Category: Faith

I got home from running this morning and opened my Bible before the rest of the family got up. Steven Furtick was preachin’ at my through my headphones as I ran. He is going through Romans 8, so I opened my Bible there and began reading.

When I turned the page, I looked over at Romans 9 and saw a passage I underlined…

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. (verse 3)

I heard Francis Chan preach a message about this passage a while back, and that is when I wrote the following next to it…

My prayer too?

I get troubled when I read that statement, because I don’t think I’m quite there.

Right above this passage, Paul talks about his “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart.

• Do I grieve for souls to be saved?
• Is my heart truly broken for the lost?
• How many times have I had the opportunity to share my faith and been too afraid of what people would think of me?
• Is eternal life for the perishing not enough for me to give up some comfort?

I thank God for His Word, and how it shows me, time and time again, how badly I needed what Christ did for me on that cross.

People are dying and going to hell EVERY DAY. May I be used by God today to share my faith with one person.

I saw a tweet from Albert Mohler that referred to an article about Stephen Hawking in the UK Telegraph. In the article, Hawking’s latest book, The Grand Design, is cited. In it, he claims the following:

Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going. (emphasis mine)

While such opinions sadden me, they do not surprise me. When people are able to achieve success without a relationship with God or to seemingly explain away His existence, they are dubious as to why they need Him. After all, they are doing quite well without Him. In their view, He did not help them get to their level of acclaim.

Proverbs 1:7 states that The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;  fools despise wisdom and instruction. So many reject God as irrelevant or nonexistent to their ultimate peril. Denying God does nothing to affect His power, nor to remove Him from His eternal throne.

Fortunately, it also does nothing to nullify His perfect love. He offers salvation to all through the shed blood of Jesus, including those who would deny His existence.

So, what do we do when sharing our faith with people who do not believe in the existence of God?

1. Be patient. This could be the shortest conversation of your day, or one of the longest of your week.
2. Don’t argue. Remember, believers in Christ have the Truth. Christians don’t need to PROVE anything.
3. Be willing to say, “I don’t know.” Tell them when you don’t know the answer to a Biblical or philosophical question, and offer to get back to them with the answer (which is another opportunity to talk to them about it).
4. Speak from personal experience. If someone doubts the existence of God, they may or may not hold His Word in high esteem. But they can’t deny something that happened to you personally. Tell them what Jesus has done in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit within you. That’s difficult to debate.
5. Do all this in love. Love His detractors like He does.

The school year has begun, and, no doubt, a student you know has a teacher or professor that is confrontational in their treatment of the existence of God. Pray for those students within our sphere of influence. May they stand up for their faith, and use every opportunity to proclaim the truth of the Lordship of our God.

The following AT&T commercial really caught my attention the first time I saw it…

I think the most compelling thing about that commercial is that the woman to which this happened had NO KNOWLEDGE it was happening. (more…)