Confliction
I will start off by saying that this will be a different post than previous posts on this blog. This blog is not meant to inspired false faith, or to weaken the faith that is currently possessed by readers. Today we will be looking at two quotes and comparing them to see if they have validity alongside each other or to see if they have no relevance at all.
The first quote I heard at a disciple now conference at my home church. The quote is this:
"Your view of God determines everything about you."-A.W. Tozer
Now this is an interesting statement when we begin to place it into our Christian faith. As Christians we generally hold a high view of God using words such as omnipotent, omnipresent, perfect love, and redeemer. We sing songs in worship services such as "All I need is you Lord." Yet we can walk away from a church service and at times feel no different than when we left an intriguing class. So what does Tozer have to say about this?
Now please hear me. I'm not calling you out for being a bad Christian if you have ever sang these songs or used these words to describe God. I'm right there with you, I have admittedly sang these songs in a service before and not felt behind what I was singing. The question that I feel this quote is really trying to get at though is this: How does your view of God present itself in your everyday life?
Doubt is something that we do not embrace well in the church. We should be 100% confident in our beliefs with no questions asked, and if you do have questions...don't even think about asking those to people. Yet while sitting in class I came across a quote from a philosopher named Paul Tillich. When asked about faith pertaining to God he had this to say:
"If there is no doubt in faith then it is not faith, it is knowledge." -Paul Tillich
Thus the conflict began in my mind. These two quotes seemed to oppose each other in a manner that I could not deal with. If my view of God is supposed to determine everything about me, then how can I have any doubts about Him? How can I question things about His character? In reality though, I don't know everything about God. When it comes to problems in the world, I don't always have a clear solution that comes from my bible.
Once again, please hear me out. I'm not saying that I am renouncing my faith. I'm not saying that it's complete certainty with a knowledge of God, or a life living in a void with no answers. What I would say is that there are key things one must be solid on. We are sinful people as man and God is perfection. This perfection required something or someone to close the gap between the broken man and perfect God. Cue...Jesus. He died for our sins and asks for a relationship so that we continue pursuing a Christ-like life. A man who lived a perfect life in a not-so-perfect world.
There are certain things that YOU can be certain on in your faith, and that is ok. There are MANY things that you may not be certain on, and that is ok too. If we knew everything about God...then we would be God, and I don't know about you but I definitely don't feel comfortable with that role. So how should our view translate into our daily lives? Thankfully God lays it out for us in James.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27
Always remember that God didn't call us to have all the answers...that's His job. He called us to show His love.
Thanks for reading and God bless.
-rcrawford
"If there is no doubt in faith then it is not faith, it is knowledge." -Paul Tillich
Thus the conflict began in my mind. These two quotes seemed to oppose each other in a manner that I could not deal with. If my view of God is supposed to determine everything about me, then how can I have any doubts about Him? How can I question things about His character? In reality though, I don't know everything about God. When it comes to problems in the world, I don't always have a clear solution that comes from my bible.
Once again, please hear me out. I'm not saying that I am renouncing my faith. I'm not saying that it's complete certainty with a knowledge of God, or a life living in a void with no answers. What I would say is that there are key things one must be solid on. We are sinful people as man and God is perfection. This perfection required something or someone to close the gap between the broken man and perfect God. Cue...Jesus. He died for our sins and asks for a relationship so that we continue pursuing a Christ-like life. A man who lived a perfect life in a not-so-perfect world.
There are certain things that YOU can be certain on in your faith, and that is ok. There are MANY things that you may not be certain on, and that is ok too. If we knew everything about God...then we would be God, and I don't know about you but I definitely don't feel comfortable with that role. So how should our view translate into our daily lives? Thankfully God lays it out for us in James.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27
Always remember that God didn't call us to have all the answers...that's His job. He called us to show His love.
Thanks for reading and God bless.
-rcrawford
