Okay, in the last post I deliberately kept things short and sweet, but I'll probably be back to my old ways this time around. I have some more thoughts about the significance of this Easter season that have recently struck me, and this time - as usual - I'll use my own words to express them.
I thought this morning about those people who will be working today, not those who basically had to, but those who really didn't need to but did so anyway. I wondered if any of them will take even a moment to wonder about the significance of this day, Good Friday. Is it to them some vague holiday like Victoria Day in Canada where no more than a handful of people actually know why it's a holiday? Will they even think about why some spiritual guy named Jesus died on a cross so long ago?
If they're anything like I used to be, I doubt it. They're probably thinking about this as nothing more than a great chance to make some holiday overtime pay. But I so wish that they - and any non-believer just enjoying a 'holiday' - could realize that this Jesus guy they've heard about had each and every one of them individually in mind when he held his tongue in the face of his accusers. I wish they could understand that Jesus voluntarily gave himself as a sacrifice for our well-being, and that his crucifixion was not some unexpected and tragic end to a promising young spiritual movement.
Jesus was born to die, he was born to pay the penalty of our offenses (sins) against God so that those who accept this gift of Jesus would not have to pay that penalty themselves after their earthly, bodily death. This has been God's plan since even before our ancestors Adam and Eve destroyed mankind's relationship with God long ago and introduced sin into our world.
Jesus as the one and only Son of the one and only God chose to give up his exalted position for a period of 33 years by living as one of us. He chose to be born in poor, filthy conditions to everyday people instead of people of power and prestige. He chose to live a humble existence in full dependence upon his Father who remained in Heaven, humbling himself to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).
But why would he die for us? Who are we that he would die for us? How could he known those of us who weren't even born at the time? Suffice it to say that the Bible mentions how God knew each of us before the foundation of time, and that he numbered the hairs on each of our heads. It also mentions in various parts of the New Testament Gospel letters how Jesus and God the Father are one in essence and nature, so therefore what God knows, Jesus knows.
Each and every one of us is so infinitely precious and important to him that sadly only a tiny portion of humanity - only those who've accepted the gift of salvation that Jesus offers, i.e. Christians - will ever have some idea of this before they meet God face-to-face in order to give an account of their lives to him on the appointed day.
God is independent of time. He existed before it was even created, and thus time does not control him like it controls his creation. Thus he, being all-knowing and in all control of everything, knew about the very second and the very circumstances of everything to do with when each and every one of us would be born. He knew whether he was going to give us to rich or poor parents, loving or abusive parents, or to biological or foster or adoptive parents, and whether we would be born in a time of peace or a time of war. And he did each of these things not because he was showing favoritism to some or being cruel to others, but for his own good purposes (not necessarily ours!) that we will only fully understand once we all - believer and non - meet him face-to-face - the great inevitability of human existence.
Some of you might have shaken your fist at God about your lot in life ever since you were old enough to do so. You curse the day you were born and how a God of "love" could have been so cruel as to let you suffer so much - let alone be born - in the first place.
Yet I have heard more than a few stories of people - and met some - who suffered unspeakable horrors, sometimes for decades on end, but eventually realized the hand of God's protection and provision and comfort during those times. They decided to no longer shake the fist, realizing that they would have been even worse off if he hadn't been with them during those times!
They realized those times were not so much for building character as for them to realize their desperate need of God in their lives. So they opened their hearts to allow God to work in their lives, which inevitably lead them to a knowledge of what Jesus' life, death, and resurrection were really all about. Then they learned about how accepting Jesus into their lives was going to set them free spiritually in this life and beyond even though they might remain in bondage in the here and now: physical, financial, abusive, etc.
And these things are what God wants you to realize at this special time of year, this Easter season. He wants you to realize that your life and circumstances are not a mistake, but that they are meant to show your weaknesses in order that you allow him to make you strong. He wants you to realize that in your own strength you will eventually break or fail, if not on this side of eternity then on the Day of Judgment when you have to explain your life to this Creator of yours that you spent so much time and energy trying to avoid and/or deny down on Earth.
Will you finally accept that the whole plan of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in order for you to be set free was done with you in mind? That this plan wasn't reserved for those who show up in church on most Sundays, or give to a church, or belong to a denomination or religion, or live good, moral lives? That this plan wasn't reserved for those who seem as though they have it all together or all figured out? This plan was intended for those who realize they need the forgiveness and healing that only God through Jesus Christ alone - and no other person or religious system or amount of money - can offer (read Luke 5:30-32).
This is not only the message of this Easter season, but it's been the message of the Gospel for over two-thousand years, the good news about Jesus Christ and what he has done for you already and what he will do for you if you would simply ask for his forgiveness and then let him into your life.
