Finding Ourselves and Rest in Christ, Not in Self

I recently visited my grandmother in the nursing home for her birthday. When I made my way into her room, she was reciting multiple letters of the alphabet. I could not comprehend what she was trying to spell, until she said, ‘Can you help me spell Whittington?’ Whittington is her maiden name, but she was unable to spell it. Through our conversation, she declared, ‘I don’t know what to do’, and ‘Can you help me help myself’. I quietly told her, all she needed to do was simply rest, and she replied, ‘I can’t. It’s not in my vocabulary.’

My grandmother has dementia, and possibly Alzheimer I suppose. They have arranged for her to have hospice, so they aid the nursing home in caring for her. She seems almost always in a state of worry and unrest, along with having problems remembering some persons and even the most common elementary things about everyday life. I cried. Why? Because I have felt and sometimes do feel the same way she expressed to me she does.

Have you ever stood in front of the mirror, and just wanted to shout out ‘Who am I? Do I even know who I am or what I am doing?’ Have you ever spent the night kneeling in prayer and weeping, finding no peace or understanding in the situations that surround you, what you should be doing, or how to do that which you know you should?

Consider we have something more comforting and a greater Physician, than that of hospice. I told my grandmother that we all feel lost sometimes with unrest, and are often at a loss for what we should be doing. I asked her if she knew Jesus, and she declared, ‘Yes, I talk to Him everyday.’ Her recollection of our Lord and Savior, through all her forgetfulness, moved my heart. Praise God through all her loss of memory, she can still recall the very One who will save us body, soul, and spirit.

Have we not professed to have put faith in Christ, and claim to trust in the very Word of God? Why then do we allow the flesh, the world, and the devil to toss us to and fro into all kinds of worries and dismay? How can we let the testimony of the Scriptures, and the moment of our very salvation fade somewhere into dark forgotten parts of our mind, while we try to survive in this corrupt world by the means of the flesh? We cannot hold onto faith and Christ in one hand, while refusing to let go of the worries and cares of this world in the other.

Scripture declares ‘the Son of man is come to save that which was lost,’ so by grace through faith we repent and are no longer lost. Christ bids us unto Himself, by His words, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ Do we not find the most rest, and see the clearest direction when we converse with God through prayer and mediate on His given Word?

May we all draw from the wisdom of God, as we prepare, work, and live our daily lives as diligent servants subject to Him. May we find who we are in Him, while trusting in His help, finding peace and rest in knowing He loves and cares for us more than we can ourselves.

Does Faith Combat Anxiety

Today, I read the short article entitled Study: Believing in God can reduce anxiety in the Health News section of UPI.com. According to the report, apparently the studied showed that those who believe in God were less stressed about their errors than those who profess to not believe in God.

"We found that religious people or even people who simply believe in the existence of God show significantly less brain activity [in the anterior cingulate cortex of the brain] in relation to their own errors," Inzlicht said. "They're much less anxious and feel less stressed when they have made an error."

I found this report quite interesting, and my initial thoughts surrounded the idea of believers. Why would a believer feel less anxious and less stressed even after having made an error? Would such arise from the scriptural teaching that through Christ all is forgiven, that all men error and should merely strive to do better, or that making an error simply didn’t matter that much to them? But, then I thought, surely the unbeliever would also acknowledge that all men error and should strive to do better, and clearly there are those who obviously don’t care if they error at all. So, as the study shows, we are left with the only real difference is the believing or not believing in God.

Interestingly, a similar article on the same topic from Medical News Today.com goes a little further in declaring, ‘The stronger their religious zeal and the more they believed in God, the less their ACC fired in response to their own errors, and the fewer errors they made.’

So then I wondered, does this reflect the thought that believers acknowledge a forgiveness of error through repentance and faith in Christ, or is there a belief that the weighing of the scales (good deeds vs. bad deeds) in the hands of God will lend them mercy and grace? Basically, is there a faith vs. works doctrinal difference among believers, yet lending both to have less anxiety regarding their error? And not only does the report show believers as ‘less likely to feel anxious about making errors,’ but also about ‘facing the unknown.’

