Always or Never

   What is a false dichotomy?  It sounds complicated, but really it is not.  A false dichotomy involves presenting someone with two choices, but the two choices are rigged in the presenter's favor.  The reason we call it a "false" dichotomy is that you really have more than just the options presented, but the presenter is tricking you into focusing on just those two options. By making you focus on just those two options, the presenter is trying to trick you into making a choice that is favorable to their point of view.

   So before I move on I want to explain how this trick can be so effective.  The first reason is fear.  Triggering fear makes it harder to think.  When you become afraid, you can only think in two terms, fight or flight.  So, oftentimes one of the two options in a false dichotomy is meant to trigger fear.  It makes it harder for you to think clearly.  The second reason is that it is easier to define yourself by what you are against.  By giving you two choices, the presenter can use what you are against to drive you toward the option the presenter wants you to pick.  A simple example would be me telling you, “Donate to my charity, or this group that you dislike will win.”  I am basically using the your fear or distaste for a certain group(lets call them Group X) to manipulate you into donating.  The truth is that I cannot prove that your donation will have any real effect on stopping the plans of Group X, and there may be better ways to accomplish your goal of stopping Group X without donating to me personally, but I am more likely to get a donation by drawing your attention away from these other options and keeping you focus on a me or them decision.  So why is this important to you as a Christian?  

   First, we must be careful not to do this.  Like it or not, we live in a complicated world, and we simply cannot simplify everything down to simple A or B choices.  Even something as simple as “Thou shall not kill”  can be very complicated.  In context, it is often interpreted as “Thou shall not murder”, which allows for justified killing in self defense, and as we have seen in recent events, different people can have very different ideas of what it takes to justify taking the life of another human being.  So wrapped up in a seemingly simple commandment we reasonably have everything from “Killing another person is always wrong.” to “You can kill another person if you feel like you are in danger.”  Just presenting two options out of that range would be grossly misleading at best.  What is worse, is that we can do this to ourselves.  When faced with a problem, we can fixate on there only being two options.  “God isn’t answering my prayers, he must be mad at me.” is the kind of logic that that happens when we put ourselves in a false dichotomy.  The two choices are God is mad at me or God isn’t mad at me and since God isn’t answering my prayers, he must be mad at me.  The option we miss is that some of the things we pray for are not in our own best interest, and God loves us enough to say no to those requests.

   Second, this is the kind of trick the world loves to use on unwary Christians.  “Look at all of these amazing things that scientific progress has brought.  Cars, computers, cellphones, and putting a man on the moon are just a few of the miracles of science.  Think of progress that could be made if we didn’t have all these silly religious superstitions holding us back.  When are you Christians going to stop holding us back, and get with the program?”  Sound familiar?  You either choose Science, or you choose God, easy choice right?  It is a lose/lose choice.  What the presenter is really trying to do is get you to renounce your faith, or keep it out of the public sphere.  This false dichotomy has largely banished the discussion of the Gospel from large parts of our culture.  There are plenty of sincere followers of Christ who also practice Science without hesitation.  After all, if God created this world, and the Scientific Method is hands down the best tool we have come up for understanding the world, why would we use anything less than the best tools available to explore the wonders that God has made?

   There are times when there really are only two choices.  For example, you either love God above everything else, or you don’t.  The problem comes when we make unwise choices because we don’t look at all of our options.  The answer is to seek to see the world the way God’s sees it.  We should try to see things from God point of view, and to present that point of view to others.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” - Matthew 7:7-8

The Measure of a Disciple

   When you hear the word love, what comes to your mind.  Romance?  Sacrifice?  Brotherhood?  Maybe something else?  To me, loving another means to willingly place the wants and needs of another ahead of our own wants and needs.  I choose this definition, because I believe it best captures all of the aspects we know as love.

   First, love must be willing.  If someone comes up and takes my lunch away, I may tell myself that they need it more than I do, but at the heart of it, I did not give my lunch away willingly.  I do not think that anyone would consider my act toward the bully to be an act of love.  Likewise, if someone holds a gun to my head and tells me to worship God, I do not think anyone would consider my worship to be an act of love.  Thus, a key requirement of love is that the act must be voluntary.  The importance of this is that God created us to love him, and he knows that to force us to love him would make our worship invalid.  Thus, God treads very carefully in this area.  He wants us to love him, and if he reveals himself to us in full, that might destroy our free will, and with it, our ability to love.

