Linkage: Why I Know There is a God

Robert Murphy had this wonderful blog post, Why I know there is a God, on his blog, Free Advice, Sunday.  I think it is worth reading.

At first I had titled this post, “Why I Believe in God.” But as you’ll see, the reasons I will give, lead to the conclusion that I know there is a God. Now it’s true, it’s possible I could be wrong (as we’ll see), but by the same token, I might be mistaken when thinking I have a father. And yet, I don’t walk around saying, “Why I believe I have a father.” No, I know I have a father. 

The motivation for this post comes from frequent commentator “Major Freedom,” who wrote last week: “This is why I dislike the Sunday posts. It turns an economics blog that satisfyingly demolishes economic ignoramuses, into an idiotic festering stinkpile of contradictions and crap logic.” 

Now Major Freedom here touches on something–in his inimitable fashion–that plenty of other people have expressed over the months. These people just can’t understand why I am so logical and smart when it comes to views they agree with, and yet I am so illogical and stupid when I talk about spiritual matters.

Continue Reading Why I know there is a God.

Desiring Love

You and I have the desire to be loved.  From Adam and Eve to the end of time every person who has ever lived has this one desire.   Not one of us wants to be alone, we all want to have relationships with other people.  The problem is that love relationships with other people will not meet the deeper desire of our heart and soul.  Even a marriage relationship, the most intimate of human relationships, cannot meet the deepest and most profound desire that we have.
   
Our desire to be loved will only be met in a love relationship with God.  It is for this relationship that God has created us, and we will never be fulfilled apart from that relationship.  We have a “God-shaped hole” in our lives that only God can fill. 
    
People, throughout history, have tried to fill this void with different things.  Power, sex, money, and drugs are all examples of things stuffed into peoples lives to help them feel complete.  How pathetic life is when it is lived without the One who created it!  There is nothing on this earth that will fulfill us like God can.   When your life feels empty there is only one place to look to find what you need, and that is God.
   
How do we know God loves us? Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God  wrote; “The cross, the death of Jesus Christ, and His resurrection are God’s final, total, and complete expression that He loves us.”  The facts of the crucifixion and the resurrection prove, not only that God exists, but that He loves us.  The One that has created us and who has power over death loves us!  I want you to take a moment and try to comprehend the meaning of that.  The most powerful Person in the universe loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you!

The apostle Paul wrote; And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love.  Death can’t, and life can’t.  The angels can’t, and the demons can’t.  Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38, 39; NLT).
   
The Apostle Paul made it clear that God’s love for us is unconditional.  There is no person or experience that will separate us from God’s love.  The evidence that Paul gives is Jesus.  The sacrifice of Jesus is the evidence that God loves us.  God allowed Jesus to experience the pain and rejection of life.  He allowed Jesus to experience the pain of death and the burden of sin.  We can be confident, because of what Jesus went through, that God will turn around and reject us and withdraw His love from our lives.  God’s love is revealed in Jesus.
   
As I close this pondering I want to mention one more thing.  There is no experience or person that can separate us from God’s love, except one.  You can voluntarily separate yourself from God.  You can take yourself, by your obedience, to a place that God cannot bless you and reveal His love to you.  If you want to experience God’s love in your life you have to obey Him.  God will never force His love on anybody.  He does not need your love, but God does desire your love.

Created to be Loved

You and I have the desire to be loved. From Adam and Eve to the end of time every person who has ever lived has this one desire. Not one of us wants to be alone, we all want to have relationships with other people. The problem is that love relationships with other people will not meet the deeper desire of our heart and soul. Even a marriage relationship, the most intimate of human relationships, cannot meet the deepest and most profound desire that we have.

Our desire to be loved will only be met in a love relationship with God. It is for this relationship that God has created us, and we will never be fulfilled apart from that relationship. We have a “God-shaped hole” in our lives that only God can fill.