Showing posts with label forgiveness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forgiveness. Show all posts
Friday, April 2, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
The gullible ones
(This post is not intended to make fun of or insult non-believers; it has not been written in a sarcastic tone. Rather, some observations will be made about how they view believers in God in order to set the stage for my main points later on. So if you're a non-believer, please note this and maintain an open mind as you read this post.)
Non-believers make some pretty interesting assumptions about believers in God, one of them being that only gullible people would put their faith in some unseen entity and give it a title like "God". It's as though a non-believer making such an assumption thinks that some Bible-thumping preacher did some 'ooga booga' sort of brain-washing speech that caused people to believe in and follow God like blind, mindless robots. They assume the believer left their brain at the door and are now under the control not of an infinite Creator, but rather a figment of their imagination that allows those preaching the message of this God to exploit believers for the sake of mind control and financial gain. (Lest non-believers think that they are not under such exploitation themselves from non-spiritual interests, I'll tactfully discuss the blindness of non-believers later on.)
What I also find interesting is how non-believers will never sincerely ask just how such people came to believe in God for fear that the message they hear might cause them to get "sucked in" themselves. To avoid this possibility, they instead stand at arm's length and make assumptions about this God and those who are his followers. Unfortunately, their assumptions are made with an air - even an arrogance - of authority, as though they could possibly know more about God than those who actually follow and claim to have an intimate personal relationship with him. This is no more outlandish than someone assuming that a complete stranger to you and your friend knows more about your friend than you do. And what's worse is how the masses of non-believers will buy into these assumptions rather than, as mentioned above, objectively asking the believer about what brought them to faith.
In other words, non-believers accuse believers of gullibility, but aren't they ultimately the more gullible? They are basing their beliefs about God upon false information borne out of a lack of experience and relationship with him. They haven't walked both sides of the "spiritual fence", so to speak, like a believer has, yet they talk as though they know what being a believer is all about, as though they've 'been there and done that', spiritually speaking.
I have also noticed how nearly everything a non-believer mentions about a believer is negative. Countless believers throughout history have given testimony of the power of God to heal broken lives, bodies, and relationships - in many cases baffling the intellectual powers of their day (read the book of Romans, chapter 1, in particular verse 22) - and yet the non-believers have constantly tried to find human or tangible explanations for these miracles. The idea of an unseen entity, mysterious and more powerful than them, is scary because they cannot explain or control it, so they do their best to try to discredit it. Because God can't fit into their "box" of understanding, in their minds he therefore must and should not be for real. They want control because they think being under the control of the one who created them is somehow a bad thing.
They also only see man's religious attempts to please God, the "he loves me, he loves me not" sort who think they're believers, and blind themselves (or are blinded?) to those who enjoy the non-religious relationship of grace through Jesus Christ that God originally intended for everyone, the one which only becomes real to those who want and accept this relationship (these are the true, "saved" believers who have put their faith in Jesus Christ). Therefore, in the eyes of non-believers, nothing good can come out of believing in God despite testimonies of true believers that indicate otherwise because all they see (rather, want to see) is the pious, holier-than-thou, religious attempts at living up to a system of man-made do's-and-don'ts and the hypocrisy of failure when they don't live up to it.
(If you're a non-believer and anything I've written so far is offensive or questionable to you because you've assumed I've just pulled these thoughts out of mid-air, don't take it personally. I haven't invented these notions of how non-believers view believers in God; I've simply tried to state the mindset I had while I was a non-believer for the first 22 years of my life. Your mindset may differ from my old one on a few specific points, but overall your view of God and his followers is probably not much different, but I digress ...)
If I've seemed surprised at how non-believers make assumptions and accusations about believers and seem to be blinded to the truth of who God really is, I'm actually not. It doesn't surprise me in the least because I was once a blinded assumer and accuser myself. I was deceived into thinking that I was under nobody's control - man's or otherwise - when in reality I was under the total and absolute control of the enemy of God who wants nothing more than for all humans to believe that he and God do not exist.
This enemy, who goes by the name of Satan or the title of "Devil", does everything possible to keep full control over us without us even knowing it. Why would he want such control? Because he wants to drag us along with him into the eternal punishment and torment that he knows he has earned through his rebellion toward God. Why does he not want non-believers to know that he exists and controls them? Because he wants them to live under the illusion that they are in control. Then they won't resist when he leads them around like puppets on a string, distracting them and leading them ever further from the message of Jesus. For if they hear this message and put their faith in Jesus, they will have found the one and only means by which they can forever escape Satan's control and find eternal life rather than endure eternal punishment and torment. (Read about Satan's ultimate demise in the book of Revelation, chapter 20.)
