Faith
At the risk of stating the obvious some things attract more attention than others. Generally speaking books on relationships and how to make money draw more attention than books on gardening. Attractive people draw more attention than ugly people unless the ugly person is ugly in a startling way. Among Christians books and conferences on knowing God’s will easily outdo those on sound doctrine or theology (if anyone even pays attention to those). I think it should be the other way around because knowing God’s will, in my opinion, has been made more mystical and difficult than it should be. But obviously nobody’s consulting me first.
There are words among Christians that attract more attention than others also. Holy Ghost, Spirit, prayer, end times (what an embarrassment we make of that one), love, healing and forgiveness always have ready and willing lovers while memorizing scripture, doctrine, theology, discernment, sacrifice and meditation may have to stand on the curb and watch a few cabs go by before finally catching a ride – if they ever do. But there is one word that always and immediately has a ready audience. It has been sought perhaps more than any other biblical word, written about again and again.
Because of this one would think there would be an understanding of it superior to that of other words. Yet just the opposite is true. Next to love it may be the most misunderstood word in Scripture precisely because we cling to how we feel about it more than what we really know about it. Jesus defined love very succinctly as obedience (Jn.14:15). But despite the fact that we get that straight from the head man’s mouth, especially when there is plenty He never made direct comments about, we tend to hold on to our touchy-feely view of love. Just as when we think of light we think of visible light as the whole of what light is, any children’s science book shows that light has various wavelengths on the spectrum, light that can’t be seen by the human eye but is just as real as visible light. You can’t see ultraviolet light but a sunburn will let you know how painfully wrong you were to exclude it from your thinking.
We like God’s visible love such as when He heals the sick but don’t think as much about His invisible love that keeps us from falling out of His hand (Jn.10:29), holds everything together (Col.1:17) or made a way for us before we even thought about desiring His way (Rom.5:8).
Which brings me to the word in question: faith. We can repeat by heart how it moves mountains because we all have personal mountains we want moved. As some scientists have mechanical ears constantly listening for the voice of an alien race in outer space we’ve made our whole body an ear listening for how we might finally appropriate that faith that kicks into action when we “ask what we will and it shall be granted”. In the case of scientists they have no idea if an alien race exists or, if so, that they would even have an interest in contacting us. They’re just hoping. The sad thing is that Christians have the Scriptures and many historical examples of faith, yet they expend great energies to catch faith in the same way people have tried to catch the Loch Ness monster. Our actions say we believe that God gives us a stone in this matter (Lk.11:11).
Why do we operate in this make believe world, which, by the way, I hear a lot of television preaching encouraging? If we bought a cleaner that didn’t clean we’d quickly switch to another brand. If we’re searching for a faith we never seem to find then maybe we’re searching for the wrong brand. By this time some of us have gone through every book with “faith” on the cover, listened to every tape, gone to every seminar and conference and we’ve done this for years. Even so the essence of what we’re looking for eludes us. We ignore the obvious thought that we’re approaching this the wrong way and just continue to move along in a vague hope that somehow, someday, the scales will fall from our eyes and we’ll see clearly in this matter.
Obviously (it should be obvious) such an anxiety suffused path is not one laid out by God (Jam.3:17). But we’re tired and so is everybody else. Sometimes one of our brothers or sisters appears to get a blessing, and we’re happy for them (or are we?), but secretly we sometimes feel that tapping into a mountain moving faith is like trying to win the lottery. Something is wrong. It’s time to stop creeping along hoping to win a heavenly lottery that God never set up. It’s time to turn over some tables and rip up some carpeting in our imaginary temples.
In North Carolina we have daylight savings time. We set the clock an hour ahead in the summer and set it back to the regular time in the fall. I hate it. And to judge from the grumbling I hear when people struggle to regain that lost hour of sleep, so do others. When we’re on the regular time we speak of it as what time it really is. When we’re on daylight savings time and then switch back to regular time for a while we refer to DST as what time it really is. Each time we move from one time to the other, until we adjust to the new time we use the old time to judge the new. Once we’re used to the adjustment that time becomes the real time to us. Obviously when we say “real” in this context we are referring to how we feel.
