January 25, 2014
SHOCKED! A word I just do not use that often anymore. But recently I was shocked enough I could have powered all the lights in my house for a few days! As a guest on a local Christian call in show, teachings of the Bible were discussed. The topic soon turned to the question of why so much of the Bible was no longer taught. A local pastor called in to give his viewpoint on the issue. He told the audience that the reason he did not teach much of the Bible to his church, was that it was just too complicated to understand.
It took me a minute to get my jaw back in place after it was bruised from hitting the floor. It also took a minute to get the feeling back in my tongue from biting on it so hard. After a short and fruitless discussion with the pastor, I asked him how would he explain the Bible and its’ purpose to anyone that asked him? He told me that he did not have an answer, and knew of few pastors who did. My answer to him probable shocked the pastor as much as his previous response had me. I told him, “I can explain the Bible in five words!”
I waited before speaking those five words, so many callers could tell me what they thought those five words were. I heard some great responses! “Christ is who He said!”. “The Lord is truly God”. “The Bible is God’s Word”. All great responses, but not the five words I had in mind. My five words? Proverbs three, five and six!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust is a powerful word, and the meaning of the Hebrew word used here is even more powerful. The word is ‘batach’, and it means to lean on with confidence and security. We have all watched a child jump into their father’s arms. Why do they do so without hesitation? Because they have the past experience of knowing that their father will be there with open arms. The child has faith that their father would give his life before he would allow harm to come to him or her.
We are the same with God! We know that the Lord will always be there. and we can confidently and securely have faith in the Lord because of the experiences with have with Him,.and those He has shown us in the past. We trust God, because each day He shows us why we can have complete faith in Him.
We often try to separate the words faith and trust, but you cannot truly define one word without the other. In order to trust we must first have faith. Only with trust can we believe in the promises God has given us. Despite what many would try to tell us, our faith is not blind. The very heart of the Christian worldview is based on actual evidence, not on blind faith. It is only after one is presented with overwhelming evidence that he or she is invited to place their faith in the facts of the Gospel.
God knows us best, and created us as reasoning and rational beings. The very goal of ration and reason is to find truth. In so, God gave us rational reasons to know that His words are true. Look at Christ for the perfect example of this. Over 300 Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For Jesus to have fulfilled just eight of these prophecies would be a probability of 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. So what would the probability be that He would fulfill all 300? If you are willing to think rationally and with reasoning, you cannot look at these facts and deny that Christ was who He said He was, and that the Word of God this is based on is true. It is only when we ignore the truth, the ration and reason of these facts, that we deny Christ and God’s Word, Only when we close our minds to the truth, do we turn to the emotions and stubbornness of our own understanding, ignore the logic and reason the Lord has given us.
Christianity stands on facts, on the evidence that God has given us. Christianity is not blind faith. We have faith in God’s Word because of the evidence He has presented to us, and we find truth in the future fulfillment of His promise because of our trust in Him. The path of Christianity is a three stage process, evidence, faith, assurance. Christianity stands on evidence, and it is based on that evidence that we take a step of faith. And it is only through our faith that we trust in the promises of the blessed assurance that Christ brought to this world! The Lord has never called a man to Him on blind faith, but on the trust we can have in Him!
So the next time someone tells you that the Bible is complicated, know that God’s Word is actually very simple. So simple that no man will ever have the excuse of not understanding. God has laid out the evidence in front of us, so we can all have faith in Him, and trust in the promises He has given us. God has given us the evidence so we can follow His direction, so we are not lead blindly by our own silly notions and understandings. We follow God because of the proven truth in His word. Our faith leads us to the foot of the Cross, because of the evidence that God’s Word and Christ gave us. And we walk into the future that God has shown us, because of the proven trust we have in His promises.
Next time you hear someone ask, “How do you know God exist?” , or “How can you know the Bible is true?”, you will not even need five words to give them an answer. You will be able to answer their question with just one word. TRUST!
Hoping each of you find the truth in that trust!