If a non-believer ever gets the nerve to question me about my level of intelligence and/or degree of integrity, and/or accuses me of gullibility because I believe in God - in particular Jesus - I hope I will have the ability to calmly and rationally ask them if they've ever been fully a non-believer AND a believer like I have. I have the right and the authority to state what I claim to know about God/Jesus because unlike the vast majority of humanity, I've lived fully immersed for several years on both sides of the "spiritual fence". Any non-believer simply does NOT have any such authority because they cannot speak objectively about what it means to be a believer - they simply haven't walked a mile in my shoes or those of any other believer, so their arguments frankly lack any and all credibility.
Non-believers can make all the assumptions they want about me, but they can never change or take away the account of how I lived when I hated and rejected the notion of God, how this God chose to make himself known to me and begin to change my heart, how I eventually accepted this loving God and his free, no-strings-attached offer of forgiveness and eternal life, and how my life has been all the better ever since. In other words, non-believers are unfortunately the gullible ones - not believers - and I say unfortunately because their non-belief has them headed straight to a horrific eternity unless they choose, only while still on this side of eternity, to accept the free gift of salvation and the resulting eternal life offered only through faith in Jesus Christ.
Non-believers make some pretty interesting assumptions about believers in God, one of them being that only gullible people would put their faith in some unseen entity and give it a title like "God". It's as though a non-believer making such an assumption thinks that some Bible-thumping preacher did some 'ooga booga' sort of brain-washing speech that caused people to believe in and follow God like blind, mindless robots. They assume the believer left their brain at the door and are now under the control not of an infinite Creator, but rather a figment of their imagination that allows those preaching the message of this God to exploit believers for the sake of mind control and financial gain. (Lest non-believers think that they are not under such exploitation themselves from non-spiritual interests, I'll tactfully discuss the blindness of non-believers later on.)
What I also find interesting is how non-believers will never sincerely ask just how such people came to believe in God for fear that the message they hear might cause them to get "sucked in" themselves. To avoid this possibility, they instead stand at arm's length and make assumptions about this God and those who are his followers. Unfortunately, their assumptions are made with an air - even an arrogance - of authority, as though they could possibly know more about God than those who actually follow and claim to have an intimate personal relationship with him. This is no more outlandish than someone assuming that a complete stranger to you and your friend knows more about your friend than you do. And what's worse is how the masses of non-believers will buy into these assumptions rather than, as mentioned above, objectively asking the believer about what brought them to faith.
In other words, non-believers accuse believers of gullibility, but aren't they ultimately the more gullible? They are basing their beliefs about God upon false information borne out of a lack of experience and relationship with him. They haven't walked both sides of the "spiritual fence", so to speak, like a believer has, yet they talk as though they know what being a believer is all about, as though they've 'been there and done that', spiritually speaking.
I have also noticed how nearly everything a non-believer mentions about a believer is negative. Countless believers throughout history have given testimony of the power of God to heal broken lives, bodies, and relationships - in many cases baffling the intellectual powers of their day (read the book of Romans, chapter 1, in particular verse 22) - and yet the non-believers have constantly tried to find human or tangible explanations for these miracles. The idea of an unseen entity, mysterious and more powerful than them, is scary because they cannot explain or control it, so they do their best to try to discredit it. Because God can't fit into their "box" of understanding, in their minds he therefore must and should not be for real. They want control because they think being under the control of the one who created them is somehow a bad thing.
They also only see man's religious attempts to please God, the "he loves me, he loves me not" sort who think they're believers, and blind themselves (or are blinded?) to those who enjoy the non-religious relationship of grace through Jesus Christ that God originally intended for everyone, the one which only becomes real to those who want and accept this relationship (these are the true, "saved" believers who have put their faith in Jesus Christ). Therefore, in the eyes of non-believers, nothing good can come out of believing in God despite testimonies of true believers that indicate otherwise because all they see (rather, want to see) is the pious, holier-than-thou, religious attempts at living up to a system of man-made do's-and-don'ts and the hypocrisy of failure when they don't live up to it.
(If you're a non-believer and anything I've written so far is offensive or questionable to you because you've assumed I've just pulled these thoughts out of mid-air, don't take it personally. I haven't invented these notions of how non-believers view believers in God; I've simply tried to state the mindset I had while I was a non-believer for the first 22 years of my life. Your mindset may differ from my old one on a few specific points, but overall your view of God and his followers is probably not much different, but I digress ...)
If I've seemed surprised at how non-believers make assumptions and accusations about believers and seem to be blinded to the truth of who God really is, I'm actually not. It doesn't surprise me in the least because I was once a blinded assumer and accuser myself. I was deceived into thinking that I was under nobody's control - man's or otherwise - when in reality I was under the total and absolute control of the enemy of God who wants nothing more than for all humans to believe that he and God do not exist.