People, throughout history, have tried to fill this void with different things. Power, sex, money, and drugs are all examples of things stuffed into peoples lives to help them feel complete. How pathetic life is when it is lived without the One who created it! There is nothing on this earth that will fulfill us like God can. When your life feels empty there is only one place to look to find what you need, and that is God.

How do we know God loves us? Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God wrote; “The cross, the death of Jesus Christ, and His resurrection are God’s final, total, and complete expression that He loves us.” The facts of the crucifixion and the resurrection prove, not only that God exists, but that He loves us. The One that has created us and who has power over death loves us! I want you to take a moment and try to comprehend the meaning of that. The most powerful Person in the universe loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you!

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away.Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38, 39; NLT)

The Apostle Paul made it clear that God’s love for us is unconditional. There is no person or experience that will separate us from God’s love. The evidence that Paul gives is Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus is the evidence that God loves us. God allowed Jesus to experience the pain and rejection of life. He allowed Jesus to experience the pain of death and the burden of sin. We can be confident, because of what Jesus went through, that God will turn around and reject us and withdraw His love from our lives. God’s love is revealed in Jesus.

As I close this pondering I want to mention one more thing. There is no experience or person that can separate us from God’s love, except one. You can voluntarily separate yourself from God. You can take yourself, by your lack of obedience, to a place that God cannot bless you and reveal His love to you. If you want to experience God’s love in your life you have to obey Him. God will never force His love on anybody. He does not need your love, but God does desire your love.

Sunday Quote: Knowing God

"While logically separable, the discussion as to whether God is and whether God is knowable cannot be divided. If God existed but were not knowable, faith in him would be irrelevant to our lives. Conversely, the experience of knowing God, more so than any intellectual argument, confirms our claim that God exists." ~ Stanely Grenz, Theology for the Community of God ,p. 29

A Common Relationship

Originally posted Wednesday September 8, 2004

“It seems that the emphasis of the word ‘church’ in its Christian context is upon the relationship of people to each other, due to their common relationship to God through Christ.” ~ Arthur Harrington, What The Bible Says About Leadership

We often hear, "Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship." This, for the most part, is a true statement. What Jesus offers to us is not a set of rules and regulations which will bring us to God, but rather He offers Himself. It is through a relationship (loving Him, trusting Him, obeying Him, loving people) with Jesus that we are able to be brought near to God.

While we are able to see the truth of this cliché we have a hard time living it out. Rather we make Christianity a religion about doctrine and tradition. Don't get me wrong, correct doctrine is necessary and some traditions are very important, but we can allow these things to overshadow what is most important. The most important things in Christianity are relationships. It begins with our relationship with God, it continues with our relationships with other Christians, which then spills into the world.

The most important part of ministry is our relationship with God. Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God wrote; "The constant presence of God is the most practical part of your life and ministry" (pg. 55). So how do we have the presence of God in our lives? I think it comes down to inviting God be part of our lives every day, seeking His guidance through pray and Bible Study, and to obey God’s will. We will only do that if having a relationship with God is the most important part of our lives.

This is what the apostle John wrote:

This is the message he has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God's presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin. (1 John 1:5-7; NLT)

John reminds us that the reason we can have fellowship, the reason for unity in the Body of Christ, is because of our relationship to Jesus. When a relationship with Jesus is the most important aspect of our lives we are able to focus on what we have in common and overcome the differences that come along the way.

Christians are not united by believing we all believe exactly the same thing; we are united because of Jesus. We need make our relationship with Jesus the most important aspect in our lives. I think we also need to pray the prayer for unity, like the one Jesus prayed the night He was betrayed (John 17:11). Remember our source of unity is found in our common relationship to Christ Jesus. We may disagree about some doctrinal issues, but if we share a common commitment to Jesus then we are family.

Where Are You? #1

Have you seen those Southwest Airline commercials with the theme “Wanna Get Away?” My favorite one has two friends in the one friends apartment. He is showing off his new flat screen TV and game system with wireless controllers. He tells his friend that with the controllers the game mimics their movements. They happen to be playing a baseball game and he tells his friend, “Pitch it to me just like you would outside.” So the friend winds up and throws the controller which hits the TV, cracks the screen, and then causes the TV to crash down on the game system. Then the announcer's voice says: “Wanna get away?”