Given just the little we have in these two articles, it should cause us to ponder two quick thoughts: (1) the further away from believing in God one becomes, the more likely they are to be anxious about their mistakes and the more they are likely to make; (2) although a believer in God becomes less anxious about their mistakes as they become less frequent, this does not guarantee true conversion has occurred even if profession has been made.

How so, one may ask. Scripture tells us that believing in God is not enough, for ‘the devils also believe, and tremble.’ Scripture also acknowledges that though there will be many who claim their works should be counted to save them, believers are saved by faith and not of works. So, dear unbeliever, maybe you would consider believing in God to ease a little anxiety. And to both, make sure your belief is grounded in faith.

John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

What a marvelous work did I happen upon in picking up John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. From the onset he describes his wretched soul, as we all as sinners have been. He tells of the dreams and warnings of the Lord which came while he was yet a child, which caused his heart to ponder such things of heaven and hell, though they soon faded as he continued in sin. He shares of finding a religious experience, which both intrigued him and shallowly gave him comfort, but in his sin was he yet still. We find that even through the rebuke of the lost to one another can change one in the flesh, yet their spirit may remain dead in trespasses and sin. Yet, through it all, the God of Heaven shares mercy and grace to a sinner who, blinded by the flesh and the devil, falls to the depth of believing there is no hope for them, for they are too much of a sinner to find forgiveness in Christ. Oh, how great a change may be shown by the religious and the hypocrite, yet merely skin deep, the heart and soul never truly knows of the conversion whereby we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. Trusting not in Christ for forgiveness, though His very Words were nigh even upon his lips and fingertips, he did strive to obey the law to earn that which may only be given: salvation. Though asking God for forgiveness, it was misplaced by mere thoughts of the flesh saying ‘I can do better’ instead of putting faith in His Son’s sinless life and taking our place upon the cross. Praise be to God that dear John Bunyan indeed found salvation by grace through faith, by the mercy of God he found it, and so may every sinner that turns in faith, at the moving of the Holy Spirit, away from themselves and toward the sinless Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.

I have just started this work, but would recommend this to any sinner desiring to know more about Christ, the new convert who has come to know Christ, and to the believer that he may remember the day they met Christ.

Does Unbelief Take Faith

Over at another blog, an atheist says, Atheism Does Not Require Faith.

The Claim: “I can count on finding at least a few stories in either the mainstream media or various theist-generated sources claiming that atheism is a religion or that atheism requires as much faith as any religion.”

The Rebuttal: “An atheist is someone who does not accept the theistic claim (i.e., a god or gods exist). Like the "agnomist," the atheist requires no faith because he or she is not offering any sort of belief claim. In fact, it is precisely the tendency to seek evidence rather than to rely on faith that typically leads one to atheism.”

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I left the following comment:

“Maybe the faith spoken of, is not so much that you do not believe in God, but the faith to believe in the evolution of everything from a big bang (or other choice besides God); therefore, claiming you have faith in what you believe, not in what you claim not to believe.I understand, you may claim that there is evidence and/or degrees of probability, for the big bang (or other choice besides God), but without absolutes, one is still left with making a choice that is based (whether great or small) on "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen", which is the biblical definition of faith.

So, I am not sure if most are saying that an atheist is exercising faith when they deny God, but when they believe/trust/hope (or other choice word) in something else, such as the big bang, etc.

For even in atheism, one is saying, "I don't believe in that", but "I do believe in this."”

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I believe there may be some confusion (maybe somewhat on both sides) when it comes to an issue of faith vs. unbelief. I don’t think we can actually say it takes faith to not believe in something, have it be God, “gnome[s], unicorns, fairies, Santa Claus, Odin, angels, or gods”.

The faith arises not from the denial of God as our Creator, but in the acceptance (belief/hope/trust) of something else, whether the big bang or another cause, as man’s creator (or starter of creation).