   Second, love is about priorities.  This is what really separates love from like.  For someone I like, I might hang out with them, but I don’t put their needs above mine.  For someone I love, the inconvenience to me ceases to matter.  This is why the word sacrifice is related to love.  If I had a single meal, I might offer to share some of it with someone I liked, but for love, I would give it away in full.

   Third, love is an action.  To love someone takes more than just the desire to help them.  As much as I tell myself that I love my family, there are days when that is simply not true.  In deed, I put my own needs ahead of theirs.  As much as I care for them, I fail to love them as I should.  Thankfully, they forgive me, which is in itself an act of love toward me, but that does not change the fact that in my selfishness I chose to love myself over them.

   Our ability to love God and others is the one thing that marks our maturity as followers of Christ.  The greatest two commandments center around love (Matthew 22:36-40), and Paul talks at great length about how love must be the motive behind everything we do in the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 13).  Loving others is at the center of everything it means to be a Christian, and that means we must first understand that love with a willing act of putting another’s wants or needs ahead of our own not just in words, but in action as well.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” -John 13:34-35

Teaching vs Indoctrination

   There is this idea out there that teaching your religious beliefs to your children is abusive and manipulative.  The idea goes that if you were to lock up an adult and indoctrinate them against their will, it would be unacceptable torture.  Since children are not able to leave home, parents who force their religious beliefs on their children are indoctrinating them against their will, and thus abusing their children.  It makes for a great internet slogan, but unfortunately, there are several flaws with this line of thinking.

   First, as much as it sounds like a bad thing, good parenting is about indoctrination.  Imagine for a second you are a 3 year old child who is completely innocent to the world.  Now, you see a bright blue light in the kitchen.  It is so pretty, you want to grab it and keep it, but it just happens to be a burner on a stove that will cause 3rd degree burns.  In this situation, the proper role of a parent is twofold.  Protect the curious three year old from the consequences of their actions until they have been indoctrinated into the dangers of hot stoves.  Think about how many of the safety lessons you have learned in life.  You always teach the safety part first, “Don’t touch”.  The why part, “Because it will burn you.”, always comes later.  Which that in mind, which is more abusive, using coercive force to indoctrinate a child into the idea that touching fire is bad, or letting the child touch the fire and learn the hard lesson for themselves?

   Second, let us assume for argument’s sake that the premise is correct, and forcefully indoctrinating children with religious ideas is wrong.  What exactly would you teach children?  What would a list of approved non-religious things that you can teach your kids look like?  If you have to avoid religion or religiously influenced ideas, then that list would be very short, because, right and wrong are inherently religious concepts.  We all know that murder is wrong, but take a moment to think about why murder is wrong.  As a Christian, I immediately think of the ten commandments. Not teaching religious ideas to kids could arguable prevent parents from teaching their kids that murder is wrong, but more importantly, parents would no longer be able to give your kids a coherent explanation of why murder is wrong.  Even explaining that you should not murder because it is against the law falls afoul of religion.  As a Christian, following the just laws of the nation we reside in is one of the moral duties we are given.

   So, as Christians, I feel we can safely ignore the kind of shallow minded thinking that drives this idea.  What we have here is really an attempt to shame Christian parents into following more worldly ways of parenting.  We are called as Christians and parents to follow a higher standard, and that means ignoring foolishness like this, and focusing on our task of raising Godly children who love Jesus with their hearts, minds, and bodies.

“Fathers(or parents), do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” - Ephesians 6:4

Stewards of the Truth

   As Christians, we have a duty to be the bearers of God’s truth.  We are supposed to present it to the world boldly in both word and, more importantly, in deed.  Further, we are called to be wise stewards of everything God gives us.  Everything means everything, including the truth.  What does it mean to be to be a good steward of the truth?

   First, we must know the truth.  Imagine trying to manage a parcel of land you have never seen.  Trying to maximize your harvest is going to be a difficult game of trial and error.  So many potential issues can be understood and resolved by simply seeing the land in person.  Likewise, when it comes to matters of the truth, the better we know the truth, the better we will be at wisely presenting it.  