When we do stupid or thoughtless things we tend to want to hide and avoid contact with other people, especially those we may have harmed or embarrassed. We do the same thing with God. When we sin we want to hide and avoid contact with God. So here is the question I have for you this morning: How do you avoid God?

Questions are a part of life. We use questions everyday and they play a big part in our interactions with each other. Here are a few ways we uses questions.

1. To discover information. We ask questions because we are curious about a topic. We might ask: “Why is the sky blue?” or “How does a plane fly?” for the purpose of learning.
2. To strike up a conversation. We ask questions so we can have something to talk about and in the process learn information about the other person. We might ask a new acquaintance: “How long have you lived here?” or “Do you have a family?” We are killing two birds with one stone because we are learning about them while having a conversation with them.
3. To asses whether or not the students have learned. Teachers and parents ask these questions so they can determine what their students or children have learned. A history teacher may ask: “who was the first president of the United States?” to determine if the students grasped the lesson. A parent might ask: “How many snacks can you have when you get home from school?” to determine if the children understood the rule.
4. To have a person reflect on what is being said. Sometimes we will ask a question, not for our benefit, but to get the other person to reflect upon their situation. A counselor might ask a client: “How did that make you feel?” or a parent might ask their child “What lesson did you learn from this?”

What we see in all four types of questions is the ability of learning information. Even with the fourth type of question we are able to gain insight into the person’s feelings or the lesson they believed they have learned. We will always gain information when we ask questions.

Perhaps that is why it seems odd to think that God would ask questions. What does God have to learn? If God is truly omniscient, knowing everything, then there is no need for Him to ask a question. Yet we discover on the pages of Scripture that God indeed asks questions. So we are forced to ask a question of our own: Why does God ask questions?

God asks questions for our benefit. I think He primarily asks the fourth type of question; questions that are designed to get us to think about our lives and situations. God wants us to take the time to reflect about our lives. Too often we go about our days and we never take the time to think about our lives or our commitment to God. We need to ask questions such as: Are we truly following Jesus or are we just going through the motions? If God loves me why is my life such a mess? How can I trust God better this week? Do people see Jesus in my life? If we are not going ask the questions then God will.

“Sure,” you may say, “God uses questions in the Bible, but does He still use questions today?” I think He does. Henry Blackaby wrote about in his excellent study Experiencing God:

“God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways” (back cover of workbook).

God will ask us questions through the Bible. I think the questions God asks in the Bible still apply to our lives today. Other times God might plant a question in our minds and hearts for us to consider as we pray. God might also use a circumstance to prompt a question for us to think about. At other times the question will come from a fellow Christian and God will use that question for His purposes. God asks questions and when He does it is important for us to take time and think about them, because He isn’t looking for an answer, He wants us to discover a truth about our lives.

Don't Be a Fool

I was reading through some of my old writings and I came across the following excerpt from What the Bible Says About Goodness by Georgann Bennett. This is what she writes:

For the inspired writers of the Bible, a belief, a reasoned faith in Jehovah, was (and is) demonstrated in the goodness of one’s deeds--the righteousness of one’s life style. Many of us who would bristle up and fight were we to be accused of atheism make such blatant denials of God in the way we do business, the way we treat our children, the way we fulfill our lusts that we have become the Biblical fool (p. 99).

This is one of the the central truths that I want to communicate to people in my life. It is so crucial for people to realize that how they live conveys a message to those around them about what they truly believe. It reminds me of what Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God wrote; “How you live your life is a testimony of what you believe about God” (p. 109, the workbook). Our behavior is an indication of what we truly believe in our heart of hearts.

Stop and think about what your life is telling others about God? If you say: “Yes, I believe in God” and then go out and do things contrary to His will what are people to assume about us? Yes, there will be times when we fall to temptation and sin, but isolated incidents are totally different from a lifestyle sin. In other words it isn’t about the detours of our lives as much as it is about the direction of our lives.