This enemy, who goes by the name of Satan or the title of "Devil", does everything possible to keep full control over us without us even knowing it. Why would he want such control? Because he wants to drag us along with him into the eternal punishment and torment that he knows he has earned through his rebellion toward God. Why does he not want non-believers to know that he exists and controls them? Because he wants them to live under the illusion that they are in control. Then they won't resist when he leads them around like puppets on a string, distracting them and leading them ever further from the message of Jesus. For if they hear this message and put their faith in Jesus, they will have found the one and only means by which they can forever escape Satan's control and find eternal life rather than endure eternal punishment and torment. (Read about Satan's ultimate demise in the book of Revelation, chapter 20.)
Even though Satan tries to keep people from knowing about and believing in Jesus, people unfamiliar with the Bible might be surprised to realize that even Satan and his demonic agents know about and believe in the existence, power, and true identity of Jesus. Here is one such account:
"In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice, "Leave us alone! What do You have to do with us, Jesus - Nazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are - the Holy One of God!"" (Luke 4:34)Jesus also had a lot to say about Satan's control over unbelievers while he was here on earth. Here is just one passage:
"Why don't you understand what I [Jesus] say? Because you cannot listen to my word. You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He ... has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars. Yet because I [Jesus] tell the truth, you do not believe me ... If I tell the truth, why don't you believe me? [Because] The one who is from God listens to God's words. This is why you [non-believers] don't listen, because you are not from God." (John 8:43-47)In other words, the Father of the believer in Jesus Christ is none other than God himself, whereas the father of all non-believers - and non-Christians - is none other than the Devil himself. So again, non-believers don't understand believers nor do they really want to understand because they are under the controlling lies of Satan - according to this and other Bible passages - who wants them to remain blind to the truth of God, a truth that if accepted means forgiveness and eternal life from God that Satan once had but no longer has. Satan is like Adolf Hitler at the end of the Second World War, who wanted to drag everyone else down with him instead of signing a peace treaty because he knew his end was near. He wants as many gullible non-believers as possible to share in the eternal suffering that he knows is awaiting him.
If a non-believer ever gets the nerve to question me about my level of intelligence and/or degree of integrity, and/or accuses me of gullibility because I believe in God - in particular Jesus - I hope I will have the ability to calmly and rationally ask them if they've ever been fully a non-believer AND a believer like I have. I have the right and the authority to state what I claim to know about God/Jesus because unlike the vast majority of humanity, I've lived fully immersed for several years on both sides of the "spiritual fence". Any non-believer simply does NOT have any such authority because they cannot speak objectively about what it means to be a believer - they simply haven't walked a mile in my shoes or those of any other believer, so their arguments frankly lack any and all credibility.
Non-believers can make all the assumptions they want about me, but they can never change or take away the account of how I lived when I hated and rejected the notion of God, how this God chose to make himself known to me and begin to change my heart, how I eventually accepted this loving God and his free, no-strings-attached offer of forgiveness and eternal life, and how my life has been all the better ever since. In other words, non-believers are unfortunately the gullible ones - not believers - and I say unfortunately because their non-belief has them headed straight to a horrific eternity unless they choose, only while still on this side of eternity, to accept the free gift of salvation and the resulting eternal life offered only through faith in Jesus Christ.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Belief versus trust, Part I
God has been really challenging me the past few months. In particular, He is continually speaking to my heart about the need to trust Him. (As an aside, He only ever spoke audibly to those He entrusted with the writing of the Scriptures that make up the Bible. Since that time, He has "spoken" to believers through other means, like a person or a situation. Christians often refer to getting a revelation from God as Him having "spoken to my heart".)
One thing He has made me notice a lot more in order for me to realize this need is reminders of all those times that I haven't trusted Him, all those times where I've become worried and even scared about how certain things in my life will work out. I've learned that whenever I become this way, it is a sure sign that I actually don't trust God to work my situation out.
He has also made me realize that this lack of trust is a plague amongst Christians in the western world and not just a problem unique to me. I've realized just how much I get caught up in the mindset that I'm supposed to be the provider of my family, how I'm supposed to work out problems at home and on the job. But whenever we're facing a difficult financial or home or work situation, the Bible emphasizes over and over and over and over again how we need to just stop, take a breather, and ask God for His wisdom and insight in that situation. We need to trust Him to be our ultimate provider and for Him to provide us with the answers to our problems.