   Second, don’t overstate or understate the truth.  This is a huge temptation when speaking to others about our beliefs.  We want to make things sound better than they really are.  Jesus was never afraid to tell people the hard truths.  He would rightly tell people that his yoke was easy and his burden was light.  Meanwhile, he made it clear that the price of following him was nothing short of everything that we are.  What Jesus taught us is amazingly good news, and he doesn’t need us to spin it for him.

   Third, we must live the truth.  If I came proclaiming that eating vegetables was the only healthy way to live while eating a hamburger, would you not dismiss my word because of my actions?  In short, I am claiming the virtues of a lifestyle that I am not adhering to.  Ask yourself, “Does what I preach match my actions?”.  If you cannot say yes, then you need to change either your actions, your words, or both.

   The hard truth is that we are all hopelessly mired in sin, and our only hope comes from God’s saving grace provided through the sacrifice by his perfect, sinless son, Jesus.  The worst thing we can do as ambassadors of God’s truth is to betray the gospel by trying to project a false image of Christianity that isn’t real.

   

“In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.” -Titus 2:7-8

On the Heart of Every Man

   Eighty some odd years ago, 3 graduate students were up late at night discussing weighty concepts of philosophy and religion.  One of these men, an atheist, was left with a tough problem.  He spent many nights wrestling with that problem until he finally gave in.  He couldn’t find any other explaination for it other than God.  This is what ultimately brought him to his knees, and so he gave his life to Jesus.  The man’s name was Clive Staples Lewis, and he went on to be one of the most influential Christian philosophers and writers of the twentieth century.  One of the problems that he could not handle was the existence of universal morality.

   Why was universal morality such a problem for CS Lewis?  Well, first we must understand what universal morality is.  Simply put, it is a standard of right and wrong that applies to everyone regardless of race, color, or creed.  It doesn’t matter if you believe in it or not, it is the law you must all live by.

   Does such a thing exist?  Let’s examine a fairly simple concept, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Now that is a Jewish and Christian concept, but is it a universal one?  Bahá'í, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Humanism, Islam, Jainism, Mohism, Platonism, Scientology, Sikhism, Taoism, and Wicca all contain this rule in some form or another.  Almost every faith we know of contains some form of the so called Golden Rule as an absolute moral truth that should be followed.  If that is not a universal moral truth, then I have no idea what is.

   So, why is that important? Well, it points us toward two objective truths.  First, an absolute moral law exists, and it is very difficult to explain how a law like this exists without also admitting to the existence of an all powerful, all knowing, and all loving lawgiver. Second, that law is somehow being made known to everyone in the world.  The amazing awareness of the golden rule across all creeds and cultures speaks boldly to the idea that God’s moral law is literally written on the hearts of every man, woman, and child.

   As you can see, the scope of it is simply amazing.  God, the creator of the universe, has touched each and every one of us in a very personal way.  Now all we must do is ask ourselves, “What kind of God would make himself known to us in such a bold and intimate manner?”  Hopefully, like me, you will see that this is a God that is both sovereign and amazing, and yet gentle and loving.  This is a God who is exactly like Jesus describes his Father to be.

   “Jesus replied:  ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” - Matthew 22:37-40

Objective Truth

   What does it mean to claim an objective truth?  It sounds complicated, but really, it isn’t.  If I make a statement like, “There is a table in the middle of my living room.”, I am making a claim to an objective truth.  My statement is either true for everyone, or it is false for everyone.  If my statement was subjective, then it could be true for some people and false for other people.  This leads to a situation where the one person could be standing on the table while someone else walks through the middle of the room as if there was no table.  So the idea that a claim to truth is not objective leads to all sorts of silly situations.

  Objective truths form the core of what we believe as Christians.  We don’t believe that Jesus is the truth, the life, and the way for SOME people.  We believe that sin and the need for salvation is universal to everyone, and that Jesus is the only hope of salvation for all people.  Our beliefs are not just a set of comforting thoughts that help us cope with the harsh reality of life, they are a set of objective claims to be tested.

   This is not just my way of thinking, the apostles and their early disciples went around making all sorts of objective claims.  They claimed to follow the Messiah, the only son of God.  They claimed the tomb was empty.  They claimed that though he was executed in a public display, they saw him alive.  More importantly, they made all of these claims in front of the very people who could disprove them if they were false, and they persisted in these claims even in the face of certain death.  These men were willing to stake their very lives on objective claims about what they had witnessed.

