Do you blindly trust?
July 29th, 2010
This post is really a comment as to whether someone can “blindly trust” the Lord.
The simple answer is Yes and No.
If a disciple of one lord Krishna said to me that his lord could give me eternal life, and i know nothing about this lord, and i trust him, this is “blind” trust. Will my trust in this lord work? Nobody knows. Depends on the powers of this lord.
For any religion ( all including Christianity as a religion except a relationship with the Lord Jesus ) yes, someone may blindly trust. And the proof of the pudding is in “did it work”?.
But when it comes to Trustig Christ, someone who has never heard anything about Him or had a history with Him may show what appears to be blind trust. But on further examination, this trust turns out to be not so blind after all. For the Christian, that “did it work” is what the Bible is all about. If one totally believes the bible, and what it says about the Lord, as is, then it is no longer possible to blindly trust. You have evidence. Read on.
Faith comes by hearing
The illustration about lord Krishna we had above applies to the Christian scenarion. An evangelist comes and tells me that he met a certain man named Jesus Christ, and that this Christ gives eternal life and love and peace, and that he can do it for me. I can “blindly” trust that Christ, and await the result of this Christ to show in me. Will it work? Again, it depends on the powers of this Christ.
Aside: Before we continue and as a tip, notice that my being attracted to be interested in Christ does not happen in a vacuum. And for me to “believe” in this Christ, i need help from above:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. ( John 6:44)
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.( John 1:3)
Surely Adam was sober enough to see that he and the other animals had nothing to do with all the creation. It would have been foolish for him to tell God “prove it”.
Even though the creation itself was enough evidence of God’s ability, God’s own word was even better proof and basis for Adam’s faith in God. This proof then propagates onwards from Adam onto his children and to Noah, Moses, Elisha, Jesus Christ.
He sent His word and healed their disease
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. ( John 1:14)
Come 0 A.D. Christ does not just appear out of nowhere and say “look i can heal you” to a people without knowledge. No.
He first shows what He could do by way of miracles and wonders as proof of His Godness. For example, He turns water into wine ( His mom’s faith is used here ), feeds thousands in the desert without only “peanuts”.
19Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. ( John 5:19-20)
And so when He tells them He is from above, they already have a history with the Father above, so they get it. That is why He can justly demand faith from them, not blind trust.
Faith comes by hearing
So how does a lost and clueless pagan in the streets of New York City get to believe and trust Jesus Christ? How does a PhD at Harvard get to have faith in Christ? Simple. By the hearing of words from someone.
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” ( Romans 10:14-15)
That is, a certain evangelist who listens and is sensitive to the Spirit’s promptings is sent by the Spirit to the naked cowboy in NYC. He finds him and informs him,
“God loves you and desires that you be part of His family”.
Now consider this with me a little more.
By the time the cowboy hears those words from the evangelist, don’t you think that the Lord who knows the hearts of men, already knows that the cowboy has all he needs within himself to be able to believe and be born again, or be on the path to being born again? Yes, of course. If you do not agree with that statement, then it means you believe that the Spirit (who sent the evangelist in the first place ) was wrong in His choice of the person to be witnessed to at that time, in this case the cowboy.
What that means is that no one will ever stand at the judgement before the Lord Jesus Christ and say:
I did not believe because i am a logical human being. I do not believe in blind trust. How did you expect me to know you are the way, the truth and the life?
It is Faith, not blind trust
I will say it as it is: The people who would use the term blind trust are those who are fighting the faith of God’s people.
It is that learned theologian who has no faith for anything and would drag you down with him. It is that PhD who wants to kick God from your heart so that he can become the god of your mind. It is that smart guy who does not understand God’s ways and thinks he is smarter than God. It is that rebel teenage who thinks he does not need God telling him what to do.
But these people are not your problem. These people have no idea what they are doing. They may as well be very sincere in their criticism. But they are just puppets of their unseen master, who is the enemy of your soul.
The real aim of the use of the word blind trust is as a dagger of the enemy meant to make the Christian who believes feel insecure and foolish in “blindly trusting”. Which normal person wants to sesn as “blindly trusting” something?
