you need a friend...

thinking about the other person’s feelings or what they’re going through.  but if i’m going to love like JESUS said to love, one of the ways to do that is to share other people’s problems, to sympathize with what they’re going through in life. 

that has to do with the circumstances in life but most important the faith problems we face in life.  jude 1.22 (msg), go easy on those who hesitate in the faith.  we tend to not share sympathy with those who have faith problems like, what’s wrong with you?  but the bible says go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. 

how many of you have been through a time of doubt as a believer?  everybody.  if you’re going through a time of doubt right now you are not alone.  the bible says don’t patronize those who are going through a time of doubt.  like “what’s wrong with you?  how could you go through this?  how could you...?”  kind of thing.  but instead sympathize with them.  realize we all go through struggles of doubt in our lives.  the bible says this in job 6.14 (niv), a despairing man should have the devotion of his friends.  even though he forsakes the fear of the ALMIGHTY. 

the bible says if you have a friend that says, “i’m forsaking GOD.  i’m giving up on GOD because of what’s happening in my life.”  what do they need?  they need a friend.  they don’t need you to turn your back on them, afraid of those kind of feelings.  they need a friend.  they need to hear words of sympathy. 

there are circumstances that we go through in life where you’re not sure you believe in GOD because of what you’re going through.  you’re so beaten down by life it’s hard to look up to GOD.  maybe you hear that you child is going to be born with birth defects.  and you wonder, “GOD!  where are you?”  or your husband/wife just walked out on you.  you feel like GOD walked out on you.  you feel like how could HE let this happen?  or you got a report from the doctor this week that says it’s cancer and it’s inoperable.  you wonder where GOD is in all that.  in that moment you need a word of sympathy.  you need a friend.  if you know somebody like that they need somebody to come beside them and say, “i understand what you’re going through.  i’m going to walk through this with you.”  GOD has given us words as this incredible, powerful tool to make a difference. 

just a thought from the front porch…

my idea or GOD’s will?…

another test that joseph faced after sharing his dream was the test of doubt.  it’s not just saying that it’s not true but saying, “i don’t know if GOD really wants this.”  

you can see in the reactions of the brothers and of the father and the family all the different expressions that doubt can take.  hatred to questions to rebuke.  you’re going to face doubt whenever you have a GOD given dream.

the next test is the worst of all.  it’s most unexpected if you’ve never heard anyone tell you this.  if you have a GOD given dream, it’s really from GOD, most likely it’s going to face the test of destruction.  it’s going to look like that dream gets totally wiped out.  there’s no way that it can come true. 

it happens to joseph.  in genesis 37, beginning at verse 12 we hear the story.  joseph was still 17.  his father sends him about 30 miles north to the fields of shechem to find out how his brothers and the flocks are doing.  the last time joseph had gone out to see how his brothers were taking care of the flock he’d brought back a bad report to the father so the relationship isn’t going too well.  and after two dreams the brothers are mad at him.  they see joseph coming from a long distance.

and as they see him coming, they say, “here’s an idea.  here’s how we can take care of this problem.  let’s kill him.  if we kill him the problem will be gone.”  then someone else says, “we can’t kill him.  he’s our brother.  let’s sell him.  then we can make money out of this.  that’s a lot better way to go.”  that family had a few problems!      

and they sell their brother as a slave and they take that multicolored coat, the richly ornamented robe that was the symbol of the fact that he was loved more than any of the others and they put blood on it and take it back to the father and they say, “jacob’s dead.  he’s gone.”  

and the family starts to disintegrate.  we’re going to see what happened to this family because of their actions.  for now, we’re going to follow through on joseph and what happened to him. 

he’s sold into slavery.  remember, he’s had a dream.  he was going to rise up above his brothers, above his father and mother.  he was going to be a ruler.  a great dream!  yet the first step in the fulfillment of this dream is he becomes a slave.  could anything be further from his GOD-given dream?  destruction.         

joseph is put in a place that seemed as far away from GOD’s dream for his life as possible.  does that make sense to you?  it makes sense to GOD.  it makes sense when you understand the life of faith. 

