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What he said to them, and how she answered

Why Is Faith So Hard?
Violent Faith

What he said to them, and how she answered

Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:05 PM PDT

By Chaplain Mike

As the young couple stood before the minister, dressed in wedding finery, room filled with well-wishers,
a life stretched out before them, this is what he said to them.

“A reading from 1 Corinthians 13:

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not
demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not
rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never
loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

“As you prepare to make your vows to each other, these words about love from the Bible
can guide you in understanding the nature of what you are promising.

“On days like today, the idea of love can seem almost magical. You stand here, beautifully
dressed, with your friends and family surrounding you. We are all incredibly happy for you,
and we are glad to be here participating in this celebration. Everyone’s smiling. The
atmosphere is positive and optimistic and hopeful. We live for moments like this.

“However, there can be a big difference between the moments we live for, and the
moments we live in.

The moments we live for are the extraordinary moments; we enjoy them periodically,
and they provide special memories for us.
On the other hand, the moments we live in most days involve the ordinary activities
of our life, and they are not always exciting or memorable. It is easy to feel loving
during the special moments, but it is not always easy to show and practice love

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during the daily grind of life.

“But those are exactly the times when we must practice the kind of love we read about
here, when we must be patient and kind, when we must avoid being rude and irritable, and
when we must not stubbornly insist on our own way. When we get tired and grumpy, when
we don’t like what our spouse says and we feel anger rising within us, when life gets hard
and the money gets short and the house is messy, that’s when genuine love is most
needed.

“The Bible tells us that God is love, and this kind of love grows in our hearts when we trust
in him. It is almost inconceivable that two people can promise to love each other like this
for a lifetime without knowing all that they will have to face together. I guarantee you that
it will be a thousand times harder than you think, and that you will fail many times, as we
all have. It is in those times that you must love one another by practicing forgiveness.

“So, as you make your promises today, please realize that what you are vowing is
impossible without God’s help and the support of your extended family and friends. And it
will never happen if you don’t learn to forgive one another as Christ forgave you. Anyone
can have a wedding. It takes years of practicing faith, hope, and love together to have a
marriage and build a life and family together.”

Later, that evening, as the minister (who also happened to be the

bride’s father) danced with his daughter to a song they had heard together through all her growing-up
years, he was worried that she might be upset about the mishaps that had befallen them over the
weekend, changing some of their plans and leading to tense moments. He whispered in her ear, “I’m
sorry everything didn’t turn out perfect. I hope you aren’t too disappointed.”

She responded, “Oh dad, that’s OK. This is about marriage, not just about a wedding.”

And that is when he knew it would be alright.

Why Is Faith So Hard?

Posted: 05 Oct 2010 03:20 PM PDT

I have friends who not long ago risked all on the call of
God, and lost everything. Let’s call them Seth and Emily. They clearly heard God call them to give up

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all they had and move to another country for a specific task. (I’m sorry I can’t be more detailed, but
this is their story to tell, not mine, so I can only sketch it for you.) They sold or gave away most
everything they had accumulated over the years, packed up what was left, and went with their four
young children to a country half way around the world.

At first they hated everything about where they lived. Oh, they put on a brave face and tried to find
the good, but it was so different from what they were used to, so strange and hostile that it took all of
their emotional strength to make it through each day. After a few months they had made some friends.
Then they became connected to a group of believers who helped them in the transition. Several
months later, they were starting to feel settled–a bit–in their new home.

Then the roof caved in. The task they went to accomplished turned out to be a poison that infected
their entire family. Not a real poison, but it might as well have been. It was devastating. Why would
God call them to such a place when it was doomed from the beginning? Seth and Emily went about the
task of giving away all they had accumulated in this land and returned to the States. Their lives were
shattered. They went in faith, faith in the God who called them, and God let them down. When Seth
came home, he thought, Maybe I’ll check out what these neo-atheiests have to say. So he read
Dawkins and Hitchens. After coming to the conclusion that they were clouds without rain, Seth turned
his eyes warily back toward God. This couple now limps through their days, wondering how they will
make it.