    It is important to understand what the disciples were willing to die for, because we have let uncertainty and doubt erode our beliefs.  We live in an age that wants to believe that truth is subjective, and that religion is nothing more than a set of personal beliefs.  People want comforting words and thoughts that let them feel good about themselves without having to repent and change.  Anyone who claims that something is wrong or proclaims the beliefs of others to be false is being intolerant.

   Christ did not die so that we could have happy thoughts and lukewarm beliefs.  He came that we might have life in abundance and that we would be ambassadors of his truth.  We are called to be salt and light to a dark and tasteless world.  We do this by showing love to those in need.  If a man is trapped in the darkness of his own lies, we show him love by giving him the light of truth.  Always seek to deliver that truth with gentleness and respect, but never compromise  it.

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” - John 8:31-32

Boxes and Buckets

Imagine you are faced with a problem that seems so big that it is impossible for you to handle.  If you try to look at the whole thing, you mind just recoils from the size of it.  It is too big for you to handle, so what do you do?  You break it up.  You find some small piece of the problem that you can handle, and start there.  You work on small piece after small piece, and slowly you whittle impossibly big problem into smaller ones.  

   Now, this won’t work for every problem, but it is more of an illustration of how people deal with large and difficult problems without it overwhelming us.  Generally speaking, this is how we deal with understanding God as well.  We say that God is infinite, but really that is just another way of saying really, really big.  God is too vast for us to comprehend as a whole, so we break him up into pieces we can deal with.  Then, we take these pieces and put them into neat little categories or “boxes”.  Into this box goes the “All Just God”, into that box goes the “All Loving God”, over there we have the “Holy God” and so on.

   This is what we mean when we talk about putting God into a box.  The problem is that by putting God into a box, we lose sight of the whole of who God is.  Rather than pursuing God, we are taking little pieces of God and turning those pieces into idols.  More importantly, by putting God into little boxes in our lives we are, in a fashion, cutting ourselves off from the whole of who God is, and all that he has in store for us.  

   So, here we are in an impossible situation.  God is simply too great for us to comprehend, and trying to break the problem up into smaller problems will invariably fail.  What then is the solution?  Imagine you have a bucket, and your job is to gather rain.  You take your bucket and you move around trying to catch as much rain as possible.  You see a spot where it seems the rain is heavier, so you move there.  When you get there, you see another spot that looks heavier, so you move again.  You spend so much time and energy chasing the rain, but surely there is a better way.  Maybe you need a bigger bucket.

   The reality is that we are the buckets, and the rain is everything that God has for us.  We spend so much time and energy chasing the rain, but if we stop chasing the rain, then our water drains out, and we have nothing.  The solution is to become a bigger bucket, but think about that for a second.  The process of reshaping a bucket to make it larger is going to be downright painful for the bucket.  As you grow in your understanding of who God is, you will be able to catch more and more of the rain that he has for you.  You will see more and more of His love, patience, justice, and kindness at work in the world.  The process of growing in Christ is often uncomfortable and painful, but as long as we cling to our little “Boxes of God”, we will never be able to catch the full measure of all Jesus has for us.

   “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19

Playing as a Team

Imagine you are part of a sports team.  Now imagine you are in the middle of a game.  Is it possible for you to play the absolute best game you have ever played, and still lose?  Is it possible to play the worst game of you life and still manage to win?  In both cases, the answer is yes.  So either way, win or lose, it would be silly to judge your personal performance based on the overall outcome of the game.  Yet, when it comes to evangelism, that is exactly what we do.

   What we often forget is that we are part of a team.  The other members of that team are our fellow Christians and the Holy Spirit.  If we are not doing our job as a part of that team, then we are not doing our job as Christians, period.  So what does is look like to be a part of Jesus’ team?  How can we know we are doing our best, even when it may seem like our team is losing?

   The first rule of playing as a team is to know your assignment.  How effective is a quarterback who won’t touch the ball?  Each of us has a specific part to play, and we can’t do that if we are running around doing everything else.  Know your strengths and purpose in Christ.  I love music, but I can barely carry a tune in a bucket, so outside of a miracle occurring, it is a pretty safe bet that me leading worship is probably not the best idea.

