YouVersion

Continuing his series, "Life's Toughest Questions", Erwin McManus at http://www.mosaic.org/podcast/ opens by reading tough questions from emails by church members "If there is so much at stake, why doesn't God show himself more? When we are doubting and unsure, why won't God reach out especially when our eternity hangs in the balance?", "How can we bridge the gap between science and faith?", "Why Is Salvation so dependent on faith?", "If God made us with the cognitive faculties of reason, why must we accept God through faith?" and "Why did God reveal himself in such awesome ways in the past but confines Himself today?" Basically, why does God give us this faith? In Hebrews, it says, "without faith it is impossible to please God". In fact, all of Hebrews 11 is dedicated to faith. Why this obscure ethereal thing called faith and why not proof or evidence? Faith is great for these people who live in it and die victorious in it, but how or why are we to live it in the modern day? Let's back up, though, and answer the questioin at hand, Faith IS nonsense. People try to act like faith and reason are the same, but they're NOT!! Sight, sound, touch, taste and smell are all senses. Faith is a non-sense :). All of us have the natural capacity of the senses, but we don't have a natural capacity for faith. Some people can't hear, but that doesn't mean the noises don't exist. Some people can't feel pain, but that doesn't mean the body isn't sometimes injured. Faith is a non-sense, like intuition. Some people with intuition can sense what others can't. They can seemingly connect the dots from nowhere. Emotions are nonsensical. The dynamics and responses to emotions are nonsensical. Faith, like intuition and emotion, is our expression that something out there exists. Just because others can't sense it doesn't mean God doesn't exist. This leads us all the way back to Genesis, when the serpent talks Adam and Eve into eating the fruit. But there is an interesting interaction with God that explains why faith is necessary and why God doesn't just show up. There was a breach in the relationship with God and humanity. Adam and Eve were the two hiding from God! God wasn't hiding from them. That continues today. People hide from God. His glory is majestic and holy and incredibly magnetic to the person who is drawn to Him. It is horrible and terrible when we are far from God. Since the Fall, we cannot contain his presence. When we get a sense of our sins alongside his holiness, there is a tendency for us to withdraw. In Exodus 33, there's a conversation between Moses and God. God has said Moses will lead His people, but Moses asks God how the world will know that they are the people of God without Him showing His presence. But God says that Moses may not see His face because "shall no man see me, and live." There is something broken inside of us, which means that the marvel and holiness of God will consume us! It's like looking at a very bright light and, after we turn from it, we can't see. In Isaiah 6:1, there is another example. Isaiah describes this vision of God and seraphims crying out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. In the Hebrew language, three repetitions of the same word describes the extreme extent of its meaning. They are describing a MOST holy God. The thresholds shake and the fear of God strikes Isaiah because he sees God and fears he is dying. But a seraphim takes a piece of coal, flies over and touches Isaiah's lips saying his sins are atoned for. The scriptures illustrate how God does show up, but our factory defective bodies do not have the capacity to see him and live. The whole earth is full of God's glory! There are a number of reasons why God's presence is decribed as fire. One reason is that he is constantly shining his light in the darkness. Another reason is that his holiness is all consuming. Isaiah's instantaneous thought, when he saw God, was that he was going to die, but he was spared. What God then says to Isaiah seems odd, "Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." God, in a fasctious moment, says he wants to take away the senses of the people because they rely too much on their senses to be aware of God's presence! Without our senses, we would have to find another way to detect God!! God is everywhere and trying to make His presence known to us, but THIS IS WHERE FAITH COMES IN. When Erwin moved into his house, the previous lady failed to ground the electrical system. Everything they plugged in would short out. If we are grounded as people in faith, we can much more easily accept the magnificence of God. In Ephesians 2:1,2 (this youversion.com really slows down after so many verses are highlighted, so I'll just summarize). Paul is telling us that there is a spiritual reality all around us and when we live our lives outside of God, we are disconnected from this. We are spiritual beings at our core. We are not a body with a soul, but rather a soul with a body. These things exist, but we can't detect them with our bodies. Jesus gives us some insight in Matt 12. Jesus heals a blind and deaf man. But the Pharisees call him "Lord of the Flies", and Jesus gives them several reasons that conflict with their faulty thinking. Jesus tells us about two divided kingdoms of this earth. If we are blind to this, we don't even know this is going on. He tells us that there is more than oceans and valleys here. He says that there are unseen realities that affect everything. On top of it, we are spiritually permeable to this. It's like we live our lives to our own detriment, decide that we want to clean up our act, accept Christ and then things go bad again but this time they are worse than before; seven times worse. Jesus talks about how seven bad spirits will replace the one bad spirit that initially left. This explains a lot!! Interestingly, Erwin makes a side note that people that think they lived in a previous life are probably not crazy, but rather they are likely remembering what these other spirits experienced in other people!! Jesus lets us know that we are creatures of spirit. Luke 17 shows us that "the Kingdom of God does not come through careful observation. Nor will people say here it is or there it is. The Kingdom of God is within you." In John 3:1, Jesus is talking with Nicodemus. Jesus says, "no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again." We need faith, not just to believe in Jesus or for salvation, but because the realities of what it means to be alive, can only be seen with God in us. Nicodemus responds to the statement literally and with reason, asking how can someone reenter their mother's womb? Jesus says this must be done with the Spirit. When our relationship was broken with God, we lost the capacity to experience Him, but the Spirit brings us back to fully experience life. Many people ask, "Hey, that's fine, but why can't we get just one small miracle?" In Luke 16:19, a rich man and poor man both die. The poor man goes to heaven and the rich man goes to hell. When the rich man begs to heaven for the poor man to help him in hell, he is told that he has created the separation between the two himself!! So, the rich man asks if God could warn his brothers of this hell. But the God says "let them listen to the prophets through whom I have spoken." Jesus also says that people still would not believe, even if he raises from the dead. It's been done! It's being done, but the people dismiss it and say that there is a scientific explanation. Even Thomas wouldn't believe in Jesus until he put his hands in Jesus' wounds. Upon Thomas seeing this, Jesus says, "Blessed are those who have not seen and believe." By believing, we may have life in his name. Faith is the spiritual word for where we put our trust. In 2 Corinthians 4, it describes one Kingdom that is determined to blind us while another Kingdom seeks to give us light. God has come to live in those who turn to Him, so that they may turn to those who do not. God has leveraged His power in us. His light may shine through the cracks of our own bodies. We cannot lose heart because we are being renewed day by day, so we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. We may not like God's strategy, but here it is. God's glory is seen through the changes in His people. He takes those who have faith and gives them the capacity to see what is unseen. He transforms us. Twenty eight years ago, Erwin saw God in the people around him. God speaks into our soul and brings light into the coldness of our souls. We don't need faith to believe in God, we need faith to see what is real.