We should not take the bait and be dissuaded from our belief in the Lord’s abilities, for we have a history with Him. To those who are perishing, faith is all foolishness and blind trust. To us, it is way to express eternal life.
So, next time you are accused of blind trusting, counter by saying you have faith in the Lord God, the creator of the Universe. If thy accusers ( e.g. your heart) insist that it is foolish to trust in light of evidence to the contrary, tell them- tell your heart- that yours is “faith without seeing”.
Will they suddenly accept your version of events? No, they will laugh. They will laugh, when you say of your illness “i look sick, but i am healed”. Well, they laughed when Jesus said of the dead girl, that she was asleep:
24he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. ( Matthew 6:23-25)
Enslaved by the House
April 14th, 2010
Do you work for your house? You do not have a mortgage? Well, read on, you might be just surprised that you actually do.
I usually commute to work via car pool, about 30 miles one way. One question i like asking my fellow rider is whether, given the long commute and heavy traffic, they enjoy their job, . Over 70% of them do not. Whenever the person happens to be a working mom, i hear a common complaint ( almost 90% )
“I wish i did not have to work so hard. I wish i could spend more time with my kids. But i have a mortgage .”
The men simply say “I have bills to pay”
The elusive dream
One of the components of the American dream, house ( or home ) ownership, is actually a good goal to aspire towards in life. For one, it motivates men and women to work hard, real hard, which is a good and godly thing to do on this earth.
But, given the maddening competitive nature of people who have grasped this dream, it almost always happens that one ends up buying way too much house. People do this for various reasons, but here are three very common ones:
- What one can afford is not always what one really wants. Ever gone to a car dealership seeking a 20K bargain vehicle and found yourself driving out with a 30K ride? When you see a house developer advertise “Homes starting at 220″, let me assure you what you really want will probably be in the 350 range ( If you are an average Texan, 350 is really a lot of House). The sales agent is only too happy to show you and sell you the houses with the very appealing upgrades. And since the house is most likely being financed by someone else’s money, few people resist the urge to buy the more glorious. They are only being human, after all.
- Looks. You want the “Wow!” factor. You want to impress people.
- Class. You believe you have worked hard and “deserve” that type of a house. And if you are an immigrant from, say Kenya, you surely want to reward yourself for all the suffering you might have gone through to be where you are. Or you need to have “something” to show for your “long absence” from “home”.
So, people end up buying too much house than they really need. So they need to work extra hard ( or they need two incomes ) to maintain this chosen lifestyle.
In other words, people end up working for the house.
For most people,10+ hours is spend away from the house, and in the office. Weekends are mostly spent outdoors. Most of the time when you are at home in your house, you spend it sleeping ( perhaps a goodly 8 hours?) or just recovering from exhaustion to notice the surrounding beauty that you bought.
People who drive by may see your beautiful house and envy your life.
But it is you who pays the mortgage and the bills, you who has to suck up for the job that you hate, only you know the high price you are paying. And you may not notice any of the beauty of which the y speak.
You my never get enough time to really enjoy your house. And before long, you are in your 60s. Big houses mean nothing to you, the kids are gone away to repeat the cycle elsewhere and you have little energy left to enjoy what is left of life.
The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. (Psalm 90:10 NIV)
Is this wise, to work for the house? Might it not be better to have a less glorious house, and have the extra time and money to spend on yourself and your family?
The over-pampered house
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Do not blame me. My genes predisposes me to sin
February 7th, 2010
Science is a wonderful thing.
No one can argue with some of the great advances in life we have attained, thanks to the application of scientific knowledge.
I am sure you are aware that the field of genetics and its applications is bound to continue changing people’s lives in ways no one can predict. But let us consider a few behaviors so far found to be genes related. Here are a few behaviors that we are informed the genes predisposes someone to:
- Alcohol addiction.
- Anger.
- Thrill seeking or T-Type ness.
- Kleptomania.
