Faith is not merely an intellectual matter. In fact, much of our understanding which has been called intellectual must be ignored to have faith. For example: reason says that the meek shall have nothing for they have fought for nothing. Faith says that the meek shall inherit the earth. Reason says that needs must be sought by the one who needs them. Faith says that the one who seeks God first will have his needs met.
Faith is not a measure of intellect. Many very intelligent people have given their lives to Christ. Many have not. Many people of average or less than average intellect have given their lives to Christ. Many of these also have not.
Faith is found in the heart. It is not a matter of the brain. The mind believes it, the feeling feel it and the will determines it. It is not something that can be explained. It is not something which feeds the intellect nor deprives the intellect.
People allow other things to crowd out their faith when they fail to guard their hearts. They will get involved in a sport or work at times when they need to be guarding their hearts. They will reason that they are not under the law that says they must read their Bibles and pray every day. They will reason that most people miss church a few weeks a year. They will reason that they need their money more than the church does. They will reason that everyone falls off the spiritual wagon every once in a while.
Their faith has moved from their hearts to their intellect.. It becomes reasonable and it is not reasonable to deny yourself anything you want.
From here it is a short trip to no faith at all. Faith cannot exist as something that can be reasoned in a fallen world. The intellect of a fallen world will give a fallen reasoning. And from here any sin can be launched. The heart has been lost. The faith has been subdued.
Proverbs 27:19 (NKJV)
As in water face reflects face, So a man's heart reveals the man.
3 comments:
Best article about faith.
Mostly peoples lose their faith because they have weak minds and no thinkings.
Does the excuse "I'm not perfect but I'm forgiven" give Christians the right to treat people badly?
I was brought up a Christian and attended church with my family. I started working with some Christians and trusted them.
They started to scheming and being deceptive in order to get what they wanted, justifying it the guise of 'just doing business'. At first I prayed for help and strength to endure working with them, after a long time I finally decided to stand up to them, but by then it was too late. Again more lies and more praying – I started thinking that my prayers weren’t answered but she was asking for forgiveness and getting away with everything and I was being punished, maybe I wasn’t praying hard enough? The consequences of their actions were hurting me, my family and others and there was no remorse on their part.
I started to read about forgiveness and then I got mad because in the bible it’s not your works or actions that count, it’s your faith that will ‘save you,’ so no matter how much damage they did to others they can still go to heaven, even if they don’t repent or make up for their actions.
I decided then that I didn't want to be anywhere where they went for eternity.
I started looking deeper into my beliefs, and now because of their being ‘witness to Christ's’ ways, we are now atheists and know we need to believe in ourselves and doing right to people here on earth and not worry about after we are dead and buried.
They can go on believing their bad behavior ‘that never happened – it’s been forgiven’ while they continue to their conniving, deceitful, immoral ways - still hurting other people.
Now we are happily atheist, and they go to church every week to sing in the choir and gossip and look good to their 'church family.'
John tells us that we can no longer sin and call ourselves Christians. Now, was he saying that Christians are perfect? That is hardly plausible. No, he was saying that you just can't continue to act like a non-Christian and be a Christian. You can't be casual about your sin.
But your own theology also declares that you are not an atheist either. If they can be called Christians without acting like Christians, why can't you be called a Christian even though you say that you are not? If you ever were a Christian, how can you say you are not now? Why did you look up this blog if there isn't a kernel of faith within you?
An atheist is a person who has conclusively determined that there is no God. I don't know anyone with that much faith. Just think about it.
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