  The second rule is to be open to what needs to be done.  This may seem like the opposite of the first rule, but it is just as important.  If there is a fumble, it is everyone’s job to go after it.  If you see something that is not getting done, then go do it.  You may be the only light present in someone’s life.  Always be ready to be life and light to those who need it, even when that isn’t your “thing”.

   Finally, leave the results to God.  So I go out, and I tell someone about Jesus, and his love for them, and all the things he did for them, great.  They listen, nod politely, and carry on as if nothing happened.  What should I do?  Everything in me says that this is important, they need to understand their eternal soul is a stake, but I need to remember that it is not about me being the one to score.  My job is only to move that ball forward to the best of my ability.  The worst thing I can do it erase any forward progress I may have gotten by committing a personal foul.

   “Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”  - John 4:36-38

Engaging Truth

"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think or evaluate evidence.  Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."

-Richard Dawkins

   So here we have something that challenges Christian beliefs, what is your first reaction?  Do you dismiss it out of hand, or do you actually try to engage with it?  What does it look like to actually engage with an idea you thing is wrong?  The problem is that many Christians when faced with a statement like the one from Dawkins, simply dismiss it without consideration or worse, accept it.  I know this, because I have watched them do it, and for many years, I did the same.  I told myself that if my faith was a form of denial, then I would rather have my faith then be damned.  That very thinking created an arrogant sort of faith that actually impaired my ability to relate to nonbelievers.  When faced with ideas that seemed to contradict my beliefs, I would turn away for fear of losing my faith.  So great was my fear that I could not be the face of love that Christ called me to be.

   Now, imagine you are thinking about going skydiving.  You do your research.  You find that out of about 3.1 million jumps in 2012, only 19 fatalities and 915 injuries were reported, and thus you reason that skydiving is a reasonably safe endeavor  You do further research on companies that take people skydiving until you find one that has a great safety record and lots of good reliable recommendations.  Now based on the evidence in front of you, you have a pretty reasonable and rational faith in the idea that you can jump out of an airplane and land safely.  The moment of truth comes when you are standing at the edge and you are only one step away from a 10,000 foot jump.  That change in circumstance creates a drastic change in mood.  Are you going to hold onto the things you decided were true when both feet were safely on the ground and jump?  Do you let the emotions of fear and uncertainty overwhelm you and chicken out?

   So here we have an example of faith that is based on evidence, and thus does not fit Dawkins definition of faith.  Since Dawkins' claim is that all faith is in spite of evidence and we have at least one example that shows otherwise, we can explain why his statement is false.  It is important to know the truth, but it also important to know why it is the truth.  That only happens when we engage and try to understand those we disagree with.

   

   As witnesses to Christ, we are called to be a light to those in darkness, and that cannot be done by refusing to engage with the world.  We must live by faith, but that faith cannot be based on arrogant dismissal of any idea that we do not like.  Living out a faith based on love means that we must always be ready to face questions which personally challenge and stretch us.  We are called to treat those who would be enemies with compassion and humility, not defensive words and cold shoulders.

"I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” - Matthew 10:16

Evangelism: Doing the Math, Together

Imagine you are working a long math problem.  You have worked through several steps, and after all that work, you get an answer of 4.  Now, you go to your teacher, and you show them your work, and they tell you “No, the answer is 12” with no further explaination.  Not terribly useful is it?  

Now imagine you are dealing with someone who is in the middle of a life crisis, and you tell them, “The answer is Jesus”...   Again, not terribly useful.  Evangelism is about more than just telling people Jesus is the answer.  You must “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. ”  It is not as simple as telling people what we believe, we must be prepared to tell them why we believe.  That means, like a good teacher, we must be willing to take the time and sit down with people and work through the math together.  

So, what does that look like?

That means doing your homework.  You cannot help someone solve a math problem unless you know the math yourself.  You cannot explain to someone what happened in the Garden of Eden or why Jesus had to die for our sins if you don’t know these things for yourself.  This is why careful, reflective study is core to the Christian philosophy.  It is essential to the process of sanctification, and it is essential to evangelism.  Before you can teach someone else, you must know it for yourself.

