The Essence of Faith

Faith is typically defined by the religious as a means of interpreting reality. They choose a set of rules to govern their lives from a plethora of ideas and opinions and then seek a group of people with similar beliefs and interests. Their opinion of God is usually a system of established principles, and tragically, many disregard the exploration of depth or passion for intimacy. God is static and the people remain unchanged, but still religious. When faith is merely a mode and method of tolerating life rather than living it, there is little wonder why many youth and young adults reject the faith of their fathers.

They rebel against convention, making their declaration of independence from the deadness of what they inherited. Today, the hearts of many are challenged to believe that there has to be something more than this mediocre expression of religion. Unfortunately, their faith often causes them to turn inward to ambition and self-delusion. “If there is nothing out there to believe in, then I must believe in myself,” has become the requiem of today’s generation. Movements toward a belief that God dwells within every human have deceived many into believing that there is no God.

Jesus came to introduce us to a new enterprise and prove to us that we are not God. His perfection did more than the law could ever do. The law exposed the defects of fallen humanity as the result of Adam’s transgression, thus proving that God is not within every man. Jesus, the perfect, human model, came to lead humanity in a new   direction. Through His life and ministry, He demonstrated to us that there is a way back to God, but not without a price. It would require the death to self rather than the assertion of the self-life, for He lived to show us what was possible and He died to make it so. All are affected by His coming and those who reject Him must reckon with Him   because now the path has already been paved. The dissatisfaction among many today generate from the facts of His existence. He lived, He died, and He was raised from the dead.

One would either have to accept it or reject it and none can remain neutral now that the enterprise has been introduced. Those who may even choose the wrong path are in search for something that is real. Until they see Christ among His people, living His life within believers, there will be a discomfort among the searching and a disappointment among the satisfied. Religion alone will not resolve the deepest pains within the soul. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” is the antidote to dead religion and wanton living. It is His life lived through us and empowering us that gives human existence its truest meaning. Our faith should not be random in search for an object or a person to believe in. It is to be directed towards the object of faith that leads to eternal life, Jesus Christ.

The Certainty of Uncertainties

The earthquake in Haiti was a wakeup call to the world. The question on the mind and lips of many is, can something like that really happen? And since it happened there, could it happen here? Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost as the result of an event that only took a few minutes to occur. The tragedy of Haiti has made such an impact upon the world that relief is pouring in from every sector of the globe. To see images of recently orphaned children whose future was already bleak because of the adverse poverty of the nation merely escalated the cause.

Graphic pictures leapt off the screen and into our lives when we faced the relatives of the victims a few days ago. What could we tell them? As Haitian pastors living in Atlanta gathered together at our request to tell their stories, we could feel their pain. Although they were away from the scene, from their families, and their native land, their hearts were there. How many of their family and friends, who bade them farewell when they embarked upon the journey to America, saw them for the very last time? And unfortunately, there is the lingering impossibility for closure because the graves of their loved ones were the dumping grounds for many who remain unidentified.

I have preached many funerals in my lifetime. I have stood at the graves of weeping widows with orphaned children. I have looked into their eyes and could read their grim and desperate thoughts of uncertainty that were in proximity to their pain. “What can you tell me now preacher?” “Where is God when I need Him the most?” We cannot glaze over these real challenges. A word is needed that surpasses pacification and consolation. God is yet standing in the shadows awaiting the opportunity to be heard, subtly speaking through circumstances that remind us of our vulnerability. “It is because of His tender mercies that we are not consumed. Great is His faithfulness.” Nothing but His mercy stands between what happened to them and what could easily happen to us.

Uncertain calamities do not always come gradually, but often strike suddenly. They awaken us from a state of slumber and make us aware that we must always be in a state of preparedness. After 9/11, the government began taking precautionary measures to prevent such a thing from ever happening again. But on Christmas Day, a failed attempt on a U.S. Commercial airplane exposed areas of vulnerability that yet remained. Nothing done alone, which is done without God’s guidance and assistance, is sufficient. The “Fault Lines” in our lives, just as the “Fault Lines” underneath the surface of the earth, stand to remind us of the inevitability of another earthquake. The question is when will it happen and what will we do differently that we failed to do this time?

We should not blame the victims for their calamities, nor blame God, but rather blame ourselves. We have made decisions that have affected every nation of the world and are offensive to God. The Church must repent of deflecting her emphasis away from God and directing it towards other things. The compassion demonstrated by the world in this crisis must be seen and known as compassion that comes from its Source which is Jesus Christ. Just as a nation can be destroyed in one day, a nation can be birthed in one day as well. Before the coming of the Lord, the birth pangs will signal the dawning of a new day! God is alive, God is still in control, and God alone is to be worshipped. This is the antidote to uncertainty, and the reassuring hope in the promised return of the Prince of Peace.