You do not need to be a gene scientist to realize that soon, we will all “know” that the following behaviors are genetically influenced:
- Tendency towards homosexuality
- Lying
- Promiscuity and adultery
- Theft and greed
- Hate and Murder
In other words, one can certainly find a gene that influences any given behavior a person involves themselves in.
Soon, it should be possible for genetize any sin.
Finding such a offending gene and connecting it to a behavior of interest is not as difficult as you might imagine. Ask anyone doing research in genetics.
Science does not lie
Science has given us so much. Look around you. See all the wonders? Medicine. Technology. Engineering. Where would be we be without the help of science? Since science has been our eyes, helping us navigate the complex world of both the seen and the unseen, we have been trained to believe that as long as science says something is ( i.e. scientifically proven) then it is.
Science cannot lie, we are programmed to think.
Now the hard part. If science has been so faithful to us and it cannot lie, how do you reconcile the above claims with the claims of the Bible?
What does the Lord say about how we should behave in this life?
Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” ( Genesis 4:6,7 NIV)
In other words, you may have a predisposition to sin, but you do not have to.
And, here is a list of a few other natural things you will be predisposed to:
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. (Galatians 5 19-21 NIV)
Should you then obey your impulses?
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Why should anyone care how i dress up?
February 2nd, 2010
The question of what to wear ( especially among Christian women ) is perhaps less important nowadays than it used to be.
But the issue will never really go away. It was a problem 2000 years ago. It is a problem in the 21st century. It will remain a problem as long as we live on terra firma. That is, until men are glorified and removed from the presence of sin, what a woman wears will remain an issue for a Christian.
Pea and them girls at yakuti asked me to respond to one girl asking a question about what she wears. And so i decided to make a short post on it here.
And they were naked
The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Imagine this scenario:
You are a missionary. You are sent to preach in a distant tropical jungle. Or tropical paradise. When you arrive in this secluded place, lo and behold, you find the villagers going about their business naked. No one has any piece of clothing whatsoever. After getting over the “shock”, you preach to them, and all the villagers gladly believe in Christ and are born again.
You ask them whether they have problem with sexual sins, and they laugh at the question. No, they tell you. People are so busy making a living no one has time to think about sex out of the context of the necessity of procreation.
Should you ask them to wear clothes? Why? You were sent to preach Christ, not introduce a new culture of clothes. Right? Right.
This is not as far fetched at you might imagine. I doubt the Turkana men have any problem with their bare-chested women.
Jeans or no Jeans
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!Complain. Give thanks.
January 22nd, 2010
My son David turned five last December.
Now i know. Late four and early five is the period of immense complaints:
“Daddy, yesterday we prayed in Gracie’s room, why ..again today?
“Daddy i do not like this…”
“But daddy i do not want to go to bed now..”
“But daddy..”
It can wear you out. Today i had just had enough of it. But as i was busy getting annoyed, the Lord reminded me of my own baseless complaints to Him.
So this post is a reminder to myself whenever i am tempted to open my mouth and opine.
Why complaining is a no no
Why do we complain?
Basically, when things are not as we want them to be.
I will give you just three reasons why you should not make complaining a norm in your life.
1. The Lord knows what you need.
Even before you ask Him, He already knows your needs.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear. ( Isaiah 65:24)
And He has taken measures to meet those needs. In fact, it is most likely that He has already met those needs, or is working towards meeting them.
For the pagans (other people-mine ) run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ( Matthew 6:32)
So if that is the case, from whence cometh the complaints?
Many times it so happens that His solution to our needs and our preferred solutions do not match. And if you happen to know better than He does, you open your mouth and out comes complaints. I will give you one example.
A couple of years back i sought to work for a certain high flying energy company. After going through a couple of interviews that went well, i failed to land the job. I was distraught. I complained. Soon after, i took a job with a “less glorious” firm instead.
Two years later, the high flying firm went bust. Enron style. My employer is still going strong. The Lord knew the future, i did not. He set my feet on sure footing. Yet i foolishly opened my mouth to opine, craving that which was dying.
2. A sign that you distrust the Lord’s ability
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