Because it’s the truth.
And you have to believe the truth.
I have heard the voice of God, I have seen His work. I have felt the presence of Jesus, and I have been filled with the Spirit.
But this answer isn’t very helpful when someone comes to you with a very specific question.
A girl I knew once asked if someone who had committed suicide was in Heaven. The other people we were sitting with when she asked this question began to discuss it.
But I said, “I don’t think it’s a valid question.” This, of course, was no help to her at all.
Whether or not someone goes to Heaven, whatever the circumstances, is entirely between that person and God. I don’t think we are sophisticated enough to calculate what behavior is good enough or bad enough to negate the spiritual act of accepting Jesus as your Savior. If I say “Maybe there is no act, maybe everyone who accepts Jesus goes to Heaven, no matter what they do afterward.” Then you could say “But what about…” and list a whole zoology of crimes, each more horrid than the last. What about that guy? What about that guy?
I don‘t know.
And neither does anyone else.
But that answer didn‘t help this girl. She was in the throes of drug addiction, and she was having trouble accepting that just believing was enough, and she needed concrete answers and lists and do and don‘t and calculations.
And I, with my stripped down, minimalist view of Christianity, was not going to be able to help her.
There are times of course, when we need to have good answers, to have them readily at hand. You get in a discussion with someone who is trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater, who is saying I don’t believe in God because His church is full of corruption, His leaders are greedy money grubbers and all the Christians I know are hypocritical, tied up in knots, miserable, mean, stupid, condescending and/or misguided.
Saying you don’t believe in God because of the Church or the actions of Christians is like saying you don’t believe in the Little Prince because it was written in French and you don’t read French. Or you don’t believe in Clydesdales because they’re too big to be saddle horses.
The Little Prince is real. Clydesdales are real. God is real. And whether you like Him or not, this is the God we have.
You can get a translation of the Little Prince. Or you can learn to read French. And you can saddle a Clydesdale. They’re just better at being draft horses.
I understand the logic of “If the people who follow God can do this terrible thing in His Name, then He must not be much of a God, and why would I want to be part of that.“ But you can have a one on one relationship with God that doesn’t have anything to do with churches or the activities of any other Christian. Just you and God.
When you are with God, when you know Him well, you understand that there are things that happen that you just have to accept, that you just have to go with and know that you will not receive an answer right now. But if you haven’t reached that point in your relationship with God, then it’s a little harder. “You just have to have faith” is not an answer for someone who doesn’t see it. For them, it sounds like a cop out.
If you choose not the believe in God, because you choose not to believe in Him, there is nothing I can say or do to change that.
I don’t give you the kind of peace that the world gives. John 14:27 [God's Word]
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