That means seeking to understand them before we make ourselves understood.  You cannot help someone with a math problem without looking at their work.  Similarly, if we do not understand the other person, we cannot possibly know where they went wrong in their thinking or how they got where they are.  In addition, this helps establish common ground.  You can’t work a math problem with someone until you both agree than 2 + 2 = 4.  Talking to someone who believes that “God does not exist” is very different from talking to someone who believe in a distant God who is no longer involved in the world.  You need to find what you have in common, and work from there.

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” -1 Peter 3:15-16

Fire and Brimstone

Fear is a powerful emotion.  It cuts to the heart of all of our survival instincts.  We want to live.  We want to be safe in an uncertain world.  No one can argue that fear can be a powerful motivator, but is it a good one?
Fear makes us build walls, but love makes us step outside our walls and build bridges.  Fear makes us hoard our resources both physically and emotionally, but love drives us to give freely.  Fear makes us lash out defensively at any challenge, real or imagined, to our faith, but love asks us to have open, honest conversations with those who disagree so that we may learn to understand each other better.  At the end of the day, which is a better reason for having faith, fear or love?
About a hundred of years ago, a preacher decided that people were not concerned enough with the consequences of their choices after death.  He sought to make sure that people were aware that God’s judgment was hanging over them.  The end result was the the Fire and Brimstone sermon, and the revival it sparked.  That revival had a profound impact on Christianity.  While it brought many people into a deeper and more complete relationship with Jesus that was grounded in love, it also created many believers with relationships that were built on fear.  The end result of that relationship grounded in fear was a faith that was limited and defensive.
Why is this important?  Think about how non-Christians, especially those in America today, view Christianity as a whole.  They see Christians who lash out defensively in public at anything that they perceive as a challenge to their faith.  They see churches that are social and emotional fortresses, excluding those who need Jesus most, rather than welcoming them.  In short, they don’t see love.  They only see the fear.  As Christians, we are supposed to have a healthy fear of God and his justice, but when people look at you and how you present your faith, are they seeing the love, or do they see fear?
I say all this, because I grew up only seeing that culture of fear.  I grew up in a church where everyone was expected to have the same beliefs, and asking the wrong questions was frowned upon.  At the age of 18, I was not ready to give up on God, but I was ready to turn my back on churches entirely.  I went to a small bible study hoping to find something else, and I did.  I asked hard questions and in return I got honest answers.  Sometimes those answers were, “I don’t know”, but never once did they get upset when I poked holes in their faith.  In addition, these men were always ready to sacrifice themselves for others, even complete strangers.  In short, I found some Christians who had built their faith on love, and their actions did more to convince me than their words ever could.  In the end, I gave my life to Christ because more than anything else, I wanted to have what they had.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Introduction

"Faith... is the art of holding onto things our reason once accepted, despite your changing moods."

-CS Lewis

No matter who you are or where you live at the end of the day, if you are human, it means you are still a finite and limited creature.  No matter how much you study or how well you reason things out, there is always going to be some element of uncertainty.  Despite all that, at some point you have to simply say, “Based on what I have experienced, I believe this to be the truth” and accept the consequences, right or wrong.

That is the essence of faith.  You are making a choice to trust in what you have decided is true, even in the face of the consequences of being wrong.  Sometimes it is an easy thing with little room for doubt, like trusting that your ladder will hold while you change a lightbulb.  Sometimes it is a hard thing full of doubts and second guessing.  Either way, you have two choices, to trust in what you have decided is true, or to shy away and play it safe.  The problem is that even the decision to play it safe is an act of faith.  How did you decide what safe is?  Did you get there by using the same finite knowledge and reason that led you to decide that the other course of action was unsafe?

When you make these kinds of decisions, you are drawing on all sorts of experiences.  These experiences all go together into a melting pot where they stew together.  While some people spend more time slicing and dicing(i.e. analyzing) their experiences, ultimately everything that happens to us get thrown into the mix in some way, form, or fashion.  From that stew emerges the set of beliefs that you use as a guide for navigating the world.

It is not an easy thing for anyone to lay out the full set of reasons why they believe what they believe, but my purpose is to take some time to try to discuss some of the reasons myself and others choose to believe in God, and more specifically Jesus.

“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” -Revelations 12:11