The inspired writers of the Bible expect Christians to live a life of faith which points the world to God. For example, consider what the apostle Peter wrote:

Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world (1 Peter 2:12; NLT).

Peter believes that we can live in a way that brings honor and glory to God. In other words we are more that dirty rotten sinners saved by grace, we are royal priests and part of a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). When we surrender to Christ Jesus He transforms us and gives us a new heart. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are new creations because of the transforming power of God. The way we live is the greatest testimony we can offer for God’s existence and love.

The way we live our lives comes down to the choices that we make. “Be careful how your live…” Peter tells us. In other words think about how we will respond to people, to circumstances, and to God’s leading. Think about how you will treat your boss, your husband, your children, or your waitress. We are to be intentional in the way we live, and God’s Truth and Wisdom are to influence the choices that we make.

We are fools when we claim to love God and follow Jesus but live like the rest of the world. It means that we haven’t truly listened to God. We have heard His Word, but we haven’t applied His Truth to our lives. It is foolish to ignore the instructions from the Life Maker as we try to live life. It is foolish to possess the Truth, but not to follow the Truth. We are fools if we all we do is claim Jesus and not follow Him.

The difference between wisdom and foolishness in the eyes of God is a small one. The difference lies in one word: application. If we want to be wise we need to apply God’s Word to our lives. This requires two actions on our part. First, it requires that we commit to regular and practical Bible teaching. We cannot apply what we do not know. Second, it requires that we obey God, even when we don’t fully understand His plan. The future is unknown to us, so we don’t know the consequences to our actions, and there will be times when God calls us to do something that seems foolish and will lead us into great hardship, but we obey God and trust Him with the future. The wisest thing to do is to trust our future to the God who has determined the course of the future.

If we are not intentional in the way we live we will end up being fools. We will be fools because rather than trusting God we allow our lives to be determined by the emotions of the moment. The intentional person is able to rise above the swirling emotions of the moment and make choices that are in alignment with what they truly believe. That person is on their way to being counted as wise.

Getting to Know God

Take a moment and ponder what Ravi Zacharias wrote in his book Cries of the Heart:

“We all know that our faith results in works, but we often forget that the reverse is also true. One of the fundamental differences between the Greek way of thinking and the Hebrew way of thinking was that for the Greeks truth came by reason, and for the Hebrews truth came by obedience.

“We see this several times in the Scriptures. Moses, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Jonah did not feel like doing what God has asked them to do. In fact, every heartbeat within them was impelling them to do otherwise. Yet God said they were to obey. The remedy was not to do God's will because they felt like doing it, but just to do it and their faith would be strengthened.”

In our search of truth we must not only rely on knowledge, evidence, and the material world we observe around us, but also our experience. There is no doubt that faith begins as we understand the evidence for God as we begin to understand His revelation (not only in nature, but also in His Word), but faith is strengthened as we live our lives in obedience to His will. Knowledge is the beginning point of faith, but it is experience that makes it real in our lives.

James wrote; But you are not a judge who can decide whether the law is right or wrong. Your job is to obey it (James 4:11; NLT). We are not to debate with God about what He has commanded us to do; we are to simply obey. I know that might sound like intellectual laziness because I am saying that we are to do whatever God tells us to do with no questions. Just do it as the old Nike commercial said.

I don’t think that is the case. Henry Blackaby in Created to be God’ Friend wrote; “A response of faith is based on fact--that is, what we know, no on what we do not know. Faith is never blind! Faith is based on the God we know!” We obey because we know God and we trust His character. If He asks us to do something we do it, because we know that He wants the best for us. Our knowledge allows us to come to an understand of who God is, and that helps us to respond to His will in obedience.

How do we discover what is God’s character? Hebrews 1:3 reads; The Son reflects God’s own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly (NLT). Looking at Jesus allows us to understand the character of God. The life and teachings of Jesus allows us to understand the character of God. If we want to know God we first have to get to know Jesus.

