So, many will be wondering. Why is what we say so important? At least you may be thinking that I may be over emphasising the importance of what we say and how we say it. As we saw, our unguarded speech originates in the heart and is a reflection of what we believe. Now that is not to say that all that we say can constitute a faith confession. We often speak of things that are faith neutral, like the specifications of the latest CPU, computer motherboard or hard drive.
Science on the other hand is not as faith neutral as we may think. For example, the whole of the chemical engineering discipline is based on 2 statements that have no proof, and are then expressed as mathematical equations. The statements are:
We can talk ourselves and others both into faith or out of faith. Especially if our audience is inclined to believe our words. Today we have the greatest mass information and communication tool ever to grace the earth in all of history. The internet. This blog that I write can be read by someone on the other side of the earth in real time as I post it. It is instantaneous. And Youtube is probably the most used repository of audiovisual content ever. This includes sermons.
We today have many denominations who have many preachers preaching to their congregations, and their sermons are consistently posted on their websites and on Youtube. Now this can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on whether they are preaching the full truth or not.
Now the problem. There is no Pastor or Preacher that does not preach Scripture alone. They preach Scripture through the lens of their Theology.
Typically the Word Faith Movement, Health Wealth and Prosperity Gospel Movement and the more extreme Charismatic movement will in their preaching over promise and under deliver. On the other hand, the Calvinistic Reformed preacher will defer God's promises till after Christ has returned and this age has been closed off and the judgement of God has been completed. Both camps are right and both camps are wrong, they need to meet in the middle to find a balanced Christianity and we will see the Church become like the early Church. This is only an example set of many. We have the Roman Catholic Church with their Theological issues just as we have the Hebrew Roots Movement with their issues. And there are many many more.
There is no one of us that is balanced in our faith in any way. Every one sees a part of the truth, but we hold the truth that we have found to ourselves and consign every one who does not believe as we do to the fires of hell while we are the only ones going to heaven.
The truth is that everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. The other things either limit us or enrich us depending on what we believe. Faith is that key which opens the fullness of our inheritance in Christ, but faith is also the lock that can lock some parts of our inheritance in Christ away. The choice is ours.
Moses said it like this to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, (my paraphrase) Choose life or choose death. I urge you choose life.
So today, I would urge you to choose to believe God for more than just the crumbs that we are told is available to us by preachers who themselves have not necessarily opened the box fully. We have an amazing inheritance in Christ if only we would choose to open the box of gifts that He has given us. Many of those gifts are for now, with even better versions for after we have been resurrected and given our glorified bodies. Look in the Scriptures to find those things, believe that they are yours and they will be.
"For all the promises of God are Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus."
Science on the other hand is not as faith neutral as we may think. For example, the whole of the chemical engineering discipline is based on 2 statements that have no proof, and are then expressed as mathematical equations. The statements are:
- Matter cannot be created nor destroyed, but only changed from one form to another.
- Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but only changed from one form to another.
- There is also a third statement that can be made and that is that matter is an expression of energy and the equivalence is E = mc^2 according to Einstein.
We can talk ourselves and others both into faith or out of faith. Especially if our audience is inclined to believe our words. Today we have the greatest mass information and communication tool ever to grace the earth in all of history. The internet. This blog that I write can be read by someone on the other side of the earth in real time as I post it. It is instantaneous. And Youtube is probably the most used repository of audiovisual content ever. This includes sermons.
We today have many denominations who have many preachers preaching to their congregations, and their sermons are consistently posted on their websites and on Youtube. Now this can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on whether they are preaching the full truth or not.
Now the problem. There is no Pastor or Preacher that does not preach Scripture alone. They preach Scripture through the lens of their Theology.
Typically the Word Faith Movement, Health Wealth and Prosperity Gospel Movement and the more extreme Charismatic movement will in their preaching over promise and under deliver. On the other hand, the Calvinistic Reformed preacher will defer God's promises till after Christ has returned and this age has been closed off and the judgement of God has been completed. Both camps are right and both camps are wrong, they need to meet in the middle to find a balanced Christianity and we will see the Church become like the early Church. This is only an example set of many. We have the Roman Catholic Church with their Theological issues just as we have the Hebrew Roots Movement with their issues. And there are many many more.
There is no one of us that is balanced in our faith in any way. Every one sees a part of the truth, but we hold the truth that we have found to ourselves and consign every one who does not believe as we do to the fires of hell while we are the only ones going to heaven.
The truth is that everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. The other things either limit us or enrich us depending on what we believe. Faith is that key which opens the fullness of our inheritance in Christ, but faith is also the lock that can lock some parts of our inheritance in Christ away. The choice is ours.
Moses said it like this to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, (my paraphrase) Choose life or choose death. I urge you choose life.
So today, I would urge you to choose to believe God for more than just the crumbs that we are told is available to us by preachers who themselves have not necessarily opened the box fully. We have an amazing inheritance in Christ if only we would choose to open the box of gifts that He has given us. Many of those gifts are for now, with even better versions for after we have been resurrected and given our glorified bodies. Look in the Scriptures to find those things, believe that they are yours and they will be.
"For all the promises of God are Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus."