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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Faith Follows Through
Psalm 37:1-6; Luke 14:25-33
Six years ago, on September 11, all Americans were instantly traumatized as never before -- and all the world along with us -- when four hijacked planes were used as explosive weapons, all in the name of religious faith.
During the past year, three books decrying the foolishness of religious faith have risen to the top ten on national best-seller lists. All in the name of rationality and scientific honesty.
In times of general uncertainty, of terror and turmoil, like we've lived in these last six stressful years, one inclines towards either doctrinaire beliefs or skeptical unbelief. Our cultural temperature goes up and up; our collective temper grows shorter and shorter. All exacerbated by conflicting faiths, dueling doctrines.
But, biblically speaking, faith is not really about beliefs. Well, not so much... Of course, ideas and doctrines and creeds do matter. Very much so. For Christians, what you believe about the Cross of Christ is crucially important.
Yet biblical faith is a dynamic thing. It's the driving force of your life. It's your rock-bottom commitment to what is real and really important. It's what brings you alive to God, keeps you close to God, and opens you up to God's way with the world.
Listen to the GODcast!
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My wife Joanne and I started dating seriously when we were college sophomores. Well, as seriously as we could on a campus famous for its "6 inch rule" -- the minimum amount of air space required at all times between male and female hands and all other body parts to the north or south.
Anyway, we were mutually smitten at age 19 and we've lived lo these many years to tell about it. Within 4 years we'd got married, graduated, and had our first child. Now we were looking for God's lead into whatever was next.
It turned out we headed back to Joanne's home area to work with the Youth For Christ ministry she'd participated in as a high schooler. It served 4 rural counties in Upstate New York, running 16 after-school Bible clubs and holding evangelistic rallies on Saturday nights.
We went there on faith, believing God would lead us into good new beginnings.
And we immediately encountered tests of our faith.
For instance, in our first interview the boss asked Joanne, "Are you prepared to be a YFC widow?" Heh heh. Well of course she and I would pay whatever price it took to help kids learn how to live God's way in God's world. We envisioned me putting in long hours, driving long distances, going for the long haul. And her, at home alone with our baby boy all the while.
What the boss didn't think to explain was that Joanne was part of a package deal: She'd be secretary to both the boss and me; we'd live in an upstairs apartment in the house where the boss and his family of seven lived; the office would be in a converted garage out back; and all of us would volunteer on Sundays in a little church at a nearby country crossroads.
He didn't think to explain any of that in advance. And we never thought to ask. But God was good, forgave us all, and made it work out somehow.
Even so, it didn't take long for our little family to move forward in faith. Seminary! Yes!! We would move far away from New York and I would learn how to be a minister!!!
And that's what we did 2 years later. The rest, as they say, is history.
I remember all this right now because of the way, in Luke 14:25-33, Jesus starts right off with the truth when he invites people to join his team.
A huge crowd of wannabe disciples are enthusiastically following him, looking and listening to see what he'll do or say next. It's easy enough to follow Christ in a crowd. But that's not what he is looking for.
So he turns to call them, like a shepherd to his sheep, and with just a few words he culls the flock better than a collie ever could.
"If you're serious about following me," he says, "then you need to want me more than anything or anyone else on earth. Family, friends, your very life itself -- all of 'em can be second-best at best." [Yikes.]
And then he draws them a brutal word picture for the kind of commitment he's calling for. "Pick up your cross," he says, "and get in line behind me and my cross." What a grotesque parade -- a ragtag troupe of dying clowns, dragging their own death-poles, sweating and grunting out their misery in public pain and shame.
Now that's a radical call to commitment.
Some wiseguy said, "When you order a plate of ham and eggs, think about the animals who made it all possible. On one hand, the chicken is involved; but the pig is committed!"
And a wise man once said, "Nothing focuses the mind so well as a clear view of the gallows through the bars of your jail cell window."
I think Jesus' gruesome call to cross-bearing means something like this...
Realistically, we're all going to die one day sooner or later. Younger, older, by accident, on purpose, from natural causes... Sooner or later, everybody dies.
So, realistically, how are you going to live your life today?
What choices will you make this day, with your last day on earth in mind? What words will you speak? What things will you be sure to do, or not to do? What people, places, plans are important enough to put into your personal history today -- to make your last day one of satisfaction instead of sorrow?
Listen, the road may be rough and patchy, and your feet can get badly bruised. But look who it is that walks beside you, leading the way step by step to the very end. Walking with Jesus, you never need to lack strength for the journey, or wisdom for making the better choice all along the way.
He assures us, in as many words, "If you believe in me, you can also trust me! Here's what I give you... A life that's really worth living! Gifts of faith, hope, and love, to enjoy and share around! A legacy of grace, and goodness, and peace!"
He calls us to open up our spiritual hands, to let go of control over our own lives. And he promises to fill those open hands with all the good things God wanted us to have in the first place.
Bank on it: God's promises are always true; God's surprises are always good.
posted by Jack Buckley at
2:59 PM
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