I have to admit; sometimes I take shortcuts in getting myself ready to go someplace. It’s not so much that I don’t care it’s just that I don’t really care. I’m just not the primping kind. Carrie and I were going out the other day and she looked at me and asked if I had brushed my hair. I told her that I had kind of straightened it up. Then she asked if I had brushed my ponytail. I told her that I had felt it and it felt all right. She told me that that was the problem with the faith of so many people. They don’t really look at their faith. Their faith is more a matter of feeling than of what it actually looks like. It may feel OK but it’s not OK.
That reminded me of a visual aid I had done in a class I was teaching one time. I don’t remember where the example came from. I used a football representing our feelings and a Bible representing our faith. Placing the football on the floor and trying to balance the Bible on top I was showing what happens when we build our faith on our feelings. As our feelings change our faith also moves and changes with no stability to what we believe. But if you put the Bible down first and the ball on top (I wouldn’t do this trick now, I don’t think I could put a ball on a Bible or a Bible on the floor) your feelings can do whatever they want. Your faith is unaffected by your feelings. Your foundation is solid and unchangeable. Just the way faith should be.
Hence, the problem with so much of modern evangelism. I see billboards and signs with pictures of people suffering from traumatic experiences of some kind with captions that read, “Give Jesus a try, or G-d can fix anything.” And that is absolutely true. G-d can fix anything. But will He? People are being encouraged into something based on a feeling without knowledge. And when it doesn’t work out the way one might like, what happens to faith? It falls off the football. Faith is a matter of having a relationship with our Creator and being faithful to Him no matter what our circumstances. Our actions bring about consequences that are apt to remain with us the rest of our lives. G-d might change them and He might not. That does not change what our response to Him should be. He will never change. Shouldn’t we be like Him?
May we all be encouraged to know G-d as He has revealed Himself and not add to Him the things that we want Him to be. That’s kind of like idolatry. Let our faith be firm and enduring to the end. Our feelings will be put in order by our faith.
That was very good Lewis. I really like the image of the football and Bible. So many people go on their feelings. If they don't "feel" close to G-d or "feel good" coming out of service etc, they begin to loose faith that G-d is with them. I don't remember exactly how he said it, but Dwight Pryor was talking once about how Charismatics usually seem to put feeling first. If we feel like we have touched G-d or have great faith, we can believe and stand on His Word. We have it all backwards..... we need to stand on His Word and believe what He says and have faith the He will do what He says no matter how we feel, THEN those feelings may come.
ReplyDeleteThat did not do his teaching justice but that is kind of the jist of it. I will have to admit that at one time I was just that way and this was when I was attending a Charismatic church. (Not that they are all bad mind you.) I for the longest time used to think that something was wrong with me because I didn't "feel" or experience what all these other people seemed to have. It wasn't until I got into studying Torah that I really found what was missing.....and it wasn't feelings. It was a true understanding of who G-d is (not that I understand everything!) and how we are to relate to Him.
Shalom,
Diane
Diane
That is just one Diane not two!
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