So part one of this two part blog was about me and part of my story... my life, and as we say in the church... my testimony. This part I hope to explain the logic behind my choice. I know that a lot of people see faith in a God you can't see as being illogical, but I believe differently. I will do my best not to use scripture early on in this post to back up my beliefs, but scripture will be a part of this as I get deeper into my explanation.
First I guess I should restate what I just said. I think belief in God is logical. Now I am a logical person. I look for reason, and look to understand why. If it isn't logical I have no part of it... I want no part of it. Now I know some who read this may say, "What’s so logical about God... about believing in a God you can't see?" I guess I would respond at first by asking what's so logical about thinking there is no God. Wouldn't that leave so many more unanswered questions like one that always got me... what are we doing here? To me, when you try to take God out of the equation you are left with a void of logic... a void of reason.
I guess that's why people who don't believe in God try to come up with so many ways to try to remove God from the story, from the equation, and from our belief system. They will tell you it's all just a fairy tale and that they are too smart to believe in fairy tales. They will tell you that only "unintelligent and weak" people believe in that "stuff." I can say for one that if you come to my church you will find the exact opposite of that. There are no "dummies" or "weaklings" in my church. To be honest, anyone who actually believes that those of us who believe in God are dumb and weak, show a real lack of intelligence on their part. All you need to do is a little research to find the long list of achievers... of brilliant men and women today and days gone by... that have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, to know that a statement like that is unequivocally untrue. But yet it still remains that people of faith are deemed foolish for having a faith in a God they never see.
I would like to try to challenge that idea.
I guess for me I can't open my eyes without seeing a creation. Sorry, but I refuse to believe this is all just one giant accident. I refuse to believe that a string of completely unguided events and random mutations have brought us to this point. To me that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. When I see children, especially my nephews... and when I see an outrageously beautiful sunrise or sunset... or when I see the mountains covered in winter's snow... I see beauty, and I see purpose, and I see the handiwork of God. To me that's what makes sense... it is logical to see the hand of a Creator behind all that I see, hear, smell, and touch. I can't possibly see nothingness, purposelessness, and one giant accident. Where is the reason in that line of thinking? Where is the logic?
I know that the argument goes a little something like this;
A Christian would say, " It is not possible for something to come from nothing."
An atheist would say, " Ok, so where did God come from?"
Good question... and one I don't have an answer to. But that really isn't something I need an answer to. What I need to do is accept that all that we see came from somewhere. That all I see has a reason behind it, a purpose behind it, and a maker behind it. When my eyes are opened to that truth, then seeking the God who made it all comes naturally. All I know is that what I have seen and experienced throughout my life point me in a certain direction.
Romans 1:19-20(NKJV)
19 "because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,.."
This passage if scripture is one that I did not know about before I started out my life of faith, but when I read it for the first time... it made absolute sense. All we really need to do is just sit back and take a look... eyes wide open... to see that the world we live in is no accident. It points to God... the Creator... and shows how awesome He is.
Psalm 19:1 (NIV)
"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
After seeing just how true the verse from Romans 1 is, this Psalm becomes clear. To me this makes complete sense... it is logical to believe what it says. The odd thing it that my eyes were blind to the glory of God and to the beauty of His creation until after I placed my faith in Him. I think for many men, finding beauty is not easy. Seeing beauty anywhere but in the beauty of a woman is difficult for men. Since I am not a woman I really can't speak for them, even though I would think from experience, women have an easier time spotting beauty and appreciating it. Even so, I would have to guess that while beauty can be appreciated it may still not point to the glory of God... because it is taken for granted. I think we fail to see the purpose of it... the reason for it... which is to declare God's glory. That is until we have our eyes opened.
When I first really came to faith... my eyes were opened to the awe of God, and to all that He has made. I never had any appreciation for a sunrise or sunset, or for the colors of the tress in fall, or for the snowcapped mountains in winter... until I gave in to God. He opened my eyes, and now I can clearly see.
The bible tells us that we are spiritually blind, even more so that we are spiritually dead due to sin. But it also says that after you place your faith in Jesus Christ you are born again, and are no longer spiritually blind. That is what happened to me. Now I guess we get into the realm of the illogical for someone who doesn't believe, and all I have is my word and the word of the many Christians who have experienced the same thing. The question is what will you do about it?
I am about to get a little off track and go back a bit into my own experience... so heads up.
