Faith

Another of my friends is a blogger, and I thought I would share one of her posts with you today. It's called Faith, and is by Joy York.

“Faith is never a question of the intellect, it is always a question of the will”.

As someone who really struggled intellectually for a time with Christianity, this quote really hit me. In college I went through a season of really questioning the claims of Christianity, of doubting the inerrancy of God’s word, of wondering what impact Christ, if He was who He said, would truly make in a person’s life. I probably would have described myself as...

...a Christian agnostic- I had made a profession of faith. I believed in the deity and life of Christ- but I wasn’t too sure about all the other details. During that time, being an avid reader, college student, and psychology major, I discovered there are as many schools of thought and books conveying almost any point of view you are looking for. If you want to believe in Christ but not His deity, you can find a book about that. If you want to believe Christ is one way among many to God, you can read about that, if you want to find a book that criticizes the compilation of scriptures you can find a book about that. If you want to compare contrast the major mythologies and religions into basic systems of thought, you can find that. If you want to believe Christ is God but that the other details are not so certain, you can find a book on that. Now these were not books you would find at your local Christian bookstore. But in a liberal University setting, there is almost an expectation that you examine what you believe, and I did.

I was fortunate that I was encouraged in my quest. I had people that said, basically “God is bigger than your questions, and if you truly are searching for Truth, you will ultimately find God.” I had one campus minister tell me I was just ahead of the curve. He said many students would not face these questions head on until they had children, reached middle age, or lost som eone they loved. I had another friend that was a religion major, his favorite response was- “I don’t know, I wasn’t there”, but he chose to believe and search. I took some religion courses where we talked about the concept of God and even a course on the journeys and travels of Paul by a professor that had a very unique interpretation of what the ‘mystery’ referred to in scriptures was. It seemed as though the questions were layered and the arguments circular. I finally got to a point where I had to say also “I don’t know, I wasn’t there”.

But I also made a choice. I made a choice to believe in a God that was too big for my complete understanding. I made a choice to offer my life and myself to Christ because I do believe He came, died and rose again for me. I also made a choice to believe God’s word was true, inspired and living. And finally I made a choice to pursue a relationship with Christ. I am still making that choice today.

During that time and since, I have read many apologetics [books]. I am comforted by the studied men and women, which spend their lives uncovering truth in historical and architectural artifacts that give credence to the stories and claims of the Bible. I love the fact that we can have intelligent arguments about our philosophy and beliefs based on the broader picture of Gods story and word. I appreciate that our faith does have ‘proofs’ that can be examined and revealed. But ultimately I must choose not only to believe, but also to surrender. Belief might be a question of intellect, but faith is much deeper. Faith requires trust and obedience. Faith requires a submission to God’s plan. As complicated and difficult as it can be to get to the point of belief, you may still miss the point if you stop there, because faith is where belief meets will.

Comments

[Mary and Don Hughes]

Hey Larry, Powerful, Powerful message! What thin line keeps a person connected in faith through scholarly pursuits, ideologies, philosophies, successes and failures is that choice of ones will! A person must want to believe (through the will) to have Truth revealed - thus to every man is dealt a measure of faith (faith to believe so the will can be surrendered to really know God)! Until a person has the "ah-ha" experience and figures it out for themselves as to what they believe and establishes their own personal code of conduct by surrendering their will - truth will continue to be illusive. There is place where a person can declare "I Know That I Know, That I know That I Know".

[school_dubl]

Hi Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, a cool site I like

[Realestate]

With the new 2011. Year! Congratulations.