Thoughts on Faith

So I have not updated in a long time, if you can’t tell. I recently got internet at house and thought that I would give bloging a try again.

Something that I have been thinking about a lot lately is faith. What is faith and how do we exercise it? Where does it come from and why is it there? I think I am beginning to grasp the concept in a small measure. Mind you there is much more to faith than I could ever touch on with a blog, but I thought I could share a few of the things that have been running through my head. Now, with that out of the way, the question I hope to touch upon is … What is faith?

This is the question that I have been pondering of late. What is faith? I do not have a concise and wrapped up answer. I have an idea of what faith is and a thought on what faith is not.

First, faith is not blind belief. The “blind faith” concept is something that aggravates and annoys me. Faith is never blind. God may tell you to do something without giving a specific reason for telling you, but if you think about it, acting upon that is not acting in “blind faith.” God proves Himself. If He has proven Himself once to you, then it is not blind faith. You have a reference point. The time that He proved His faithfulness becomes the basis for your faith.

Now, that being said, what is faith? I believe that faith is simply an understanding of the authority structure of the kingdom of heaven. For reference, I point to Matthew chapter 8 5-13. Many of us know this story. It is the centurion with great faith. What got me thinking about faith is what the centurion says and Jesus’ response to him. The centurion approaches Jesus’ for the healing of a servant. Jesus responds by offering to go to the centurions house to heal his servant. This was the normal way that Jesus responded and healed people. Someone would be sick and Jesus would go to them and heal them. This time however, something was different. The centurion acknowledged two key things in this passage.

First, the centurion knew his own unworthiness. He told Jesus that he was not worthy of having Jesus come into his house. The centurion saw and believed that Jesus was who He said He was, and the centurion knew that he was “not worthy to untie the sandals” of Jesus.

Secondly, the centurion understood authority. I believe that this is what caused the centurions “great faith.” He knew the way authority worked. The master speaks an order and the servant must obey. There is no question, no thought, of disobedience. The order is given and it must be followed. This is the key to faith. The centurion was a man in and under authority. He knew how to give and follow orders.

We must understand the authority structure of heaven. We are under the authority of the Father. He speaks and gives us our orders. We are also people in authority. In Luke 9:1 Jesus gives the disciples authority to cast out demons, heal the sick, and preach the gospel. We have been given this authority. The Father has passed His authority to us.

Faith is an understanding that we have been given the same authority that Jesus had when He walked on the earth. That understanding is what supplies us with the power to move mountains, heal the sick, and raise the dead.

If you made it this far, I congratulate you. This is a long post I know, but I believe that this is something vital to understand and grasp for daily living in power.

Community

So I have been thinking a lot lately about community. What it is, how to facilitate it, who cares about it, etc. One of the big things that struck me in this thought process is how little of a community I feel I have. Sure there are a lot of people that I love and that I know love me, would be there for me, etc. However, I also realized how little I see these people and when I do how little meaningful conversations I have with them. I feel as though I talk about the same meaningless unimportant things over and over with the same people. I do not feel as though I honestly know many of the people I call friends.

I feel that we have strayed from the original design and plan that God set in place for the church. I do acknowledge that we lead very busy, hectic lives that do not lend themselves to a lot of free time. I do not find this as an acceptable excuse however. You have to eat lunch during the day. Why not call a friend and schedule a lunch date. So you are going grocery shopping, call a friend and set up a grocery shopping date. I can think of a hundred tiny little spots that we can commune. I am sure you can too. So … the question I guess becomes, as always, why don’t we do these things?

In my opinion, I think we are selfish people who do not want to let people close on the chance that we will be hurt again. Note that we includes I. I do not want people to see the person I am on the inside. I don’t want to tell people that I don’t want to talk to God. I don’t want to let people know that I am uninterested in the things of God lately. I want to keep up my image. I was told once by a friend that “I’m not worried about you. I never worry about you. Your Fred, you will always be ok.” That has never left me alone. I have always felt like I have to keep up this “I’m Fred and I am ok” image. Well guess what, I’m not. You are not either if you actually think about/admit it. Even when I feel like I am ok, I am a wretched pile of filthy rags.

Ok, so Fred, what does this massively long post have to do with community? We need each other. I need you, you need me, we need John Doe. The first church was more or less forced into community. We on the other hand are not. But we need each other just as much as the early church did. I need you to call me to see how I am, and to challenge me to call you to see how you are. I also need to be honest. No more of this “How are you?” “Oh I am good man, you?” “Good.” … that is not a conversation. That is being nice, not being friends. If you have made it this far, give me a call if you have my number. Ask me how I am doing, and tell me not to lie.

I hope this makes sense. I also hope it makes you think about community and ways to make it happen. So … how are you doing … ?

Here I go … again.

Well, here I go again. I am going to attempt something that, for me, has been somewhat impossible over the last few years. I am going to attempt to blog again. Maybe it’s the new computer, the recent changes in my life, or maybe a desire for some sort of community that has sparked this. I do not know. I just have a desire to share my life with people. While I hope this will not be my only contact with whoever my be reading this, I feel as though this will serve in some places.

I would like for this to be a somewhat intelligent blog and not another chronicle of every small detail of my life. I desire to challenge you to think outside your box, and in the process try to think outside of mine. Help me with that please. I hope that something in the posts to come will inspire, anger, challenge, encourage, or make you go “wtf?” I just want you to think.

All that said … here we go.