Far too often, Christians don't stop or back away long enough - or even at all - to find out if the idea they have to handle a situation is even the right one, "right" meaning what God would have them do. For a while a few years back, it was a Christian fad to wear the "WWJD" bracelet, which acted as a reminder for a Christian in a difficult situation to stop, take a breather, and ask what Jesus would do in that situation. (The wiser instruction would have been to ask Jesus what to do, not try to imagine what He would do, which implies figuring it out ourselves instead of relying upon Him.)
Anyhow, my point is that like this fad, it seems that the body of Christ - i.e. those who claim to believe in Jesus, or Christians - particularly in the western world, has gotten back into the same habit that has served to make us as indistinguishable from non-believers as we've been all too often throughout history: we've gotten back to the mindset where we believe in Jesus for our salvation, that He has saved us from having to pay the penalty of our sins so that we can spend eternity with Him in heaven, but yet don't trust Him (i.e. God) with our lives while here on earth.
Some Christians might argue with me on this point, that if you have belief then trust is just a natural outgrowth. But both are an act of the will. We must choose to believe that God exists and that His claims in the Bible are for real, and then we must choose to trust God with the situations in our lives. This trust doesn't 'just happen' no more than belief 'just happens'.
To put this another way, whenever a non-believer reaches the point of realizing that unless they "get right" with God by being forgiven of all they've thought, said, and done to offend Him (our "sins"), then they will be punished for our sins for an eternity, often they're encouraged by a Christian to "pray a prayer" of forgiveness in order to be "saved", or to attain "salvation". Often, in that prayer, the person is asked by the Christian who is helping them to pray if they're willing to make Jesus their "Lord and Savior".
My point is that Christians seem to have no problem with making Jesus their Savior (trusting Him for their salvation), but they struggle immensely throughout the rest of their earthly lives with trusting Him to be their Lord - to put Him in charge of their lives so that He can show them how to get through the day-to-day, moment-to-moment situations that they face.
So why is this? Why are Christians so willing to trust Jesus for their "hell insurance" yet so stubbornly defiant or oblivious about trusting Him with finances, relationships, temptation struggles, etc? Here are the top reasons:
As soon as I encounter a home or work situation that stumps me, I throw up a little prayer (when I remember to do so!) and ask God to show me the way through it. If it's a situation that doesn't have a deadline, I back away and wait for Him to give me the answer or to work out the situation Himself.
In part II of this topic, I'll give some specific examples of how trusting God in different situations instead of my own ideas and so-called "wisdom" worked out for the better.
One thing He has made me notice a lot more in order for me to realize this need is reminders of all those times that I haven't trusted Him, all those times where I've become worried and even scared about how certain things in my life will work out. I've learned that whenever I become this way, it is a sure sign that I actually don't trust God to work my situation out.
He has also made me realize that this lack of trust is a plague amongst Christians in the western world and not just a problem unique to me. I've realized just how much I get caught up in the mindset that I'm supposed to be the provider of my family, how I'm supposed to work out problems at home and on the job. But whenever we're facing a difficult financial or home or work situation, the Bible emphasizes over and over and over and over again how we need to just stop, take a breather, and ask God for His wisdom and insight in that situation. We need to trust Him to be our ultimate provider and for Him to provide us with the answers to our problems.
Far too often, Christians don't stop or back away long enough - or even at all - to find out if the idea they have to handle a situation is even the right one, "right" meaning what God would have them do. For a while a few years back, it was a Christian fad to wear the "WWJD" bracelet, which acted as a reminder for a Christian in a difficult situation to stop, take a breather, and ask what Jesus would do in that situation. (The wiser instruction would have been to ask Jesus what to do, not try to imagine what He would do, which implies figuring it out ourselves instead of relying upon Him.)
Anyhow, my point is that like this fad, it seems that the body of Christ - i.e. those who claim to believe in Jesus, or Christians - particularly in the western world, has gotten back into the same habit that has served to make us as indistinguishable from non-believers as we've been all too often throughout history: we've gotten back to the mindset where we believe in Jesus for our salvation, that He has saved us from having to pay the penalty of our sins so that we can spend eternity with Him in heaven, but yet don't trust Him (i.e. God) with our lives while here on earth.
Some Christians might argue with me on this point, that if you have belief then trust is just a natural outgrowth. But both are an act of the will. We must choose to believe that God exists and that His claims in the Bible are for real, and then we must choose to trust God with the situations in our lives. This trust doesn't 'just happen' no more than belief 'just happens'.
To put this another way, whenever a non-believer reaches the point of realizing that unless they "get right" with God by being forgiven of all they've thought, said, and done to offend Him (our "sins"), then they will be punished for our sins for an eternity, often they're encouraged by a Christian to "pray a prayer" of forgiveness in order to be "saved", or to attain "salvation". Often, in that prayer, the person is asked by the Christian who is helping them to pray if they're willing to make Jesus their "Lord and Savior".