It really wouldn’t matter if someone explained to us which time was “real”. We know that daylight savings time is the adjusted time to take advantage of more daylight hours and that (in our case) Eastern Standard Time is the “real” time all the time. But when we say “real” we are referring to how we feel because the time change causes us to make adjustments in our lives like going to bed earlier or having to make sure the kids don’t miss the bus. If it made no difference in how we did things we wouldn’t think about it.
I believe we judge faith the way we judge time, by how we feel. If we pray and beneficial results happen soon thereafter we judge that praying as praying in faith. If nothing happens for months or years we wonder if it means anything at all. If we’re paying attention to what Scripture says we know that the spiritual economy works differently than the cause and effect world we’re used to (Mat.20:9-15). But this doesn’t seem to sink in. And it doesn’t help that there are many preachers telling us about how quickly we should be getting “hundredfold returns”. They raise our expectations higher than Scripture allows. It’s no wonder so many are disillusioned. Let’s take a brief look at Scripture to get a flavor of just how we’re sabotaging ourselves in this matter.
Scripture not only talks about faith in many instances but it gives examples of people who showed what faith in action should look like. Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Rahab, prophets…many are given. First the very fact that human examples are given shows that Scripture teaches that faith is not just a quality to reach for. It is what is seen when people obey God. Faith is faithfulness. That brief sentence would go a long way to cure the disease of endless faith searching that infects our churches. But let’s use one of the scriptural examples of faith to bring the disease and cure into better focus.
And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. – Jos.6:17
By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. – Heb.11:31
Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? – Jam.2:25
Now, here we have Rahab, a harlot, who is used as an example of faith. No difference is made in any way by Scripture between her and other champions of faith. My thought is that if Scripture makes no distinction then why should I? Yet every preacher I’ve heard speak on Rahab (except one I read who helped me understand) can’t help but elaborate on the lie Rahab told to keep the village men from finding the Israelite spies hiding in her house. They seem obsessed with pointing out that her lie should not be approved even though it saved lives. Well, nowhere does Scripture disapprove of it. Yes, Scripture clearly teaches that liars will not inherit the kingdom of God. But that refers to habitual liars who do so to exalt themselves and hurt others. This obviously was not Rahab’s design. God includes her lie as an act of faith without making a difference.
The question for us is will we rightly divide the word or insist on inserting our own morality, thus placing it on a higher level than God’s? In this case our “godliness” is the substitution of our filthy rags of righteousness (Isa.64:6) for God’s clean robes. And many a church says amen to it! Rahab’s lie of faith saved her life and that of her family while the rest of the city was cursed. All I can say is I’d rather hang out with such a liar than with all the legions of Christians groping for a faith God never approved!
Hopefully I’ve washed a window here. We can’t afford to keep thinking of faith the same way we think of which time is the real time. If we do we only ensure that we will always be lacking and living far beneath privilege. Pastors, teachers, elders and other tenders of the flock are there for a purpose. But the individual Christian remains solely responsible for rightly dividing the word of truth. The faith many of us chase is little more than magic. Its reality is upheld by perpetuating wishful thinking and misunderstanding and it is a yoke that none is able to bear (Acts 15:10), yet that yoke is continually placed, and willingly accepted, on many necks. But not only does Scripture show us that faith is faithfulness but it clearly states that unless we add certain other specific qualities to our faith that we are blind (2 Pet.1:5-10).
I recognize daylight savings time as a manipulation, not the reality by which I measure all time. Unless we learn to recognize the popular misconception of faith as a manipulation, as the kindling of our own sparks sinfully taken as scriptural light, let us not act surprised when the word comes to pass.
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow. – Isa.50:11
And why should that happen when the proper light is available?
Wherefore he says, Awake you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. – Eph.5:14
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