Do You Still Have Your Faith?
When I look back on the four years I spent in seminary, my most vivid memory is not of the professor who made me cry, or the time I got called in [to the principal’s office, so to speak] regarding an article I wrote for the student newspaper, or the difficulties faced as a woman in a male dominated world of biblical academia, particularly overt discrimination by younger male students preparing for their idea of “ministry.”
No. I was 7,000 miles away from campus––in Jerusalem, of all places––part of a group traveling to Israel with one of my professors when a perfect stranger, a man from England, who when my husband told him I was in seminary, this man sought me out to ask, “Do you still have your faith?”
Besides the utter surprise of this encounter, his question made me sweat.
It was hot inside the small shop, situated on an ancient street, finding myself in a place I had never dreamed I would visit. I looked as out of place as I felt.
Button-holed, he backed me into a corner, up against merchandise tourists like me could buy to take home.
Do I still have my faith?
Do I even remember my reply?
No. But I will never forget the question.
What is Faith?
Faith IS . . .
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” Hebrews 11:1–3, ESV
[faith] hypostasis: assurance, confidence, conviction evidenced by persistent hope in the promises of God vs. a vague blind hope without evidence to support
Faith is present tense.
Not a past decision, or postponed deliberation, or speculation.
Faith involves putting one foot in front of the other, trusting God, who you and I cannot see, because as believers, we have come to know Him through His written word.
You can believe what the Bible says because you believe that God said it.
ALL scripture is given by God (2Timothy 3:16). . . and the words given continue (protected and preserved) for your benefit and mine because God knows that you and I need encouragement, guidance, support, assurance.
“Thy word is Truth.” John 17:17
Through His Word, God faithfully provides what people need.
Faith is also Something God commends people for exercising. Choices, decisions, and responses will provide evidence that you and I actually believe God’s Word.
The writer of Hebrews fills chapter 11 with examples of those persons whose faith led them to do what showed they believed. They behaved as they believed.
Abel offered a sacrifice. Noah built an ark. Abraham believed God would give him heirs. Moses forsook the pleasures the world offered to lead God’s wayward people to the promised land.
Hardships and challenges abounded throughout their lives.
Hebrews 11:13 also tells us “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
Did God create the universe and everything in it?
Why Creation?
The question of Creation remains in every age the central battleground where war is waged against God and His plan for the world.
Hebrews makes plain that Faith rests on the foundation of Creation––belief that God made the world and everything in it.
Did God create out of nothing (ex nihilo), as Genesis 1–2 describes?
Nothing. Then something.
Hebrews 11:3 asserts that everything in the universe that IS seen WAS NOT made out of what IS visible. Verb tenses matter!
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.” Hebrews 1:10–12
“Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Psalm 90:2
“He stretches out the north over the void
and hangs the earth on nothing.
He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not split open under them.
He covers the face of the full moon
and spreads over it his cloud.
He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters
at the boundary between light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astounded at his rebuke.
By his power he stilled the sea;
by his understanding he shattered Rahab.
By his wind the heavens were made fair;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?” Job 26:7–14
“He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.” Psalm 104:5–8
Evidence that Can Be Seen
Darwin’s Black Box, a microbiologist’s unraveling of the theory of evolution to irreducible complexity is illustrated by a simple mousetrap. There are five parts to a mousetrap and if any one part is missing, the mousetrap will not work. The author’s point was that behind even the most basic designs, there exists a designer.
How much more then the world and everything in it.
Most people dislike reading instructions. This brilliant author admitted he didn’t want to read the instructions for putting his son’s bicycle together. My eldest daughter didn’t want to know how to change a flat tire, hoping she would never need to know how. My husband reads instructions only as a last resort.
Generally, we like to figure things out, don’t we? Based on observation, experience, what others we trust have told us, what we were taught in school, we can make our way well enough.
Unfortunately, today most people approach the Bible as a Black Box, content to speculate, theorize and guess about its contents without making the effort to read its instructions.
Matthew 22:29 Jesus answered the religious leaders, You are in error because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God.
Did God create man and woman?
The Bible asserts that man is made in God’s image and of inestimable value to God. Since the Bible is true, then man is answerable to God as his maker.
God is a moral God, which distinguishes God from all other gods. The Bible describes God’s character, revealing His holiness, justice, mercy, grace, and truth.
Our culture insists that man is evolving, adapting, shaping whatever future he can imagine, securing for himself the life he wants to live.
Is Jesus God’s Son, Savior?
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:15–17
Jesus said : “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24–27
Just as in the game of Monopoly, you and I come around the board time and again to face these same questions because the foundation supports whatever we build with our lives.
“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us”
How do I answer the question of my Faith?
Today, I would tell that man I understand why he wanted to ask me that question. He too, had been to seminary. He was older. Wiser, I’m sure he thought. Now, I’m older too.
Rather than being built up in the faith, sometimes faith gets deconstructed. Whether in seminary or church or in a family or community where disillusionment, disappointment, disinterest, heartaches and hurts multiply, people can affect what we believe about God, the Bible and ourselves.
Faith, like breathing, must be ongoing. Present tense.
I can’t see the air I breathe, but I know it sustains my life.
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