For me, I did a lot of searching. Like I said in the first part of this blog I had questions... lots of questions. I needed to know why, how, and I needed to find reason and purpose. I had, as almost everybody probably has, heard of all the other religions out there. Even though I was raised Catholic, I was free to search them all for the answers I sought after. But there was one that just couldn't be solved outside of Christianity, and that was, what about sin? How do I deal with the problem of sin? Most of, if not all religions acknowledge sin. I know that many try to say that there's no such thing as sin... but if not, why is it so widely recognized? All religions apart from Christianity come up short in trying to deal with this problem that plagues us all.
To break it down quickly, Buddha had no way to deal with sin but just believed you can transcend above it. The Hindu's believe sin is an illusion. Islam teaches that you can do good works to overcome your sin... which is appealing to many. There are even some sects of Christianity that tell you that you can earn your way to heaven. But how?
By doing good works?
How many good works will be required?
How many sins do I need to atone for?
I guess the biggest problem we face with this line of thinking is if we even recognize what sin is. Who determined what sin is? And if someone did determine what sin is, how can I know?
If lies are sins, imagine the multitude of good works you would need to do just to atone for those sins. That doesn't take into consideration all of the other sins we commit on a daily basis. The good thing is that we do have a guideline for sin. We have a guideline for knowing what sin is. The bad thing is that it is even worse than we thought. In the 10 Commandments we are told not to murder, and not to commit adultery. Yet as Jesus spoke on the mountain He went even further than the original commandment. Jesus said that if you hate someone without cause you are guilty of sin. Why? Because most murders are committed out of hate.
Hate is a slippery slope. Jesus would go on to say as in regard to the commandment about adultery that if we even lust after someone we are not married to, we are in sin. Now understand that lust is not looking at someone and admiring their beauty. Lust is when that one look turns into 2, 3 and 4, and now your mind is occupied with fantasies about that person, and you start to imagine ways about having an affair with that person. That is lust, and Jesus says it is equivalent to adultery. So now imagine how many sins you would have to atone for as you add these 2 to the lies you have told. On just these 3 alone we would be spending day and night trying to make up for all the sins we have committed.
Now if we take the rest of the commandments and think about them, we would be so bound by our sins as we try to make up for them with good works we would never know where we stood with God. We would be without hope of atoning for all we have done against others and against God. We would be without a way. So where there was no way, God made a way... and that way is through Jesus Christ.
John 14:6 (NIV)
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
It is only through the sacrificial death of Jesus that we can be cleansed from sin... all of our sins.
Hebrews 9:26 (NIV)
"Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself."
God made the way through Jesus for us to pass by putting all of our sins on His shoulders.
2 Corinthians 5:21(NKJV)
"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
So what does it take to receive this gift... it takes faith. You have to believe.
John 3:16(NKJV)
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
You have to confess your faith, and believe in your heart.
Romans 10:8-11(NKJV)
8 "But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”(that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
By doing this God is justified in forgiving us and the penalty for sin is met... the penalty is a life, either our own, or the life of Jesus. So if we believe in Him and His death on our behalf, God is able to forgive us.
1 John 1:9 (NIV)
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
The bible is clear that we are saved by grace, through faith, and that there is no earning it by doing works or good deeds.
Ephesians 2:8-9(NKJV)
8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast."
The question is will you accept it? I did. That is the choice I made. I searched for answers and found them. I searched for purpose and reason and found them. I searched for truth and found it. And I searched for an answer for the sin I had, and I found it. There is no other way. God is gracious enough to let us make the choice for ourselves. He won't force it on us.
I am no fool. Yes I did have a foundation in Christianity. Yes I knew when the time came on whose name I needed to call. I saw the hand of God in the world He created... and I responded to it. Will you do the same? Or will you continue to deny the work of His hands? Will you believe what the world has to say over what God has to say? And how will you know what to choose to believe when the world offers so many different possibilities... all lies... all will lead you away from God and His truth. But it is still your choice to make.
I know that from all I went through in my life... all that I saw... all I experienced... it all led me right to God. My eyes are opened, and I can see much more clearly now. Oddly enough, before I came to faith, I thought I saw just fine. How wrong I was. Since then I have experienced more than I could say or write in a short post. God has answered prayers, sometimes in odd ways. God has shown Himself to me just as He said He would for anyone who seeks Him. And now I live by faith... faith in the One True God. I hope that if you too are questioning things the way I did that you will not leave Christ out of your search. Call on Him, ask Him to make Himself real to you... and if you are sincere, he will.
Whatever you do... don't buy what the world is selling before you exhaust every effort at getting to the truth. And the truth exists in Christ alone.
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