If you expected me to start this last essay on the topic of faith off with a cheery story of someone who
trusted God and everything turned out sunshine and roses, sorry. Most of life is not like that, is it? And
yet we are told to believe God, to live by faith. We have all seen the “Miracle Rally” on TV where
people line up to testify how God has healed them of blindness, deafness, shortened legs, halitosis, and
other ailments. And yet just down the street we know of the wife and mother of three young children
who lies in bed, withered up from the cancer that is killing her. And no matter how many people pray
and fast and claim her healing, she will die. It gets to the point where we ask, Why bother believing at
all? Why have faith when it doesn’t seem to do any good?

The only answer I can give you is this: Because it is the way God has commanded us to live. We cannot
come before him in any way other than by faith. We cannot please him except by faith. And we can’t be
his friend unless we believe him. So if this is how God wants us to live–a life marked by believing even
when it seems ridiculous to do so–then why is faith so hard? Here are a few reasons I can see.

We need proof before we believe. We are still very modernistic people. We can explain everything,
and if we can’t, we take it apart and reduce it to small pieces until we can explain each one. If we can
take the universe apart so that we can give it an age and explain how it all began, then certainly we
can do the same with God. The church is not exempt from this. We spend so much time trying to prove
God exists that we are defeating ourselves. Sermons will be preached all across the nation this
weekend attempting to “prove” how God created the world, “prove” that God kept the sun from moving
and parted the Red Sea, “prove” that God still heals today. Here is a suggestion: If you find yourself in
one of those churches this weekend where the speaker is attempting to prove God, grab the hymnal
and read the words of some great hymns. Make a to-do list on the back of your bulletin. Or check
football scores on your phone. Any of these will be of greater value than listening to someone once
again try to do for God what God refuses to do for himself. God does not want to be proved. He wants
to be believed. Until we stop trying to prove God exists, we will not believe he exists.

We are sleeping with the whore of reason. Everything must be sensible to us before we embrace
it. We have to understand before we commit. If it does not seem reasonable, then certainly God does
not expect us to do it, right? I want to repeat a quote from Martin Luther that seemed to upset a
number of people in my previous post. Luther, never one to mince words, was not too keen on human
reason.

Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual
things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with
contempt all that emanates from God.”
— Martin Luther

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If Luther had been reasonable, he would have known there was a better way to present his thoughts to
the Church. He could have applied for an audience with his bishop, then his cardinal, then the pope.
After sharing his thoughts, a committee might have been formed to consider them. A report would be
drafted. Discussion groups would have popped up. Eventually, after the necessary back-and-forth and
give-and-take, a version of Luther’s ideas would have been submitted to another committee and…you
get the idea. Fortunately, Luther was just crazy enough not to bother with being reasonable. He didn’t
wait until it made sense to present his theses. If he had given way to reason, we would not have seen
reformation come through the crazy German monk.

Yet before we will believe, we want to be sure it all adds up. We want it to make sense. It must pass
the budget approval process, the building committee, the staff-parish committee. Where are the Martin
Luthers today who say, “Here is what God told me to do, and now I’m going to do it”? Where are the
bold, crazy people who believe when it doesn’t stand up to reason?

We think faith is for a specific incident or task. Yes, there are examples in Scripture where God
requires a person or a nation to believe him for some specific thing. Yet more often we hear God
commanding us to simply believe. “He who comes to him must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of those who diligently seek him.” Faith is not for us to get anything other than a deeper,
more intimate awareness of the One who wants us to believe for the sake of believing. The primary
reason we are to exercise faith is to please God. What other reason do we need?

Now, we do this believing in specific ways. And yes, in our faith we often receive what we are believing
for. But our joy is in the fact that God Is, not that we have. Does that make sense?