The only way I know of getting to know Jesus is through the study of the Bible, especially a study of the Gospels. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do (NLT). The Bible claims to be God’s Word, something we can trust. Historically, scientifically, and philosophically the Bible is a book that can be trusted. It is accurate and trustworthy. When we read what it says about Jesus or about God we can be confident what it says can be trusted.

As we learn understand the character of God through the teachings and life of Christ Jesus we are able to know how God wants us to live. Sometimes we will feel ill-equipped to live that type of life. Other times we will have fear which will keep us prevent us from obeying. Faith then isn’t just a knowledge about God, but it is a response to God. It is trusting God even when every instinct we have tells us to give up or hide. It is this response which strengthens our relationship with God.

Responding to God in obedience helps us to discover truth because it takes our faith out of the realm of theory and puts it into reality. Obeying God leads us to experience Him in a whole new way.

Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God wrote; “In Scripture when God did something through an obedient person or people, they came to know Him in new and more intimate ways.” That is the point I want you to understand. It is not primarily though study that we come to know God (that is where it starts and we need to evaluate our experience by the truth found in the Scriptures), but ultimately we come to know God as we obey Him. Truth is made real to us through our obedience to our Creator.

Trusting God with the Future

Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God wrote; “We join Him so He can do His work through us. We don’t have to be able to accomplish the task within our limited ability or resources.”

Have you ever been given an assignment and then wondered how you would do it? That is how I feel right now. I haven’t talked much about the church I pastor, because that isn’t the focus of this blog, but things aren’t going well. When I accepted the position 2 and half years ago the church family had been in decline for a decade. Ten years ago the church was averaging 130 on Sunday morning, last year we averaged 33. How do you stop a pattern of decline once it has started? This is my heart’s cry to God: “What am I supposed to do?” I feel so incapable of making a difference in a church family and in a community that desperately needs help.

That is why things like this quote from Blackaby are so valuable to me right now, for they remind me that it isn’t just about my effort (I also realize that it doesn’t mean that I just sit back and wait for God to do all the work). An aspect of faith is being able to trust God when things are outside of your control.

I also have to remember that I am not the only person in this position. All of us, when we are given a job, want to be given instructions on how that job is to be accomplished. That is not how God works! Many times God will give us assignments that we cannot accomplish on our own, and He doesn’t reveal to us His entire plan at once. Instead His plan is revealed with each step of faith that we take. The Bible is full of examples of this truth. Noah, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, and Ruth all did things only God could do, and none of them and the entire picture ahead of time. Yet, God used them to accomplish His purposes.

Take for example what God told Moses; “I will be with you. And this will serve as proof that I have sent you: When you have brought the Israelites out of Egypt, you will return here to worship God at this very mountain” (Exodus 3:12; NLT).

I think that it is interesting that the proof God gave Moses was what would happen after Moses trusted God. God didn’t tell Moses about Pharaoh’s hard heart or the ten plagues. Moses has no idea how Israel was going to be freed from Egypt, but he trusted God and went. As Moses walked in faith, God revealed a little more of His plan to Moses. This means what is needed is not knowledge but faith. We cannot talk ourselves out of trusting God just because we don’t have all the answers. It is our faith that makes the difference.

God knows that we will have our doubts about the task He has set before us. He knows we will question our ability to complete the job, the way the people will respond to our efforts, and even if it is really God calling us to go. What God is interested in is not so much in our talents or knowledge, but our faithful character. The number one thing we need to carry out God’s calling on our lives is the resolve to trust God no matter what.

Confession time. That is where I miss the boat. I only want to go, to “risk” if I know how things are going to turn out in the end. I want God to give me a plan and assurance that He will use all my hard work. I want to take a step of faith where everything has been worked out in advance.

While I am uncertain about the next step that I am to take, I am absolutely certain that I am in the right place. God has placed me here for the purpose of enhancing my faith, and now I have to ask myself the question all of us have to ask, “Will I trust God with the future?” The choices we make will reveal our answer.