of war to a set of men without feet… what I wanted to know was ‘How can I get my sins forgiven’ and they never told me that.”

-from The Early Years by Iaian Murray (1962) as quoted in Spurgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore (1985)

Although Spurgeon was already acquainted with the Gospel at this point (both his father and grandfather were pastors) he struggled with belief and faith in Christ, and later claimed, “I could not get hold of it.” Spurgeon knew that he had a problem, and he was searching for a solution. This would be similar to the man who knows that he has cancer and travels to many doctors until he finds the oncologist who can lead him to the right treatment, or the alcoholic who searches for the right treatment program to free him from his addiction.

Many around us are searching, and we need to consider what kind of hope we normally provide to those who come to us for answers. Their situation is usually different from Spurgeon’s – they are like the sick man who does not know that he has cancer, or the alcoholic husband who blames his problems on his wife – they do not see that their sin against God is the problem. Therefore we are often required to acknowledge and confront sin, but we should never stop there.

• Condemnation of sin is a consequence, not an answer, although it does lead to the solution.
• Trust in God sounds like a nice answer, but without Christ God is not accessible to us.
• A positive attitude and pragmatic solutions might work as a quick fix, but they just treat the symptoms.

Let us confront where we need to confront, and comfort where we should comfort. But in every situation, let us not consider that our work is done until we share the Gospel. This can be done in different ways and even gradually, however we must ensure that the message is clear and that the whole truth is presented.

At the end of the age, I pray that I will not hear the following from any earthly acquaintance, be it friend or enemy:

“I appreciate your conversation, your humor, your appreciation of sports, your empathy towards my suffering, your meeting my earthly needs, but what I wanted to know was ‘How can I get my sins forgiven’ and you never told me that.”