Faith-talk has been corrupted by the prosperity-Gospel crowd. Yes, it has. They have said and
done some of the wackiest stuff imaginable under the guise of faith, and then written books about it
and talked about it on TBN. My question to you is this: So what? Just because someone believed God
not only for an Audi 8 with gold rims, but also for a favorable parking place every time he went out to
eat, and then formed a church around this belief, does that negate the fact that God calls us to believe
some wacky, crazy things? And—this will irritate a good number of you—who is to say God didn’t want
that person to believe for those things? And who cares? If he wants to settle for a piece of metal that
gets horrible mileage, let him. The Lord has me believing for something so ridiculous, so implausible
right now that it would be easier for me to believe for my own Audi dealership.

Look, people do stupid things in the name of God all day long. Most of them, at least most of the ones I
know, are sincere in their stupidity. They are really trying to follow the Lord the best they know how.
So what they’re believing for something you don’t think they should believe for. Get over it. If God isn’t
getting worked up about it–and by the number of prosperity preachers publishing books these days, it
seems he isn’t—why should we? Didn’t someone in the Bible somewhere say, “I don’t care what their
motives are, as long as Christ is being preached”?

We haven’t been taught to seek God in the impossible. Our churches don’t do this too often, do
they? What pastor wants to say during a funeral, “Time to get crazy, folks. This brother who is in the
coffin isn’t dead, he’s just resting a bit.” Where are our spiritual leaders who believe Jesus can raise the
dead today as he has done in the past? Yes, I know. This is not reasonable, and now you are flipping
through your dog-earred copies of Lewis to quote to me from my favorite writer how all Christians must
bow to reason, etc. Sorry, I can’t hear you. I’m listening to the disciples tell me how they saw Jesus
raise a little girl to life. And Elisha the widow woman’s son. And Paul the guy he killed with his
longwinded sermon. And … ok, did you find the passage you want to share with me? No. Keep looking.
And while you’re at it, re-read the Narnia series, then come and tell me what Lewis thought about
believing the impossible.

Look, I am not some great man of faith who never wavers or doubts. I stumble through this most of the
time, taking two steps forward and three back on my good days. I want to believe, but find myself
crying out to Jesus to increase my faith. But I want to believe. I want to trust him in impossible things.
Our God is beyond time and space and the impossible. The possible and the impossible are alike—both
are smaller than God.

This is not the last word on faith. This is just an encouragement for you to jump in the water and start

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to swim with those who are also dogpaddling in the waters of belief. But even your small beginnings
are pleasing to our Father. Here is what you can believe to begin with: He Is, and He Is a rewarder of
those who give faith a chance.

Violent Faith
Posted: 05 Oct 2010 07:24 AM PDT

We began our look at the subject of faith by asking a simple

question: What if Jesus really meant it when he told his disciples things like, “Ask whatever you will in
my name and it will be done for you.” What if he did not lay any other rules or requirements on them
than this? And if so, does he mean it for us still today?

I believe that not only does he mean it still, he commands us still to ask and believe and receive. If we
do not have faith, we cannot please God. Read Hebrews chapter eleven. Yes, we have faith when we
believe God for the forgiveness of our sins, for our entrance into eternity with God himself. But we
must continue to exercise faith daily in order to please him. We must believe, according to Hebrews,
that He Is. We must believe that He Is when only He Is can make a difference. We are asked at times
to believe for something that is, frankly, impossible. We have to trust God to do things, at times, that
are beyond the natural–thus, supernatural. We have to believe He Is in times when only He Is can save
the day.

And it is in times like this when we believe boldly that the kingdom of God is taken by force.

A few weeks ago I asked for help in deciphering Matthew 11:12: From the days of John the Baptist until
now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force (NASB). We got many
really good insights into the context and meaning of this verse. But one comment by Kelly really stood
out to me.

The verse suggests something that is hinted at throughout scripture: God esteems the bold.
There’s confusion in our modern minds between humility and timidity; between assertive
and self-willed. I think Christ was heralding an unnamed virtue: a combination of courage
and intention.

Where is this kingdom Jesus spoke about so often, this kingdom that was being attacked by violence? It
is not a kingdom we can see without our eyes, take pictures of for National Geographic. No, Jesus said,
it is in a secret place, a place you don’t get to by car or train or plane.

