Christian Living

---

Larry Lilly's Letter Monday November 12, 2007

A friend commented that a mutual friend suffers from internal conflict. I said, "This is news?" He asked what I meant; so as usual I told him more than he wanted to know. I suffer from the Need syndrome. Some of you know about this.

A principle mouthed among preachers and understood among psychologists is stated:

"Men act according to what they believe."

If the above were true no one would suffer from inner conflict, that tormenting, nagging inner voice that keeps us awake at night or takes away some of the joy of diving into a less than righteous activity. It's the turmoil of soul suffered by David when he was confronted by Nathan the prophet concerning Bathsheba and the events of that liaison.

A more accurate statement concerning belief is:

"Men are tormented when they do NOT act according to what they believe."

Paul talked about this conflict on several occasions, but especially in Romans 2:16-23, with the hammer being verse 21 A phrase: "Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest not thyself." The passage is directed to the Jews, but the truth transcends all systems.

Myriad are the teachers, who fail to assimilate the truth of their teaching to themselves and as sure as the sun rising in the East, inner turmoil, though often well hidden eats away at their innards.

The popular term, "getting it together" means to get our thoughts, feelings and actions in line with what we really believe rather than simply paying lip service to the things we are supposed to believe, because Aunt Lucy believed this and it worked for her.

Beliefs can be broken down into just a few basic groups, Theos, or beliefs about God, practical, like eating when you are hungry or coming in out of the rain, cultural, the beliefs common to the culture such as sacrificing left handed children to alligators, or the overarching beliefs associated with human preservation and the heroic possibilities of all humans.

I often talk with people who express a lingering or dominate doubt. I tell them this good, for if the unexamined life is not worth living, the truth goes double for the unexamined faith. Far too many people have not come face to face with a personal well examined belief. I do not hesitate at all to deal with this, for lip service to the fathers is nowhere near as powerful as heart service to what you believe to be the truth. Fyodor Dostoevsky said:

"It is not as a child that I believe and confess Christ. My hosanna has passed through the furnace of doubt."

An honest search will chip away the fluff and you will end with pure belief.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE