Archives For Belief

Creed Window detail people rotated c

A Few Things Most Christians Can Agree On

Chris —  October 4, 2013

The kind folks over at Explore God asked me to write an article on The Apostle’s Creed.

Even some of the best students will admit they have used CliffsNotes before. Those little yellow booklets provide a sometimes-much-needed list of characters and an overview that provides readers with the gist of even the densest novels. They aren’t just a shortcut for procrastinators; they are handy tools for navigating complex, multilayered stories.

Essential to many Christian traditions is The Apostles’ Creed, a CliffsNotes-style summary of what the Christian Church believes. Some churches, such as the Catholic Church, consider their creeds to be official and binding. Others, such as various Reformed, Lutheran, and Presbyterian denominations, find it useful as a tool of reaffirmation during worship and special occasions like baptism or the Lord’s Supper. Free churches—such as Baptist, Mennonite, and modern nondenominational churches—don’t necessarily embrace the creeds as part of their religious practice, but they would likely affirm that the creeds are an accurate summary of what they believe.

You can read the whole article on Explore God’s website.

In Church , , , ,
permalink

Do You Believe?

Chris —  May 15, 2009

For most of my life, if I believed in something, it meant that I bought into a series of rational propositions.  In other words, I agreed with some ideas.  Therefore “believing in Jesus” meant that I had thought about it, and had come to agree with assertions, such as “There is a creator,” “He’s there even though you can’t see him,” and “he did make an appearance once, about 2000 years ago, and got killed for it.”

What I called belief was really just coming to the conclusion that Jesus seemed like a pretty good idea.

The problem is, life gets difficult and good ideas give little comfort.  You have two choices: risk your life on the chance that your ideas will prove true, or try to figure out how to fix your problems, and think up a set of new ideas to explain the universe.

Belief is what happens when you take a risk on what you say is true.  Believing that God will provide means putting yourself in a situation where only he can. 

Most of the time, we live by ideas more that beliefs.  God doesn’t provide because we don’t need him to.  But when you get to the point that all you have left is God, you can’t help but believe he will get you through.  Then you realize, that it has really been that way all along.  Then you believe.

In God, Life , , ,
permalink