why do dreams face tests?  to provide answers.  when dreams face tests we find out whose dream it really is.  when dreams face tests, we find out if it’s my idea or GOD’s will.

just a thought from the front porch…

it comes down to a choice…

i hope this talking about this issue of doubt which is scary for some folks has encouraged you, to know that if you respond to your doubts it can be an impetus toward a richer and deeper faith.

if you’re wrestling with doubts i want to tell you a very quick story i think will encourage you. it’s about a guy who went out to california when he was thirty years old. he was a really good guy and he had a strong faith in GOD. and he wanted more than anything for GOD to do something positive with his life. but he had a friend named chuck and his friend went to a very liberal seminary and he started raising questions about GOD and especially about the bible. he started talking to his friend saying, “you can’t trust the bible,” and started trying to undermined his faith. and his friend started to get a little shaky in his thinking. but he had another friend, a woman, who was a strong bible scholar. she would whisper in his other ear, “it’s not true. here’s the evidence. here's the facts. here’s why you can trust the bible.” he said, “i felt like i was on a rack, being pulled toward doubt one way and faith another way. he said, “if i didn’t come to a point of total doubt i did come to a point of being very disturbed by the whole experience, very unsettled.”

one day he went for a walk. as he was walking he said, “GOD, i need your help in this! i don’t want to have a weak faith. i want a strong and powerful faith. i want you to use me in a positive way.” so he got down on his knees and said, “based on all the evidence for the trustworthiness of the bible i am going to as a choice of my will accept the bible as being the word of GOD and i'm going to base my life on it and i'm going to live the way it says i ought to live and i'm going to tell others about it.” he said, “i got up off my knees and it was like GOD breathed fresh life into my faith. i felt like a SPIRITual battle for my soul had been fought and had been won.” that man was billy graham. and look what GOD has done through his faith.

and i want to say to you, if you’re reading this today and you’re riddled with questions and uncertainties and doubts and you wonder, “can i ever do anything positive and powerful in my life?” think of billy graham and think about how your doubts may be the very road that GOD will use to give you a vibrant, resilient, powerful faith. who knows what GOD can do for you?

just a thought from the front porch…

faith and unanswered questions…

hold your remaining questions in tension.

what does that mean? basically, suspend judgment for a while on some questions you might have. let me put this into context. the bible says in 1 corinthians 13 that because you and i are finite individuals with finite minds and finite understanding and finite imagination we can’t fully understand an infinite GOD. so there’s bound to be some questions that we’re going to have to wait to get a full and complete answer to.

it might be that as you mature in your faith and grow in your faith you’re going to find an answer to your question that’s bothered you for years. you’re reading the bible and all of a sudden – boom! one day you’ve got it! it was just a little insight that answered the question. and many times for you as you grow in your understanding you’ll find the answer.

but sometimes you won’t. you have a peripheral question in your life that will sort of nag at you and you’re not going to find out until someday when you get into heaven. just sort of picture heaven like a third grade classroom. JESUS is up there at the blackboard and we’re all raising our hands “call me! i’ve got to know! how does this TRINITY thing work? i’ve been curious. or how does free will and predestination fit together?” or what’s the deal with pokemon? why? or like the little boy said, “why did i pray for a puppy and get a little brother instead?” we’re going to want to know some kind of issues. and HE’s going to answer.

until that day, i’ve just got the answers of essential issues of life that i can trust the bible, that JESUS died for my sins, that i can know HIM personally and be assured of heaven. i know and the evidence points convincingly towards those things as being reality.

on a few of these peripheral questions, knowing the essential stuff and knowing the trustworthiness of GOD, it’s ok to sort of allow my faith to stay in tact and hold some of those other issues in abeyance. that’s not being irresponsible. that’s making an informed decision based on GOD’s track record and the evidence for who HE is to suspend judgment for a while. if we had 100% of the answers to 100% of our questions there would be no room for faith.

we don’t have to know everything to know something. we know what we need to know. GOD has been gracious. HE’s given us exactly what we need to know. based on that we can follow JESUS CHRIST and have confidence that our eternity is in heaven with him. on these other issues we may have to wait a bit and that’s ok.

