I worked with a guy who when explaining what he thought about God gave me some weird messages that have stuck with me to this day. First off, he wasn't real sure there was a God and explained away the Bible as a book of fiction pretty quickly. Then he proceeded to tell me that it is a stark weakness for a group of people (Christians) to rely on a spiritual being to listen to all their prayers and answer them individually, expecting anything to "really" happen was ridiculous. Then to top it off, he said that when we die we are buried and the worms eat us up and that is it. Not much hope for this guy. You may have spoken with someone like this before and their attitude about God and the Spirit is so worldly and nonspiritual to the point that it minimizes their entire belief about God even being God!
Sadly enough, there are some Christians who believe close enough to what this guy believed that it compromises their very faith in God being or doing anything at all. In our desire to make all this "Christian" stuff more palatable, we mix a little human reasoning in with it and kind of make our own Bible, which is flawed because of our opinions about God and everything else. It could be the reason that this scripture is in the Bible. Proverbs 30:6 Do not add to his words, or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar. The most dangerous words for a worldly-thinking believer are "I think."
The Word tells us to stop trying to put our spin on the perfect living Word of God but we do it anyway. Just like in the conversation I had with my coworker, he had his own opinion about God and all the "other" stuff as he called it, but his opinion was not taken from a "perfect" source. His opinion was from his cluttered brain that had gone through a few life experiences that caused him to doubt almost everything and that was a blockage between him and the pure truth of the Word. We would say he had a "secular" viewpoint on life and everything else. Secular (def) - denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis. When you look at the faith and the Bible from a totally secular vantage point, all of this "religious" stuff is a little wacky. The difference for the person who has been born again in the Spirit is our eyes see all of this from God's perspective and that perspective is heightened when we study the Bible. We don't just read about God blessing Abraham and His blessing falling on His children, we know it is true because we have experience in having faith. In fact, our whole relationship with Jesus is because of faith.
This faith takes on real steps in life when we prove God's Word by our belief in it. God's Word doesn't have to have us believe it to be true, but we do have to believe it to be a reality for us. When our faith comes alive it looks like total, unrelenting belief and God blesses that kind of faith. In Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. Even without the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus God has rewarded true faith that is uncompromised and pure. Jesus maximized our faith when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the hearts of believers and when we were born again in the Spirit, the Spirit quickened our faith into an unshakeable foundational faith that causes things to happen, because of who God is and how He responds to His children.
In sharing the relationship we have with Him, Jesus compares this relationship to a shepherd, sheep relationship. Then Jesus says the following in John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice for us when he took our sins on the cross and died so we might be saved. When we are born again Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit and our faith is energized when the Spirit takes over and we come to know God's voice and this faith relationship begins to grow. We begin to realize the Lord's voice is speaking to us and in John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me,15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father.
We cannot "hedge" in any of this or our faith relationship becomes a mockery and the thief will come and try to steal, kill, and destroy us. That is his purpose. John 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. God spoke this truth to the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 40: 31 - But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Come back to trusting God in all things and do not compromise the results of what your faith in God can and will do if you just trust Him completely. Never hedge your belief in the power of God in your life and learn to walk in the faith that can only come through Jesus.
The Pilgrimage Continues
David Warren
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