Dispossessed

Intresting Quote from a Skeptic

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 3:22 PM

I stumbled across this quote on a Google search gone bad.

Ah, I love this bit. NOG, you just brought up what believers everywhere love to bring up, the shady supreme being who might have started it all. Since it is impossible (as you point out) to completely reject this idea then of course the bible and everything therein must be completely true and Jesus died for our sins. Am I the only one who notices the rather big gap between the possibility of a supreme being who put the universe in motion and that same being speaking to one dude in one small tribe, on one tiny planet in one ittsy bittsy solarsystem in one insignificant galaxy about how the supreme being wanted this tribe to live their exceedingly short lives and said race would exist for the tiniest moment of the history of the universe (same with our planet and our solar system, compared to the grand scheme the possible supreme being has devised the existance of oru solarsystem is less than what a millisecond would be for us). Is this what believers mean with a leap of faith? Geez, that is one huge leap. - joacqin

The beauty of faith is that IT IS ONE BIG LEAP. The beauty of the faith lifestyle, is that leap changes everything. I do not get mediocrity in relationship with God. The skeptic answers the question of total commitment to the Christ follower. As I have stated many times before, I don't like apologetics. I instead think we should invest in radically living out the lifestyle of Jesus in the world. Only when our reality is radically altered by the "faith" we claim, will the validity of that claim make any sense to outsiders, and more to the point, even to ourselves.

This is well illustrated by the modern apologists C.S. Lewis own admission in Mere Christianity.

We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away? - C.S. Lewis

Our Lifestyle must be vitally altered by our primary allegiance to this chasmic vault otherwise the claim of faith is merely a passing fancy in intellectual puffery. The constant reminder of our faith story is our participation in self sacrifice and righteousness. These habits are the fruit of holiness, and only they will stand as reasonable proof to this faith.

Labels: Apologetics, Faith, Skeptics

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My Hope Is In Christ's Kingdom

Wednesday, August 15, 2007 8:25 AM

My grandfather told me when I was a young man that everything can be taken from you except your hope. I was a young man and had no understanding of his words at all, yet I have treasured them in my heart all these many years since his passing into glory. It has been 19 years since and I am a "man" now with a wife, a family, a job, and a great hope. Yet, I have not suffered. Still after all these years my understanding of his wisdom is only academic. I empathize with those who have only their hope yet I have never walked in their moccasins.

I think suffering is an advantage, because it aligns your hope. I was reading 1 Corinthians 13. I was reading it because I LONG to LOVE the way Jesus loved. I got to verse 13 and God revealed a beautiful "rhema" to my heart.

1 Corinthians 13:13

But now we still have faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

My experience in life has been insular with "Christian" people. As I have known them, most all of them have had their faith in Christ. Their forward looking truth has been in the promise of salvation. The faith leads them to a righteousness that is modeled in Christ, the apostles, and the heroes of faith. However their faith, is as far as their walk with Christ ever goes. I have struggled to love like Christ, because I have placed only my faith in him.

My hope, and the hopes of those I have known, are not placed in Christ. My hope is placed in my wife, my family, and my job. I hope to have a happy marriage. I hope to have children who are obedient responsible members of society. I hope to be making $150K a year. My hope, or "my treasures" as Christ also calls them, are stored up here on earth.

God spoke to me in that verse and opened my eyes to the fact that I could not achieve the "greatest of these" so long as my hope was still placed in carnal accomplishments. I could not embrace the power of agape love so long as I was the center of my treasure. As I have been busy building my kingdom, I have been unable to become like the King of the eternal kingdom.

As I begin this process of moving my HOPE to Christ. I begin to understand 3 very important truths.

1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for (Heb 11:1)- My faith takes on new dimensions with each day that I move more hope to His Kingdom rather than my kingdom.
2. There is Nowhere to Go, since only Christ has the words of life (John 6:68)- The comings and goings of this life make more sense when I hold on to the only direction that bears life.
3. Abundant Life is a good thing (John 10:10) - The saints of the persecution and the heroes of awesome faith like George Muller and Mother Theresa are marked by their embrace of abundant life. Their hope being placed in Christ's kingdom allowed them to understand that physical peace and economic comfort were mere shadows of the Abundance that was promised.

My grandfather was right. No matter what mankind takes, when our HOPE is in the KINGDOM OF GOD, when we understand that he is making all things NEW! That is the kind of HOPE I want to have!