just a thought from the front porch…

implement a plan...

another step in our getting nursed back to spiritual health is to implement a course of treatment.

now that you’ve found the root cause of your doubt and you’ve sought wisdom from GOD and others in how to deal with it, figure out what course of treatment you’re going to follow to fight the virus of doubt. if it has obtained a foothold through your mind and you have questions, don’t just let them be vague questions that kind of swirl around in your mind, generalized objections. you’ll never get answers that way. sit down, take a piece of paper, write a list: “these are my specific questions that i have about CHRISTianity.”

if doubt has gained a foothold through your emotions, you don’t want to go through life with some sort of pain from your past which is an impediment to fully experiencing the joy and adventure of knowing JESUS fully. you might seek out some help from a pastor or a CHRISTian counselor or someone who could help you resolve these issues from your past. get them out of the way so you can enjoy more fully the presence of GOD and not be riddled with doubts and uncertainties.

if it’s a question of your will. where are you holding back from GOD? if you only give GOD ninety percent of your heart then you’ve got ten percent of your heart for the doubts to come in. that’s where they will reside and fester and grow. you’ve got a choice to make. you can continue to pursue your own agenda and then deal with the kind of doubts that that agenda eventually raises and unsettledness in your relationship with GOD. or you can say, “to fully know GOD is the greatest pleasure i could have and i want to abandon my ways and fully follow GOD’s way.” that is the door that opens up to a faith that is vibrant and rich and strong and full of adventure.

if you’re not sure whether you’ve made the willful choice to follow JESUS CHRIST then now just say in a prayer, “GOD, i want to know for sure. i want to receive JESUS CHRIST as the forgiver of my sins and the LEADER of my life. i want to know HIM now, starting now, forever in heaven.”

then put it behind you.

just a thought from the front porch…

ask for help and be honest…

ask GOD and others for help. and be honest with GOD.

there’s a story in the bible about a father who came to JESUS CHRIST to plea for HIS help for his son. i love what this father said to JESUS, “i do believe. help my unbelief.” he had a heart to believe, to have faith. would you help me? i have this problem with doubt. JESUS responded to him and HE healed his son.

it’s not out of bounds for you when you’re wrestling with questions and issues to go to GOD and say, “would you strengthen my faith?” james 4.2 (niv) says, you do not have, because you do not ask GOD. go to GOD, not as a last resort but as your first priority. say, “GOD, lead me to wisdom to help me get answers. bring me to people who can help me in my life to strengthen my faith.”

and ask other CHRISTians for help too. that’s why small groups are so important. they’re little conclaves of safety where you can be honest with each other and say, “everybody seems to believe… but i have some doubts.” nobody’s going to condemn you. nobody’s going to judge you. they will encourage you and pray with you. they’ll help you get answers and help your process your struggle. that’s what community is about. james 5.16 (lb) says, admit your faults to one another and pray for each other. it says, so that you may be healed.

just a thought from the front porch…

how doubt has entered into your life…

now if you are having doubts in your faith there are some biblical principles that you can follow that can strengthen you faith. i don't want to suggest they are easy or quick. but to make the steps easier to remember the first letters of the first word in each of these points spell out the word faith. here is the first one…

find the root of your doubt.

you’ve got to diagnosis the source of how doubt has entered into your life before you know how you can deal with it. now doubts can enter through your mind, your emotions and through your will. and maybe you can see how doubt is coming into your life. but maybe not. but you might want to do some self-examination, some research. ask some people who know you well to help analyze where is it that doubt is coming into your faith.

but don’t do it on a surface level. go deep and ask the tough questions of yourself. so many people would say, “my problem is intellectual! i don't believe the bible can be trusted. i don’t believe that JESUS ever existed.” but the reality is underneath those questions is something deeper. people use questions sometimes to keep GOD at arm’s length as a smokescreen to obscure the real issue, which is their pride.