My point is that Christians seem to have no problem with making Jesus their Savior (trusting Him for their salvation), but they struggle immensely throughout the rest of their earthly lives with trusting Him to be their Lord - to put Him in charge of their lives so that He can show them how to get through the day-to-day, moment-to-moment situations that they face.
So why is this? Why are Christians so willing to trust Jesus for their "hell insurance" yet so stubbornly defiant or oblivious about trusting Him with finances, relationships, temptation struggles, etc? Here are the top reasons:
- Old habits die hard - Especially if one is saved at a later age, the programming that s/he has received about being self-sufficient from the time of their birth is extremely difficult to change. It doesn't happen overnight, and only results from daily asking God to show them how to rely upon God instead of upon themselves any longer.
- We're afraid of what others might think - If a non-Christian friend gives you advice about money or relationships, it's often true that the Bible's advice will be to do the opposite. Until one is grounded in their faith (which is the direct result of one's time spent reading the Bible, praying, and hanging out with other grounded Christians), it's very difficult to go against the grain. Christians in this day in age unfortunately worry far too much about what other people think than to obey what God wants them to do.
- We think we know better - I've heard far too many stories about Christians who are convinced that God has spoken to them about doing this or that, then they do the opposite because God's way seems too illogical, uncomfortable, inconvenient, or will supposedly take too long. So off they go, marrying the first person who comes along instead of waiting for God's best, or buying that home too soon or buying a far bigger home than what is needed, or extending themselves financially far beyond what they earn, etc. What's even worse is when the Christian then gets mad at God when the foolishness of their plan blows up in their face.
- We don't spend time getting to know God - And with lack of knowledge comes lack of understanding about how He thinks and operates. The greatest reason for the slow death that the western Christian church is dying right now is that we are too caught up with living life the way non-Christians do that we don't have time to spend with God, which occurs through reading the Bible, praying, and spending time with other Christians. The devil has us right where he wants us - too busy chasing that bigger/newer/more cool _____, or spending our time and money on leisurely, self-centered pursuits instead of getting to know God. And because we don't know and understand Him, we're unable to explain the Gospel - the "good news" about Jesus - in a way that's attractive and compelling to the non-believer. The non-believer is told that they need to "go to church", for example, rather than how they could experience a mind-blowing personal relationship with their Creator and the Creator of the entire universe who will provide them with a life and an eternity beyond anything they could ever imagine.
As soon as I encounter a home or work situation that stumps me, I throw up a little prayer (when I remember to do so!) and ask God to show me the way through it. If it's a situation that doesn't have a deadline, I back away and wait for Him to give me the answer or to work out the situation Himself.
In part II of this topic, I'll give some specific examples of how trusting God in different situations instead of my own ideas and so-called "wisdom" worked out for the better.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Why don't people believe? Part I
There are many reasons why people don't believe in God, specifically in Jesus (who claimed to be the Son of God and the only mediator between man and God, or the only "way" for us to come to God).
One huge reason why people don't believe in God (or Jesus) is addressed by Jesus Himself while answering the inquiries of a man named Nicodemus, one of the top religious leaders of His day who came secretly to visit Jesus one night:
Before I wanted anything to do with God, I completely ignored anything to do with God. This is because I knew that if God did exist, then I for sure was doing things He didn't like and I didn't want to face His wrath and judgment. So I thought that ignoring God was the best way to deal with this. If there was a heaven and hell, I reasoned, I would try to explain to Him at the "Pearly Gates" all the good things I did while alive so that He might cut me some slack and let me live a peaceful eternity up there in heaven.
I didn't realize at the time that only the forgiveness of Jesus would get me there, not my pathetic attempts at being good! I also didn't realize that only perfection gets one into heaven, and that Jesus becomes our perfection for us - our representative before God - only once we ask Jesus to forgive us for all the things we've done to displease God (our "sins").
Besides not wanting to face God and be accountable to Him for what I did, I enjoyed the things I was doing: the pornography, the relationships with different women, swearing in ways that would make a trucker look like a saint, getting drunk, and so on. If I allowed God into my life, I reasoned, then I wouldn't be able to do any of these things and life wouldn't be "fun" any more. I even went so far as to assume that believing in God (which I wrongly equated to "being religious") would mean becoming and hanging-out with Ned Flanders-types around a campfire and singing Kumbuyah.
