Tag Archives: Faith

Christianity without a Safety Net

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“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
(Proverbs 3:5)

Facing a serious writer’s block today, I turned to the shelves and found something worth sharing.  This is from A.W. Tozer’s The Root of the Righteous, and says everything I couldn’t say in all my failed attempts.

True Faith Brings Committal

To many Christians Christ is little more than an idea, or at best an ideal; He is not a fact.  Millions of professed believers talk as if He were real and act as if He were not.  And always our actual position is to be discovered by the way we act, not by the way we talk.

We can prove our faith by our committal to it, and in no other way.  Any belief that does not command the one who holds it is not a real belief; it is a pseudo belief only.  And it might shock some of us profoundly if we were brought suddenly face to face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the fires of practical living.

Many of us Christians have become extremely skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by its implications.  We arrange things so that we can get on well enough without divine aid, while at the same time ostensibly seeking it.  We boast in the Lord but watch carefully that we never get caught depending on Him.  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Pseudo faith always arranges a way out to serve in case God fails it.  Real faith knows only one way and gladly allows itself to be stripped of any second way or makeshift substitutes.  For true faith, it is either God or total collapse.  And not since Adam first stood up on the earth has God failed a single man or woman who trusted Him.

The man of pseudo faith will fight for his verbal creed but refuse flatly to allow himself to get into a predicament where his future must depend upon that creed being true.  He always provides himself with secondary ways of escape so he will have a way out if the roof caves in.

What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they know they must do at the last day.  For each of us the time is surely coming when we shall have nothing but God.  Health and wealth and friends and hiding places will all be swept away and we shall have only God.  To the man of pseudo faith that is a terrifying thought, but to real faith it is one of the most comforting thoughts the heart can entertain.

It would be a tragedy indeed to come to the place where we have no other but God and find that we had not really been trusting God during the days of our earthly sojourn.  It would be better to invite God now to remove every false trust, to disengage our hearts from all secret hiding places and to bring us out into the open where we can discover for ourselves whether or not we actually trust Him.  That is a harsh cure for our troubles, but it is a sure one.  Gentler cures may be too weak to do the work.  And time is running out on us.

From, Tozer, A.W. The Root of The Righteous (Harrisburg, PA, Christian Pub, 1955)

Vote Your Faith

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“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,
and to God the things that are God’s.”
(Matthew 22:21 (ESV)

The first presidential debate of the 2012 election has just taken place, the lines are being clearly drawn between the leading candidates, and November 6th is rapidly approaching.  And while there may be some grand revelation that comes out in the next 30 days, chances are, you’ve already made up your mind and know who you are voting for – in fact, with early voting, you may have already voted.

But here’s something to think about: Has your faith influenced your decision at the polls this year?  Interestingly, the Family Research Council reports:

many believers don’t even consider their Christian values when voting, often choosing candidates whose positions are at odds with their own beliefs, convictions, and values.  A study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life a few years ago showed that 62% of Americans say their faith has little to do with their voting decisions.  That’s tragic because Jesus expects us to influence every part of culture and society as salt and light-including the democratic process.

Too often, we connect ourselves with a political party, and then begin to project our values and beliefs into that party.  We think, ”Well, if I believe this, and I’m a member of the party, then surely the rest of the party believes it too.”  We look to the “religious right” or the “progressive party” to affirm and fight for our values, when in reality, neither party can perfectly represent that which makes up the Christians hopes and expectations.  We must remember that we are sojourners here, that our nation, while perhaps the best experiment in freedom and liberty man has known, is governed by fallen man, and is, as such, liable and even prone to fall and fail at times.

The Family Research Council goes on to say,

Obviously, Christian “rulers” would have Christian values, right?  Not necessarily.  There are a lot of folks who use Christian lingo, but when you look at their positions and votes and their associations, it becomes evident that they do not line up with biblical values.  That’s why it is so important to do your homework on the candidates.  Don’t just listen to their campaign rhetoric, look at their records in office.  Don’t just watch their political ads, look at their positions on the issues.  Think about this: Every candidate has his or her own set of values and positions on important issues. Don’t you think that where a candidate stands on moral issues is far more important than the party he or she belongs to or the campaign ads and promises?  Shouldn’t we vote for candidates who share our moral values?

So this hear, I encourage you to vote your values.  This may be a risky vote, because it may mean voting for a third party candidate, and the third party seldom has a chance to win a national election.  But win or lose, our loyalty must be with the Lord Jesus; we must vote his values.  This means, at the very least, voting for those who protect and defend the sanctity of human life, especially that of the unborn.  This means voting for those who protect and defend marriage as between one man and one woman, and will support the central institution of our society, the family.  This means voting for those who will defend the freedom of religion, the freedom of religious expression, religious practice, and religious assembly.

Next Week – What to do When You Don’t Like Either Candidate?

SDG