you might think on the surface it’s just intellectual questions. but the reality is that something underneath says, “i’ve got too much pride to humble myself before my CREATOR.” so be honest as you analyze the source.

just a thought from the front porch…

doubt, disobedience and decision…

let’s say that you have decided to ask JESUS to come into your life but you decide that you don’t really want to fully live from HIS standpoint. you have this one area that you know is displeasing to GOD but you are going to do it anyway. that means there is some guilt that is in your life and guilt drives away peace and because you don’t have the peace that others have you then doubt if it is true. but it comes because of your disobedience.

doubt can come in through our point of decision. if you’ve never made the conscious decision to have a relationship with JESUS CHRIST then you begin to doubt whether or not you know GOD personally when the reason is you don't know GOD personally. you may sort of be riding on the SPIRITual coattails of somebody else like your parents. you may have grown up in a CHRISTian home and gone to church your whole life but when people talk about knowing GOD in a powerful, a passionate, an intimate way, you don't know him that way. and you begin to doubt that HE’s there at all. and you think those people are delusional or something. so the real reason is there’s never been a conscious choice you’ve ever made to say, “i want to receive JESUS CHRIST as the forgiver of my sins and the leader of my life,” so that from that moment on you can begin to build a relationship with HIM.

just a thought from the front porch…

emotional scaring and doubts…

a way doubts can enter into our emotions is through emotional scaring that has taken place in our past. for instance, you may have suffered abuse from a parent when you were a child. or a dad may have walked out on your family or your parents may have gone through a divorce. or maybe a spouse left you. and when you go through that kind of abandonment very often that kind of experience can lead to chronic doubts in your life toward GOD. uncertainties that are deep down inside. you’re just waiting for GOD to let you down like your dad did or your mom did or your spouse did.

if you go through history and look at the lives of the most famous atheists who’ve ever lived – karl marx, sigmund freund, bertrand russell, madelyn murray o’hare, nitche, camu – you look at their lives – every single one of them either had a father who died when they were young or who abandoned them when they were young or they had a horrible relationship with their dad. every single one.

for most people that kind of experience doesn’t lead them to atheism, but it creates barriers between them and GOD. why? because they may have such anger toward their earthly fathers deep down inside that it’s very hard to even consider the possibility of a HEAVENLY FATHER that they would want to know. or they may be feeling like, “if i put my trust in GOD, i'm going to end up being abandoned just like my dad abandoned me through death or divorce or whatever.”

emotions can create barriers between us and GOD whether we’re aware of them or not.

just a thought from the front porch…

doubt, faith, feelings and personality…

doubt can breed in our emotions. this can happen in several ways.

some people have a faith that is fundamentally built on feelings. like the moment they gave their life to JESUS CHRIST, it was such a euphoric experience and it is for many people—it’s exhilarating to know that all your sins are forgiven and you’re going to spend eternity in heaven. with some people it is an emotional high. but that doesn’t last. it begins to taper off. when that emotional high tapers off people begin to think that their faith is going away. like that gordon lightfoot song “i don't know where we went wrong but the feelings gone and i just can’t get it back.” the feeling isn’t the same so they think there’s a problem with their faith and they begin doubting.

the reality is they’re just misunderstanding the relationship between feelings and faith. faith is not fundamentally about feelings and emotions. faith is fundamentally a decision of the will to follow JESUS CHRIST. it’s a choice that we make. our faith doesn’t ebb and flow according to how emotionally charged up we are.

there’s another way doubts can enter into our emotions. certain personality types are more susceptible to doubt. certain people are more susceptible to certain illnesses, certain people are more susceptible to questions and doubts. these are the melancholy kind of personalities. they may be people who wrestle with a lot of angst, people who are very contemplative, very deep in what they think about. often they wrestle more than other people do with questions and doubts.

the problem really isn’t with them. GOD wired them that way. there’s no problem being a melancholic, contemplative person who happens to have a lot of angst in their life. the problem comes in when they compare themselves to other people. they may have a happy-go-lucky friend who’s doing fine and they look at their life and say, “why am i always questioning things? why am i always bringing up uncertainties? why am i always wrestling with angst and struggling?” that’s a personality deal. don’t compare yourself to other people. GOD wired you up this way. and that’s ok. just be aware you may wrestle with issues more than other people.

