Faith comes by hearing the word

(To preface this post, I'd like to say if you want to read a fantastic book about faith and what it looks like, I highly recommend, "Extraordinary Faith" by Sheila Walsh. Easy reading but goes straight to the heart).

We all hear a lot about faith but really what does all the talk amount to.

The other day I was talking to a guy at the office and he had watched the "special" on TV about the so-called tomb of Christ. Knowing that I am the only professing christian in the office, when everyone else left the room he asked me several questions about what I thought of the info presented on the TV. I told him my thoughts on the basis of the "evidence" presented in the documentary and what proceeded, I felt, was a "God Moment" in which we had a brief discussion on several biblical threads. I guess it was the same thing that had run earlier this year but maybe on a different channel.

This guy having been raised in the Catholic faith openly confesses that he is not a church goer. He still seems to have instilled in him some proper sense of respect for God. He is uncomfortable with the bright spotlight of questioning on himself but at the same time very interested (it would seem) at finding some kind of solid proof to stand on so that he could either, go away from God declaring the hoax exposed or, preferably stand his ground on and say unequivocally that this is the infallible evidence of the existence of God.

Typically, he is one of these fellows that desperately wants to believe and maybe even in his heart of hearts does believe but then he has the problem of fitting that honest belief into the popularity lifestyle and the general acceptance that he so craves. For him, life at this point is all about fitting in and going with the flow of what everybody else is doing, even if he himself is not entirely comfortable with what everybody is being, saying or doing.

I truly believe that his dilemma would quickly be resolved IF he would only do what he consciously makes an effort to not do and that is seek and search out the answers, that are there to be found, for himself. He doesn't make the effort because if he does and finds the answers he seeks, then instead of gliding along in relaxed oblivion, able to claim he didn't know better when something goes desperately wrong, he now has to acknowledge that he did know better and very importantly..... face the consequences.

He wants others to build his own faith for him, by that I mean, to teach him from the Word of God, the truths therein and the foundations on which they stand. Yet at the very same time he reserves the right to dispute the veracity, authenticity and divinity of the Bible...(once again we have the created putting the Creator in the witness box and barraging him with questions, with the created already having made up his mind that whatever the answer he recieves, no matter how beautiful and infallible the explanation, there is a dubiousness that makes the answer unacceptable).

At the same time though, because in this instance "his" faith is actually not his but what someone else has given him he also has an exit door. He is able to blame someone else for not telling him the right stuff if God turns him away at the gate or claim gullibility to others that make a better case for "there being no God" than he can make for "there being a God".

If he doesn't find the the answers which he believes are there, then he has the problem of disavowing the God he has believed in all his life, ...from his life,... whom he still feels the pull and tug of in his conscience, the metaphorical tap on the shoulder, the thought that leaps to mind before the action that he oft dismisses. He tries hard to believe that it is merely the hang-over guilt from his early boyhood teachings when he was growing up that his "friends" say it is.... and not the finger of God weighing on his shoulder and words of God unlocking the secret doors of the heart to make us deal with issues that we wanted to just go away.

The young guy openly told me that he doesn't like to think about things in the Bible because that leads to all kinds of unanswerable questions....like, Where did God come from? I guess that is the best way to deal with most things you don't want to know about... Bury your head in the sand.

His problem is a common one to the age we are living in. The attitude of many young people is that, I want all the access to the things that adults are allowed to say, do or be involved in but at the same time don't not want to accept the responsibility that comes with the territory of being an adult. He is very uneasy about making an unpopular choice even though it might be the right choice.

This guy's faith is weak at best but how could he best strengthen his faith? The Bible speaks of faith comes by hearing the "Word" (ie. reading the scriptures for ourselves). There are other problems here though that need attention before he can proceed to a resolution and the first of these is a communication breakdown. It needs to be understood what faith is.

Is faith a blind leap into the dark hoping that whatever you think is out there to catch you REALLY IS OUT THERE..... Or is it something else entirely.

Yet still, there is something even prior to this that needs to be attended to and that is ....

The rock solid, undeniable authenticity of the scriptures being the words of God, delivered to us, untainted by human thought or opinion..... How do we achieve that?