Basically, at that point in my life, I was fulfilling scripture, I was confirming and validating the words of the Bible. I loved darkness rather than the light because my deeds were evil. They weren't evil in terms of modern human standards, but they were evil in the eyes of a perfect God! I hated what God had to offer me through Jesus and therefore avoided it because I didn't want the things I did to have to be dealt with and changed. Only now can I look back on this mindset and realize how closed-minded and naive I was, forming stereotypes and assuming things about God that were not true.
But a funny thing happened while I was trying to avoid God and live life my way. I started reading some self-help books because I knew there were things wrong with my life, but I didn't know how else to go about changing them. I was unhappy and unsatisfied, and there was something missing that I couldn't find in all my pursuits because the pleasure was always so short-lived and empty feeling. There was no long-lasting peace or joy that came out of these things. So I decided that these books had the answer, and I started reading classics like "How to Win Friends and Influence People" because, for example, I thought more friends and success would give me the peace and joy I was missing.
As I got into more books, I remember one time reading one that mentioned the word "God" on the second page of the book. I was so enraged that this author was trying to bring God into the mix when all I wanted to learn about was success and wealth that I returned the book! If you've read this blog or just this post so far and think that I've always been a believer, I can assure you that few who have ever lived were more violently opposed to anyone trying to tell me about God than I was!
Anyhow, as I delved deeper into my self-help journey, I came to realize (with much resentment at first) that all success principles have their origin in the Bible. I was surprised by this because I thought the Bible was only about God's wrath and judgement, but here I was being exposed to a loving God that actually wants the best for us and wants us reconciled to Him so that we can have an eternal relationship with Him and not apart from Him in the "other place".
Over time, I began to open myself up more to God and what the Bible had to say. I began to think deeply about my assumptions about the origins of life, for example, and while looking at my hand and it's intricate musculo-skeletal motions began to wonder how something so complex and precise could have possibly arisen from blind, random evolutionary processes apart from a creative force like that of God. I thought about the human creative design poured into things like a watch or a camera, things far less complicated than the human hand, and realized that it was foolish to assume that the hand was not created by something far more powerful than the human mind.
But the kicker for me was the realization that I had to stop always assuming that the Bible was wrong or only half-true and instead realize that perhaps I was wrong. I did not want to take the chance of assuming that hell wasn’t real only to end up there someday. If I did, it would be a mistake that I would have to live with for an eternity with no way out. I did not want the Bible to prove me wrong after it was too late.
So what really happened after I finally broke down and decided to come to God through Jesus and ask to be forgiven for all the things that I had done to displease Him (my "sins")? Did my life suddenly fall apart as God said "Aha!!" and began to punish me for all the sexual immorality and drunkenness I had committed? Did I get the sudden urge to give away all of my possessions and move to the tropical rain-forest and preach the Gospel to a cannibalistic tribe while living a life of celibacy and self-denial?
Actually, much the opposite happened. I felt a sense of release and forgiveness and peace unlike anything I had ever experienced. I sensed a great love from God, not a feeling of guilt and condemnation. Whenever I went back to those habits that had caused those temporary feelings of happiness before, I instead felt a great sense of meaninglessness and emptiness and I would actually get depressed. But whenever I would pray or flip open the Bible - which actually made sense to me now that God's spirit (the Holy Spirit) was living inside of me, teaching me how to interpret the Bible - that sense of forgiveness and peace and love would return.
The neatest part to this story, however, is how God eventually replaced my old habits with new ones that give me far more satisfaction and happiness! I no longer feel the urge to engage in any of the sexual sins (marital sex is not a sin, by the way!) or the drunkenness that I used to want so much.
So this was a much longer version than I had anticipated about explaining why people don't believe, because I also wanted to explain what wonderful good can happen when a person decides to get over the objection or stumbling block to their disbelief. In other posts, I will discuss other major reasons why people don't believe in God.
One huge reason why people don't believe in God (or Jesus) is addressed by Jesus Himself while answering the inquiries of a man named Nicodemus, one of the top religious leaders of His day who came secretly to visit Jesus one night:
"Anyone who believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God [Jesus].When I first came upon this passage in the New Testament of the Bible, in the book of John chapter 3, versus 18-20 (John 3: 18-20) after I had decided to become a believer in Jesus Christ, it explained to me the main hang-up that I had had with God before I came to believe.
This, then, is the judgment: the light [good news, or "gospel" of Jesus] has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed."
Before I wanted anything to do with God, I completely ignored anything to do with God. This is because I knew that if God did exist, then I for sure was doing things He didn't like and I didn't want to face His wrath and judgment. So I thought that ignoring God was the best way to deal with this. If there was a heaven and hell, I reasoned, I would try to explain to Him at the "Pearly Gates" all the good things I did while alive so that He might cut me some slack and let me live a peaceful eternity up there in heaven.
