Faith!

Click HERE for a talk I gave in the summer on faith. And below are some cool quotes, good material for reflexion or your own talks. Enjoy!

“Faith is not logical. But it isn’t illogical either. Faith is theological. It does not ignore reality; it just adds God into the equation. Think of it this way. Logic questions God. Faith questions assumptions. And at the end of the day, faith is trusting God more than you trust your own assumptions.” (Mark Batterson)

Limited by our senses – ‘We walk by Faith, not by sight’ Think of the African impala; it’s amazing that it can leap 10ft (3m) high and 30ft (9m) out with just one jump, but it won’t even try to escape from a 3ft high cage with an open roof even though it has the power and ability to, if it cannot see where it’s feet are going to land. As the impala lives by sight it’s easy to keep it caged. The same goes for us. But having faith isn’t just about a blind belief n anything! Some children believe in the Tooth Fairy but that doesn’t make it real. Faith must be based on Truth. As Christians we CAN say ‘God, I know that whenever You speak You’re telling the Truth, and I can stake my life on it.’ Faith establishes what we believe about God. Too many of us act like we’ve more confidence in ourselves than we do in Him. If faith is the decision to grab hold of the power and promises of God, then if our faith is lacking we won’t see the supernatural work of God in our lives – and we’ll live in the natural with all it’s limitations.

Bono: “Belief and confusion are not mutually exclusive; I believe that belief gives you a direction in the confusion. But you don’t see the full picture. That ‘s the point. That’s what faith is/ you can’t see it. It comes back to instinct. Faith is just up the street. Faith and instinct, you can’t just rely on them. You have to beat them up. You have to pummel them to make sure they can withstand it, to make sure they can be trusted.”

So if you’re wrestling with doubt, with dark thoughts, wanting to give up, hear that. “No matter how desperate you may feel today, hold on for tomorrow. Stumble on a few more hours in blind faith, offering God nothing more than your hopelessness and your sin. We cannot rush the resurrection. But wait and watch, and He will surely come.” Pete Greig

Hudson Taylor “People say ‘increase our faith’. Did not the Lord rebuke his disciples for that prayer? He said ‘you do not want a great faith, but faith in a great God. If your faith were as small as a grain of mustard seed, it would suffice to remove this mountain! We need faith that rests in a great God, and which expects him to keep his Word and to do just what he has promised.”

Dallas Willard’s ‘The Great Omission’: “Churches are filled with ‘undiscipled disciples’, as Jess Moody has called them. Of course in reality there is no such thing. Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that most members have not decided to follow Christ… Non-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, nondiscipleship costs you exactly the abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring… it is quite reasonable to be a vampire Christian. One in effect says to Jesus, ‘I’d like a little of your blood, please. But I don’t care to be your student or have your character. In fact, won’t you just excuse me while I get on with my life, and I’ll see you in heaven.’ But can we really imagine that this is an approach that Jesus finds acceptable?”

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