I just got back from being gone for a week. One of the first things I did was to listen to Christine's message from Sunday. She took the second message in our Making Christmas Real series. You might want to give it a listen.
I like how she opened it by talking about a number of Christmas cards that she's received that simply said, "Believe" as if everyone knows what that is in reference to. But her questions were, "Believe what?" What does it mean to believe? What are we asking people to believe? And how does that belief come about? Good questions that she addressed.
One idea that she borrowed from Andy Stanley (www.northpoint.org/messages ) was that when you come to believe in Jesus you don't stop doubting, your doubts just get smaller. They are proportionately smaller than your faith. It's like all the doubts you have about marriage. You tell people all the reasons why you'll never get married. They are great reasons...until you meet someone you love. Your love doesn't eliminate your objections (you'll lose your independence, it will cost too much, etc.) the objections just don't carry as much weight as they once did.
And that's what happens when you take time to discover Jesus. At some point the balance shifts and your objections grow smaller in regard to your growing faith. But the doubt never goes away. Those questions about evolution or the suffering in India or how those miracles happened will remain. You see, doubt and faith is a tension that never fully disappears.
So, if you are waiting for ALL of your faith questions to be resolved before you take the step of faith, that's just not realistic. Life's not like that...it's not that neat and tidy! Sometimes we have to move forward even though everything isn't resolved for us. Listen or read what Christine has to say..
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