Friday, July 21, 2017

DO WE BELIEVE FAITH?

Faith is a very common fundamental word quite easily understood.  Or...is it?

I suggest that we may have had a tendency for quite some time to have talked the "container" while possibly having overlooked the "content".  Faith isn't just a step or a concept linked to Bible discussion.  We all know this.  Yet, to observe its existence is one thing.  To follow (see) its activity is quite another; a worlds-apart another.

Faith sees what can't be seen.  II Corinthians 5:7...we are to walk by?  Faith.  And, not by?  Sight.  Yet, our tendency is to live day by day in the reverse.  I don't speak critically; but wish to informatively.  We've changing/improving to do.  Yay us!

While the platform of faith easily passes through the lips of we Sunday School students, we are speaking micro and mega experiences in the invisibles which, quite honestly, bugs the teacher (us).  We prefer things cut and dried, black and white, explained, understood....and manageable.  Fortunately, faith isn't going to abide by such yearnings.

Faith takes a person into a realm that is unmonitorable regarding its operational scheme.  Yet, one can "see" its results.  It sees (II Cor. 5:7) into, through, and out the other side of what normal visibility can provide.  We are called to believe faith; not believe "in" faith; but believe that faith is an activity of most profound, yet immediate, sensory.  A world of actuality and reality exists which can only be reached via this believing scope called faith.

And the question always remains.  Do we believe faith or do we simply use the terminology with a bit of a spiritual wink?

To believe that faith is active in a prominent invisible form is to connect to the larger side of our basic existence.  It supplies us, fuels us, drives us, and blesses us.  Our hearts and minds are bent on approaching every single day with strong (and certain) ambition toward matters which haven't happened yet; but we "believe" they will.  Furthermore, we believe that seed sown yesterday will sprout in the future and we have zero skill-set to know how, when, why, nor where.

Odd, don't you think?

Faith is the binding of the physical with the spiritual.  It is the Grand Link.  The study of "physics" alone is mind-boggling because it cannot be approached without including the strong dynamic of the "spirits" (spiritual).  Therefore, read Ephesians 3:20-21 again.  Note the truth that we are to believe with an experiencial faith that is beyond....is beyond...even our wildest imagination.  Note: not beyond our greatest "understanding"; but far past our wildest "imagination".

And we insist upon conducting church in a way that is safe, manageable, routine, with no surprises?  No wonder we are at times dismissed by our neighbors with a shrug as if we are boring.  We must forever gain momentum in believing in our fundamental doctrine called faith.  It has no limitations for it is the very invisible fabric of the most powerful entity on earth....a believer.

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