just a thought from the front porch…

so how does the virus of doubt infect us?...

well for one doubt often gains a foothold through our mind. often intellectual doubts come in through our mind.

we read the bible, put it down – wait a second! “am i to believe there are really things like angels and demons and satan and heaven and hell and that JESUS is really coming back? are these things credible?” doubts can come into our mind if we don’t know why we believe what we believe. if we don’t know why we believe it we’re a sucker to get hit with doubt.

like a friend comes up to you and says, “you’re a CHRISTian aren’t you? you believe that JESUS is GOD? why?” so you take out a bible and you’re going to show him some verses and he says, “you can’t trust that book! this is the twenty-first century! everybody knows that’s a book of mythology and legend and make believe and wishful thinking. you can’t believe in that. what makes you think that the bible is a trustworthy book that you can put your trust in?” you kind of stammer and say, “i just believe it, that’s all!” and then doubt begins to erode your faith. you begin to think, “maybe he’s right. maybe i have swallowed this JESUS thing hook, line and sinker! maybe i haven’t thought critically enough about it.” and those doubts begin to take a foothold if you don’t know why you believe that basic truth.

doubt can effect us if we don't know what we believe. often we have a misunderstanding about who GOD is and you have to review who GOD is. you may know a lot about the love and the forgiveness and the mercy of GOD. but if you don’t know anything about the righteousness and the holiness and the justice of GOD then you’re going to wonder why HE doesn’t do certain things that you think HE ought to do and why HE does do things that you think HE ought not to do. and doubts begin to come in because you don’t have a fully formed picture of who GOD is. the problem isn’t with GOD; it’s with our understanding of who HE is.

just a thought from the front porch…

some positive side effects of doubts…

many people think that doubt is unhealthy, but it isn’t always.

actually doubts can produce some positive side effects if we take steps toward resolving them. it’s like an immunization. you get an immunization to help your body fight off the future disease. what they do is, through the shots they give you, they give you a little bit of that disease. your body reacts to that little bit of disease and builds up antibodies so if you’re ever exposed to that disease your body will be able to fight it off before it takes hold and causes real problems. your body is actually stronger from the experience of having had a bit of that disease injected in the first place.

and when you’re infected with doubt, if you respond to it by seeking answers to your questions, you can emerge stronger than ever in your faith. your faith can be confirmed once more and it can give you a new confidence in dealing with other doubts that come up in the future.

tasting a little bit of doubt can deeper your faith. it can give you a hardier, more enduring, more resilient faith. gary parker said in the book the gift of doubt, “if faith never encounters doubt, if truth never struggles with error, if good never battles with evil, how can faith know its own power? in my own pilgrimage, if i have to choose between a faith that has stared doubt in the eye and made it blink, or a naïve faith that has never known the firing line of faith, i will choose the former every time.”

i want a faith that has looked doubt in the eye and made it blink. i don’t want a faith that shrinks back and is afraid to get in the firing line of faith. i know my faith is going to be stronger having been tested by questions.

a good biblical example is doubting thomas. having checked out personally the evidence himself for the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST he responds by saying in john 20:28 (niv), my LORD and my GOD! then his faith was driven so deep into his soul, by having personally checked out the evidence of the resurrection, that he spent the rest of his life declaring that it was true, that JESUS was the one and only SON of GOD.

i hope that doubt looks a little different to us now that we’ve looked at what it is. i want to reemphasize the fact that even though doubt is common, even though it’s not unforgivable, it’s still very dangerous. if you leave it unchecked it can do great damage to your faith.

just a thought from the front porch…

JESUS' reaction to doubts…

some people think that doubt is unforgivable. but it’s not. actually, GOD doesn’t condemn us when we question HIM. a great biblical example of this is john the baptist. if anybody in history should have been absolutely sure who JESUS is, it would have been john the baptist. he’s the guy who pointed at JESUS and said, behold the LAMB of GOD who takes away the sin of the world. this is the guy who baptized JESUS and he saw the heavens open up and heard the voice of GOD say, this is MY SON in whom I'm well pleased. this is the guy who pointed at JESUS CHRIST and said, i have seen and i testify that this is the SON of GOD.