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The
kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There
it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17: 20,21 NIV).

The kingdom is within. Within you and within me. That’s where the violence takes place. It is us doing
the violence within ourselves. We are the violent men taking it by force, taking from ourselves. And it
takes the combination of courage and intention spoken of by Kelly. If faith is boldness, and if faith
pleases God, then Kelly is right: God does esteem the bold. When we have bold faith, believing God for
the impossible, we are attacking the part of us that is blocking the entrance to the kingdom of God that
is within us. Just what is blocking the door?

1. Common sense. Common sense tells us that the impossible just doesn’t happen. Our common sense

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says that we have to understand something before we believe it. We want to be able to explain
something fully before we grab hold of it to make it a part of our lives.

Martin Luther had some choice words when it came to common sense getting in the way of faith.

Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual
things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with
contempt all that emanates from God … Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense,
and understanding.

2. Fear. We fear what we don’t understand, and if faith is believing in things we don’t understand, then
fear will certainly be present when we exercise faith. Not all fear is bad. The fear of God brings wisdom.
Fearing the power of an oncoming truck keeps us from playing in the highway. But fear of the unknown
can keep us from believing what God wants us to believe. It seems like a natural, good thing. It keeps
us from tumbling off the edge of the cliff into the abyss. But it’s when God is waiting for us to take that
leap into the abyss that fear becomes an enemy to God.

“Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. And lo, no one was there.”

3. Weakness. “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?” Most of us are not very strong when it comes to faith. We get
stronger through exercise, which takes discipline. Believing God does not always come easily. But once
you have believed him for something and then received it, the next time is a little easier. So start
small. Try to keep up with the footmen for now. Don’t think you have to outrace a horse your very first
time on the track.

4. Lack of persistence. I heard a message while I was in England recently from a pastor who knows
something about faith. Doug Williams preached on “Prayers That Release Promise.” Normally a sermon
title like that would send me running—it smacks of all the weirdness I associate with messages on faith.
But this brother was spot on in everything he said. And one thing still sticks with me: “It’s not that
people don’t have enough faith,” he said. “It’s that we don’t have enough fight. God has promised
something to you, but will you hold on long enough? Will you contend long enough?” That’s the
question, isn’t it?

Susan Williams Smith has a book I highly recommend called Crazy Faith: Ordinary People,
Extraordinary Lives. It is a simple—but not simplistic—book on living in radical, life-changing faith. I
could quote from her book all day long. Here is what she says about not giving up.

We hear stories from the Bible and assume that faith “just comes” when in fact we have to
work at beating back our human tendency to give up and at learning how to believe
completely in the most abject of times.

Believing in the most abject of times takes faith that, honestly, none of us possess. This is when the
mercy and grace of our loving Father moves in. He gives us in times when we cannot believe on our
own the gift of faith. What does this gift of faith look like? It is the supernatural—beyond the natural
—ability to believe for what seems impossible. It is having the assurance that your prayer is answered
before it is answered. Jesus said to his followers, I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you
believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours (Mark 11:24 NLT). If we “believe we have received it”
implies we haven’t received anything yet, but we still believe. If you can do this, you most likely are
operating in the gift of faith. And this is a gift with an expiration date. Once you do see what you have
been trusting God for, you cease to need faith. Faith comes first, then sight. Faith, then understanding.
The gift of faith comes and goes. But it is always there when we need to believe.

Such faith is a violent faith. It tears down the strongholds that are keeping us from the kingdom to
which we are called. Your believing for a loved one’s healing is what draws you into that kingdom. Your
trust in God to provide for you when you don’t have two nickels to rub together will bring you into the
kingdom of God. The more impossible the mountain in front of you, the farther you will step into the
kingdom.

Boldness. Violence. Persistence. These are all part of faith. And without these things, we can’t please

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God. In our next in this series, we will look at some of the ways our churches try to prevent us from
having faith.

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