Evidence for a Reasonable Faith

Psalm 22: 12 – 18 (NIV): Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

Jesus fulfilled more than 350 Old Testament prophecies and this passage has some of the most direct and amazing. It looks like it was written after his crucifixion, perfectly describing what he went through – but was actually written more than a thousand years before he was born! Not only that, but it was written by David, who never saw a person crucified because that method of execution hadn't been invented yet.

Jesus quotes the first line of Psalm 22 from the cross. I believe he was making sure we saw this amazing prophecy. The passage says “all my bones are out of joint”, “my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth”, and “my strength is dried up like a potsherd”. Scholars say this is what happened to a crucified person. Strong “bulls” surrounded him. Bashan had the strongest bulls in David's day and Rome had the strongest army in Jesus' day. “They have pierced my hands and my feet.” This is an undeniable prophecy. And the Bible tells us the soldiers cast lots to see who would get Jesus' clothing, and that people stared and gloated as he was being punished.

I get tired of people who are hostile to the faith saying we Christians are a bunch of irrationals whose faith is equivalent to “reading the entrails of a chicken”. (I'm quoting a Newsweek article from this week.) Our faith is not fluff with no substance. It has a rich heritage – a long line of believers who know what they saw and what was handed down to them. The New Testament is full of skeptics, James, Paul and Thomas among them, who believed when they saw the risen Christ.

But is the New Testament reliable? Internal prophecies, external history, content agreement, multiple manuscripts and the blood of the martyrs prove it beyond doubt.

Our faith is reasonable, rational, logical, based on evidence, based on prophecies and based on truth. Our faith encourages strong families and teaches love, compassion and fair treatment for all. If anyone tells you differently, he is a liar just like his true father.

The Gift of Being Thankful

1 Thessalonians 5: 12 – 18 (NIV): Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

These are Paul's concluding remarks in this letter so he has a lot to say in a short space. But I want to focus in on the last part of this. He says it is God's will for us to be thankful in all circumstances. This is one of the secrets to being contented as a believer.

It's not easy to be thankful in every situation, but that's what he says God wants us to do. God wants us to remember that he is in control and that he is always up to something good. He is maturing us and making us more and more like Christ. This is often a painful process, but it is a good thing so we can always rejoice.

The idea, then, is to be a thankful person. This is a person who accepts God's will as the very best option. He understands God's power and goodness, even when life doesn't make sense. Thankful people are grateful people. They take time to pause and says 'thanks' for their blessings. They have learned that remembering our blessings is a great way to lift our spirits. They do not go through life taking their blessings for granted.

Thankful people are optimistic people. This doesn't mean they view life unrealistically, but they know that God is the ultimate reality and he is in control. Life is too short to spend even one day as a pessimist.

Thankful people are productive people. They realize their next breath is a gift from God and they want to use their time working for his Kingdom. They want to give back. They realize the prices that have been paid for their lives, freedom, salvation and opportunities, and they want to do their part for others. They want to live in thanks-living.

Are you a thankful person? Are you thankful for ordinary things and even for events that you do not understand? Paul reminds us that it is God's will that we be thankful in all circumstances.

Looking on the Bright Side

Philippians 4:8 (NIV): Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.

Do you tend to view the world in a positive or negative light? Paul understood that we get into a groove in our way of thinking. We are creatures of habit. Some see the glass half full, others, half empty. Paul was writing to the Christians in Philippi from a prison cell in Rome. He could have lamented how badly he was being treated and how unfair it was that he had been sent to prison for doing nothing more than spreading the Gospel. Instead, he tells the church to be joyful in all things and that he has found the secret to contentment no matter where he is. He tells them there is nothing better than knowing Christ. He tells them not to worry, but to pray about everything and not to forget to be thankful.

Then he writes this remarkable verse. He lists specific things to focus on as we shape our world view. This doesn't mean we look at the world through “rose colored glasses”, meaning we see only good. There is plenty of evil and we must fight against it. But it means we spend our thoughts on good and positive things as much as possible.

If we spend our time watching filthy movies, reading filthy books and magazines, listening to filthy music, or viewing filth on the Internet, we will soon have a filthy mind. If we surround ourselves with people who tell dirty jokes and see the world in an ungodly way, we may soon find ourselves sharing their world view. If we watch television shows that continually put down Christians, that will begin to erode our faith. Frankly, if we spend too much time watching the news we will become depressed.

I'm not suggesting we throw out our televisions and abandon our friends, but I am saying we have to make the effort to fill our minds with things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. Look at that list again. Isn't that the world you want to live in? We have to look for it to find it, but it is there if we will try. Fill your mind with goodness. Concentrate on these things. If we do, we will find ourselves more Godly and more full of joy than we ever thought possible.

Pressing On in the Faith

Philippians 3: 7 – 17 (NIV): But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Compared to knowing Christ, Paul says, everything else is garbage. Once we find the love and power and strength and comfort of God, how can anything else compare? Paul was born wealthy. We know that because of his education. But he gave it all up to follow Jesus. He was writing this letter, in fact, from a prison cell where he had been sent for preaching the Gospel.

Far from feeling sorry for himself, though, he is writing about pressing forward in his faith. About becoming more and more like Christ. About his desire to know him more and more. About the joy he experienced because he was found in Christ.

He realized that following the law would never make him righteousness – only faith in Christ can do that. It was Abraham's faith that made him righteous, Paul says in Romans 4. After all, Abraham lived before the law was written.

Paul considered it a privilege to suffer for Christ. He wanted to be like Christ and he knew suffering was part of the deal. That was okay with him because he also knew living forever in heaven was part of the bargain too.

Paul wanted to forget his mistakes from the past and press forward in his faith. Like a runner in a marathon, he knew it was important not to look back, but to strain ahead. He knew a runner must keep his eye on the goal and train hard to reach it. He knew he must keep his mind on the prize. Let us press forward in our faith. Let us forget past mistakes and run the race. God is not through with us yet and his goal for us is to be like Christ now and forever.