Do I believe atheists exercise faith? I sure do, just not in their denial of God. I believe, when atheists believe (by teaching, writing, saying) mankind has come from the evolutionary chain, birthed by the big bang, which still fails to hold absolute proof, it is exercising faith in "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Faith vs. Unbelief

What I have recently learned on my blog while speaking to Atheists:

1. Acceptance of science’s theory of evolution is not belief that it is actually true, but merely holds that it is the best theory science has. The word “consensus” is used, meaning “opinion”, which cannot be used as authoritatively fact.

2. Science has not/can not prove there is no God (some assume because it is a negative), because He is out of the natural realm.

3. Science cannot prove there is a God, because He is out of the natural realm.

4. To science, God is non testable, because “The idea of a supernatural explanation (i.e. god) is not even considered, because science cannot test or falsify supernatural explanations. They are outside the bounds of science.”

5. Science does not work with absolutes, so all is relative to current knowledge which may change at any given time due to new evidence overwriting old evidence, or “consensus”, meaning “opinion”.

6. I am not to use science to prove there is a God, because science is evidence and fact not belief and faith.

With even this little bit of “consensus” I have gleaned from some of the Atheists comments from my blog, it clearly shows we merely return to the Scriptures context of Faith vs. Unbelief.

When it comes to God, there is either Faith or Unbelief. Science has no apparent voice, authority, or opinion of God, for He is “outside the bounds of science”.

Now before someone jumps at the word “unbelief”, any honest Atheist must adhere to its definition and admit that in fact they hold to “unbelief”.

Unbelief: “the state or quality of not believing; incredulity or skepticism, esp. in matters of doctrine or religious faith.”

Scripture declares, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Be forewarned that, “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Neither are you who say that you believe in God, but refuse to repent and accept Christ as Lord and Savior of your life by faith, safe, for even, “the devils also believe, and tremble.”

There must be Faith, for it is written, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

There is no more security in science for any to assume, by its inability to prove God is not, or in oneself by the inability to physically see or completely understand the things of God, to hold to a personal opinion that God does not exist.

It simply boils down to a personal choice of Faith or Unbelief.

I would ask that you, “repent ye, and believe the gospel”.

What then is the gospel?

1 Corinthians 15

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

FAITH A Four Letter Word

Faith:
Hebrews 11:1: the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Encarta.com: belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof
Dictionary.com: confidence or trust in a person or thing, belief that is not based on proof

It appears some believe faith to be a four letter word that they will have no part of. So today, I am questioning faith with the idea of, can anyone actually live life without such? I am not narrowing my idea of faith to only saving faith or even religious faith, but simply faith as it stands in anything.

Does every person at least have some type of faith in something or someone, even if they deny such? I believe the answer is yes.

Is there not a sense of faith in believing that ones mother and father are actually their biological parents? Unless there is a DNA test that proves undeniable evidence that such are, is it not based on trust in a person without actual proof? One may say that the evidence points to that, ah, but the evidence though may point to such may only be leading one away from the truth.

I know children that look like their parents, but their parents are not their biological parents. There are cases that children do not even know they have been adopted till their teen years when they are told of such. Men have signed birth certificates stating they are the father when they are not the biological father. Yet all these children do not simply “think” these people are their parents, they “believe” and have “faith” that these are their parents without requiring or requesting logical evidence or proof.

Theists are often criticized for having faith that indeed a Creator (whom we call God) created this universe. We are often scoffed by saying we have no evidence and it leaves too many unanswered questions.

On the flip side, when questions as to the origination of the Big Bang, of what set all this in motion, we are given answers like “We don’t know yet” or “Maybe matter and energy has always existed”. Some may claim evidence to the “after effects” of the Big Bang, but not the “start” or the “cause” of the Big Bang. Does this not fall in line with the Biblical definition of faith? “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” No one saw the Big Bang, but there is hope and they believe evidence of that not seen exist to prove it happened.

There could be many more examples, but I just don’t see where it is possible for anyone to live life without some type of faith whether small or great in someone or something without requiring or demanded “show me the evidence first”.