I didn't realize at the time that only the forgiveness of Jesus would get me there, not my pathetic attempts at being good! I also didn't realize that only perfection gets one into heaven, and that Jesus becomes our perfection for us - our representative before God - only once we ask Jesus to forgive us for all the things we've done to displease God (our "sins").
Besides not wanting to face God and be accountable to Him for what I did, I enjoyed the things I was doing: the pornography, the relationships with different women, swearing in ways that would make a trucker look like a saint, getting drunk, and so on. If I allowed God into my life, I reasoned, then I wouldn't be able to do any of these things and life wouldn't be "fun" any more. I even went so far as to assume that believing in God (which I wrongly equated to "being religious") would mean becoming and hanging-out with Ned Flanders-types around a campfire and singing Kumbuyah.
Basically, at that point in my life, I was fulfilling scripture, I was confirming and validating the words of the Bible. I loved darkness rather than the light because my deeds were evil. They weren't evil in terms of modern human standards, but they were evil in the eyes of a perfect God! I hated what God had to offer me through Jesus and therefore avoided it because I didn't want the things I did to have to be dealt with and changed. Only now can I look back on this mindset and realize how closed-minded and naive I was, forming stereotypes and assuming things about God that were not true.
But a funny thing happened while I was trying to avoid God and live life my way. I started reading some self-help books because I knew there were things wrong with my life, but I didn't know how else to go about changing them. I was unhappy and unsatisfied, and there was something missing that I couldn't find in all my pursuits because the pleasure was always so short-lived and empty feeling. There was no long-lasting peace or joy that came out of these things. So I decided that these books had the answer, and I started reading classics like "How to Win Friends and Influence People" because, for example, I thought more friends and success would give me the peace and joy I was missing.
As I got into more books, I remember one time reading one that mentioned the word "God" on the second page of the book. I was so enraged that this author was trying to bring God into the mix when all I wanted to learn about was success and wealth that I returned the book! If you've read this blog or just this post so far and think that I've always been a believer, I can assure you that few who have ever lived were more violently opposed to anyone trying to tell me about God than I was!
Anyhow, as I delved deeper into my self-help journey, I came to realize (with much resentment at first) that all success principles have their origin in the Bible. I was surprised by this because I thought the Bible was only about God's wrath and judgement, but here I was being exposed to a loving God that actually wants the best for us and wants us reconciled to Him so that we can have an eternal relationship with Him and not apart from Him in the "other place".
Over time, I began to open myself up more to God and what the Bible had to say. I began to think deeply about my assumptions about the origins of life, for example, and while looking at my hand and it's intricate musculo-skeletal motions began to wonder how something so complex and precise could have possibly arisen from blind, random evolutionary processes apart from a creative force like that of God. I thought about the human creative design poured into things like a watch or a camera, things far less complicated than the human hand, and realized that it was foolish to assume that the hand was not created by something far more powerful than the human mind.
But the kicker for me was the realization that I had to stop always assuming that the Bible was wrong or only half-true and instead realize that perhaps I was wrong. I did not want to take the chance of assuming that hell wasn’t real only to end up there someday. If I did, it would be a mistake that I would have to live with for an eternity with no way out. I did not want the Bible to prove me wrong after it was too late.
So what really happened after I finally broke down and decided to come to God through Jesus and ask to be forgiven for all the things that I had done to displease Him (my "sins")? Did my life suddenly fall apart as God said "Aha!!" and began to punish me for all the sexual immorality and drunkenness I had committed? Did I get the sudden urge to give away all of my possessions and move to the tropical rain-forest and preach the Gospel to a cannibalistic tribe while living a life of celibacy and self-denial?
Actually, much the opposite happened. I felt a sense of release and forgiveness and peace unlike anything I had ever experienced. I sensed a great love from God, not a feeling of guilt and condemnation. Whenever I went back to those habits that had caused those temporary feelings of happiness before, I instead felt a great sense of meaninglessness and emptiness and I would actually get depressed. But whenever I would pray or flip open the Bible - which actually made sense to me now that God's spirit (the Holy Spirit) was living inside of me, teaching me how to interpret the Bible - that sense of forgiveness and peace and love would return.
The neatest part to this story, however, is how God eventually replaced my old habits with new ones that give me far more satisfaction and happiness! I no longer feel the urge to engage in any of the sexual sins (marital sex is not a sin, by the way!) or the drunkenness that I used to want so much.
So this was a much longer version than I had anticipated about explaining why people don't believe, because I also wanted to explain what wonderful good can happen when a person decides to get over the objection or stumbling block to their disbelief. In other posts, I will discuss other major reasons why people don't believe in God.
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