Tag: Jesus

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Thoughts

Doubt

19044588Do you ever struggle with doubt?

It seems that it is a common problem for everyone. The Philosopher doubts their philosophy, the Atheist doubts their atheism, the Agnostic doubts their agnosticsm, the Christian doubts their faith. Not necessarily all the time but enough to make it a problem.

The problem with doubt is that it makes you feel bad. Not having a firm foundation to things you believe can be very disturbing. Sometimes it even leads to psychological problems including anxiety and anger. People who doubt can easily become angry with those who don’t (although those who don’t doubt sometimes do – if you see what I mean). Doubt has caused misery in many peoples lives. Some give up on Christianity because they think it will be an end to their doubts only to discover that there are as many doubts for the atheist as their are the theist.

The good thing about doubt is that it forces you to ask questions. Questions are important to deepening understanding and faith.

The standard condition for the Christian should be one of faith and not of doubt. I sometimes get the impression that some Christians think that being a doubter is the best way but Jesus always encouraged people to have faith (and of course faith is the opposite of doubt). It is very important to embrace your doubts and not just try to ignore them. If you ignore them they do damage, if you face them you can do things to help yourself.

We will explore this in more detail on another occasion but to end this part let me give you a way to start managing your doubts.

Pray, be thankful to God, and meditate on God.

It is a simple thing but so important to help with doubts. Talk to God about them. Try to develop an attitude of thankfulness for the things you do have and can be sure of. Give yourself some time to think about God.

 

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Thoughts

What is truth?

How can we know what is true? Should we be bothered.

To hear some people speak you would think that what is true is subjective – that is it all depends on your viewpoint. Sometimes this is true, of course. If you ask me if it is a good thing that LiverpoolFC won last weekend I will say yes but you might well say know – especially if you were a fan of the opposition. But some things are not subjective; for instance it really is not up to us whether 2+2=4. Such is the truth (or otherwise) of the existence of people and also of God. There is also a truth about Jesus that is not open to opinion: either Jesus is the son of God, as he claimed to be, or he is not; either he was God incarnate or he was not. These are important truths that need to be decided upon.

So how do we make a choice as to what is true or what is false?

There are all kinds of evidence we can look to for help but we will never find the physical evidence that some people claim we need to make the choice. But you will struggle to find the equivalent demanded physical evidence available for much that is important in our history. All that is available is historical evidence (testimony comes in here) and revelation (what we might believe God has told us about Jesus).

The value of testimony depends on the person who first relates it (as well as any who pass it on). We must decide if we are willing to trust the gospel authors. For my part, after considering the evidence for this I am convinced that they are worth trusting.

The value of revelation is more complicated. It is similar to testimony but you have to first accept that God does want to reveal himself. To believe this is complex but I think there is plenty of evidence to believe this is true – including Jesus himself who believed in revelation. We can consider the evidence but ultimately it will be a matter of faith: you must decide if you want to believe it or not. In the old testament there is plenty of revelation, recorded in the books of the prophets. Prophets who so often talk about Christ.

So ultimately we have to decide what we are going to think about Jesus. There has to be one thing that is true – not everything can be. What does the testimony and revelation say to you about Jesus?

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Church Thoughts

He never said a bad word about anyone

I’ve sometimes heard people say, about someone who has recently died, that ‘ he never said a bad word about anyone.’ I’ve always thought that this was a very good trait to have and someone who was like this is no doubt very saintly. But something I read the other day made me rethink this. This book pointed out that whilst it sounds like this is a quality that we might believe makes someone very close to the way Jesus was; it isn’t.

Jesus had an awful lot to say about some people and he didn’t mince his words either. Maybe we might say that this is because Jesus alone had the right to say such things but I think that misses the point.

Jesus had a lot of good things to say when people were doing good things (even when it was a bad person doing a good thing) – in fact he pointed to the good when often others chose to ignore it in favour of making people, even good people, feel bad about themselves. Sadly the trait of making even good people feel bad about themselves is something that the church has fallen in to from time to time.

But when Jesus saw an injustice, or when he met religious bullies, or people who should know better; he had an awful lot to say to them that was pretty bad.

So maybe we should not aspire to be the person who never said a bad word about anyone but instead aspire to be someone who speaks out against injustice, stands up to bullies (especially the religious kind), and who praises the good he finds in people even when it was hard to find. In fact, just like Jesus.

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Thought for the day

Be prepared

Matthew 25: 1-13 The wise and foolish virgins

I’m going at attempt to put up a little bible study/thought for the day/sermon type thing from time to time and this is my first attempt.

I was never a scout. Well, to be honest I did go to one meeting but I didn’t like it and so never went again. But if I had been a Scout I would have been a good one because just like a good scout I like to be prepared.

I’m one of those sad people who likes to think about as much detail as I can for something and then make some kind of plan for it. I say sad but I don’t really mean it because it seems to me that this is just what God suggests we should be like in his kingdom. It is the wise virgins who have enough oil for the arrival of the bridegroom.

This might feel a little as though God doesn’t like the sponteneous and so is probably an old bloke who sits around complaining about the young and how things aren’t like they used to be. To think like this is a mistake. Perhaps it is being sensible and putting a little thought into planning that enables to sponteneous to happen in the Christian life. You see it is those who are prepared and ready who are in a position to respond to God when he wants us to react right away. Only those who have prepared in the Christian life are ready to follow.

So what preparations does the Christian need to do?

Grow our faith – Jesus is always on about this and it is important.

Keep our entusiasm – the book of Revelation warns against those who lose this.

Pray continually – Paul goes on about this a lot.

Living and listening – I put this on the end because in truth being prepared means doing everything a Christian should do.

So I want to encourage you to be prepared so God can really do something with you when the time is right.