he had incredible faith. but something happens. he gets arrested and gets thrown into jail. there he comes down with the virus of doubt. now he’s not so sure. “is JESUS really who he claims to be? or should we be looking for someone else?” so to resolve this he sends two of his friends to go check JESUS out and ask him point blank, “are YOU the MESSIAH? are YOU the ONE we’ve been waiting for to rescue the world? or should we look elsewhere?” so his two friends go. they track JESUS down and they ask JESUS that question.

now it’s very interesting the reaction of JESUS. does JESUS say, “what is wrong with john? the idiot! if anybody should know who I am, it’s john!” does HE criticize him, does HE slam-dunk him, does HE disqualify him from any role in the kingdom of GOD? no. the bible says in luke 7.22 (nkjv) , JESUS answered and said to them, “go and tell john the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”  in other words, JESUS is saying, “go back and tell john about these evidences you have seen with your own eyes that authenticate MY claim to being the one and only SON of GOD and that will renew his confidence and will bolster back up his faith.”

so how does this affect JESUS’ opinion of john? does HE now think that john is worthless and could do no good for the kingdom of GOD any more? no. it is after this episode JESUS gets up one day and looks the people in the eye and says, I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than john. john had doubted. JESUS is giving john the highest compliment in the world at the very same time, john has questions and concerns and doubts.

and i think the lesson for us is when you have questions and concerns and when you have doubts, GOD does not slam-dunk you. HE wants to dialogue with you.

that’s not to say that doubt is praiseworthy. the bible never says that. but it does say, i think, that in any relationship, we want honesty. your relationship to your spouse, if you’re married, or with your parents you just want honesty. that’s what GOD wants with us. in our relationship with HIM, HE wants us to be honest about, these are the doubts i have, these are the questions i have, this is what i wrestle with, this the area that i am struggling with.

and there’s confidence that HE’s not going to turn his back and walk the other way and be disgusted by that. but HE’s going to reach out to you and say, “let me help you come to resolution and bolster your faith just as I bolstered the faith of john the baptist.”

just a thought from the front porch…

so i have some doubts…

we could divide the world into three kinds of people. (actually there’s an old joke that says there’s three kinds of people in the world. those who can count and those who can’t.) but you can divide the world into three kinds of people. first would be those people who have doubted. the second group would be those people who haven’t doubted yet but who will. the third group would be those who are brain dead! because if you seriously contemplate your faith in JESUS CHRIST then it’s almost inevitable that sooner or later you’re going to have some issues, some questions, some hesitations, some uncertainties or some doubts over one thing or another. that’s not just a CHRISTian experience. that’s a human experience. there are a lot of atheists that doubt their position from time to time.

so the issue isn’t whether or not we’re going to catch this virus of doubt. you probably will if you haven’t yet. the issue is what do you do once you’ve got it. how do you prevent this virus from ravaging your faith? what can you do?

so what is doubt? there’s a lot of misconceptions of what doubt is all about. many people think that doubt is the opposite of faith. but it’s not.

it’s a very common misconception. actually the opposite of faith is unbelief. and there’s a big difference between unbelief and doubt.

what is unbelief? unbelief is a willful refusal to believe. it’s a deliberate decision to deny GOD. but that’s not what doubt is.

doubt is to be indecisive or ambivalent over an issue. it’s to be hung up between certainties and uncertainties. sort of up in the air over a particular issue.

you may have questions or concerns about some facet of the CHRISTian faith. in fact you can have a strong faith and still have some doubts. you can be heaven bound and still have some uncertainty about some theological issues. you can be a full-fledged CHRISTian without having to feel like every single matter of faith and life has been 100% absolutely settled in your life.

it’s been said that struggling with GOD over the issues of life does not show a lack of faith. that is faith. that’s what faith is about.

just a thought from the front porch…