Friday: Further Thought ~ Jesus, Author and Perfecter of Our Faith
Further Thought:
“By faith you became Christ’s, and by faith you are to grow up in Him — by giving and taking. You are to give all, — your heart, your will, your service, — give yourself to Him to obey all His requirements; and you must take all, — Christ, the fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting helper, — to give you power to obey.” — Ellen G.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
White, Steps to Christ, p. 70.
“God never asks us to believe, without giving sufficient evidence upon which to base our faith. His existence, His character, the truthfulness of His word, are all established by testimony that appeals to our reason; and this testimony is abundant. Yet God has never removed the possibility of doubt. Our faith must rest upon evidence, not demonstration. Those who wish to doubt will have opportunity; while those who really desire to know the truth will find plenty of evidence on which to rest their faith.
It is impossible for finite minds fully to comprehend the character or the works of the Infinite One. To the keenest intellect, the most highly educated mind, that holy Being must ever remain clothed in mystery. ‘Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?’ Job 11:7-8.” — Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 105.
Discussion Questions:
|
(13)
I would encourage you to click the reference to the first quote from Steps to Christ in today's lesson and carefully read and reflect upon the wider context to this quote (pages 67-71). There are many bible passages referred to that help unpack a wider awareness and understanding of what faith is.
There is also an excellent paragraph that describes the practical 'how to' start each day in order to come into 'alignment' with Christ so that your foundation and orientation may be set/re-set for a day of 'faith in action' through service to God and others.
God is this thing that I have always to remind myself that He is real! I am not normally willing to believe in Him... and to believe may not be enough! Acting can be the real stuff!
We are the sons and daugthers of the Creator of the Universe!
What else can I ask more?
Faith is not an inorganic structure connecting ideas and perceptions together in a framework we call truth. It has to be something that is organic. It grows and develops and is a relationship, or rather, a set of relationships. More than anything else, our relationships with one another affect our beliefs. If we are truely honest withourselves, most of us became or stayed Christians because of the relationships we either had or developed with other Christians. And it is fair to say that many of those who leave the faith leave because their relationships with others within the Christian community have been fractured.
In mathematics we have an idea called the Transitive Property. In simplest terms it goes something like this:
If A relates to B and B relates to C then A relates to C. Now I don't want my mathematical readers to pick this to bits, but In our spiritual lives:
If God and I have a relationship and if I have a relationship with others, then there is a fair chance that others will relate to God though us. My atheist friends may only see God through my relationship with them. That is faith at work.
I come back to Hebrews 12: 1,2:
I know that the traditional interpretation of the cloud of witnesses refers to the men and women of faith listed in Hebrews 11. But, I don't think it is too much of a stretch to consider that we are surrounded by a cloud of those to whom we are witnessing about the love of Jesus. That is our arena for faith in action. God -> Us -> Others. Our actions provide the substance and evidence that developes their faith.
Dear Mr. Ashton,I would like to thank you for putting the funeral link for the service of Joyce Griffith on SS Net.
I don't entirely agree with your perception of doctines and creeds, although I do admit that sometimes they loom so large that they become the tail that wags the dog.
We all need structures to organise our thinking. In mathematics, we have algebra and calculus as ways of thinking about relationships and operators. Such structures help us to communicate ideas to lower forms of thinking like physicists. A physicist can take the structure provided by calculus and apply it to physical situations that they are interested in. If we did not have the mathematical framework it would be very difficult express what we wanted to say about physics.
Doctrine is like the framework that we use to discuss ideas about God. And, no, that framework should not dominate the relationship with God, but it should be helpful. Where we go wrong is when we think that doctrine and creeds are the end goal.
Further, some of us are more structure-oriented than others. That is just a natural variation in human nature. I see some Christians living within a creedal structure while others have an entirely different approach. The fact that they have different approaches to their faith does not make one person right and another wrong. Both ultimately depend on the grace of God.