Not all of us are sure about all things. Lots of matters may bring questions onto our mind.
Some may say doubt originates in a double minded person. Others say it is because a person is not enough believing in God. Others say he is not believing in Christ. Several Christians look at a doubter as a person not trusting Jesus.
Is this really so. Are we less better than other Christians when we have questions about certain matters? No, not at all.
Is doubt a sign of lacking faith? Perhaps. But it can be that you really do your best to walk in faith.
Is it because you do not believe in Jesus his victory over circumstances and trials? Perhaps, but not necessary so.
Is it because you cannot see the victory in your life you are seeking? Did you try already to check if you are really looking for the right victory?
Have you ever tried to think that what you would love to have and to see for yourself might not be in God His Will?
We are all human beings with our limitations and ‘malfunctions’. We all have our little problems and as such we should know that every house carries its own cross.
Having all those difficulties coming over us, no wonder that we sometimes worry and question of we are doing it right or if we are following the right coarse.
In the Holy Scriptures we are advised to question everything. This means that God does understand that we more than once shall have questions with what we hear or read, and that is good, because we should question all those sayings.
For many life is an ongoing cycle of wandering and restoration. And though many would wish it were otherwise, this makes many sometimes going to and fro, coming close to God and at other moments being far away from God. Though some may desire to never depart from God, they keep losing track. Also for Jesus it seems for many Christians often difficult to keep feeling him nearby. On many occasions confronted with the realities of life we may have lots of doubts about many things.
The reality of our sinful human condition makes it so that we also have periods where our relationship with other human beings, with Christ and/or with God is disturbed a lot.
In our technological age of communication it looks like many have lost the good communication with the Most High Divine Creator.
James Paulgaard, a fellow traveller on the journey of life, also sees some problems of this time and age. He writes:
For centuries, up until the Sixties, the Church was perfectly designed for our culture. When a group of immigrants settled in a new area, one of the first things that they did was to build a church in the centre of the community. People valued going to church as a good thing. It made people into good citizens. Encouraging the Christian faith was seen as a valuable in our society at the time. There were benefits to going to church. You could build your network of social and business contacts and perhaps even meet your future spouse there. The church was perfectly designed to develop people in that environment into followers of Jesus. {Following Jesus on His Mission: Doing the Simple Things}
Today people have found other networks which they do find more important.
This bridge was a well-designed and fully functional bridge, but in 1998 Hurricane Mitch dumped 36 inches of rain on the area in just a few days and amidst all the other damage caused by the hurricane, the deluge of water carved a new channel for the river around the bridge and the bridge now spans dry ground. It is a perfectly designed bridge that doesn’t work anymore because the river moved. (Photo from the article: Following Jesus on His Mission: Doing the Simple Things)
Now, being part of a Christian Church is no longer seen as a desirable by our culture. Encouraging the Christian faith is no longer valued by our society. People do not need the church for social or business contacts or to find a spouse. We have websites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Plenty of Fish for all those things. A church that was perfectly designed to make disciples in the world of sixty years ago and older struggles to engage with the mission of Jesus Christ in the world of today because the river has moved. {Following Jesus on His Mission: Doing the Simple Things}
When you follow the articles on Our World and perhaps form your newspapers or journals on television, you are probably aware how bad the state of church attendance is. All over the industrialised countries we do find a secularized community. In some countries there may still be a solid core of people continue to value faith; but a growing core do not. { find a.o. Reginald Bibby, A New Day: The Resilience and Restructuring of Religion in Canada (Lethbridge: Project Canada Books, 2012), 5, 10, 34.}
Lots of people got to hear from their preachers that Jesus is God because no human being is ever able to follow God’s Will. Because of that lie, people have no trust in that Jesus any more and do find it rubbish that at other moments priests or pastors say they have to take the armour of Christ and become like Christ. That then would mean they had to become like God, which is something impossible.
And in case it is impossible fro any human being to follow the Will of God, what use would it than be to even try, if no man ever could succeed.
Lots of people do forget that Jesus was a man who lived some two thousand years ago. He was a real person, others could see and not fall death (In the Bible is written that people cannot see God and live). That man, born in an Essene family from the tribe of king David, had to learn everything. People should know that God knows everything but this Jesus did not. He also had to disappoint those who wanted to know where they would be seated with him in God’s Kingdom. In case Jesus was God he could have told them because he would have known, but Jesus did not know it and had also to disappoint those who wanted to know when he would come back. Jesus always wanted to do the will of his heavenly Father and did not want to lie, like his heavenly Father does not tell lies. Not knowing when the end times or Last Days of this time system would fall, Jesus could not tell them, nor us, when he would be coming back.
In the Gospels we also can see that Jesus at moments had doubts and even wondered why God had abandoned him. So, in case Jesus dares already to ask God why He had left him, why should not such thoughts may or could come up in our minds.
What is important is how we cope with such thoughts. How we cope with our questioning God? And how we dare to question God.
We may ask God lots of things, but we have to do it in a proper manner. We also may request Him things, but we should know that God knows best for us.
Jesus has already done the hard work of living a perfect human life, dying on the cross and rising from the dead to reconcile all of creation to God. Jesus is the one doing the supernatural work of drawing people close to him and planting faith in their hearts.
as Greg Finke, {Joining Jesus on His Mission: How to Be an Everyday Missionary (Tyler TX: Tenth Power Publishing, 2014), 42-43} and James Paulgaard {Following Jesus on His Mission: Doing the Simple Things} puts it.
A statue of Jesus Christ at a church in India. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jesus paved the path to God; He restored the relation between God and man and has become our mediator, now sitting at the right hand of God (notice: not on God’s throne).
The problem of today is that most people do not know the real Jesus.
To help to find Jesus and to get to see better the importance of what he really did, dying for us all, whitewashing our sins, there has been started a new website. “Messiah for all” wants to show the world that Christ Jesus was and is there for the whole world. He does not want to miss any body. He gives everybody the opportunity to get to know him and to get to know the way to the Kingdom of God.
“Messiah for all” is there for you to help you find Jesus and to find he is worth all your trust and all your faith.
Please do find that site for you and me, and start reading: Are people allowed to have doubts
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Find additional reading:
- What’s church for, anyway?
- Obstacles to effective evangelism
- To be prepared and very well oiled
- Impediments in our way
- Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism
- Looking for Free Blogs and blogging
- Those who love Jesus
- Humbleness
- Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God
- Humility and the Fear of the Lord
- No time for immorality
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- Augustine on the Difference between Christianity and Platonism (booksontrial.wordpress.com)
The difference between Platonism and Christianity is not merely a difference of interpretation, but the difference between perception/speculation on one side, and reality/true knowledge on the other. To use a Biblical imagery, there is a great gulf fixed between them. It is the difference between death and Life, between an inanimate object and a living being. Though philosophy may delight man with a magnificent picture of truth and beauty, it is nevertheless dead, and so the greatest philosophical ideas cannot be compared with the smallest life-giving word of God.
- Most Blessed State of Being for Now (relijournal.com)
A Christian is saying “I’ve got to be me” when the Holy Scriptures indicate we are to be crucified in Christ? I have to wonder how much spiritual damage was done to other by that worldly thinking. What “Christian” singers sing does not supercede the written Word of God. The Holy Bible does not indicate we have got to be “ourselves,” but it does state we are to be like Christ.
- Living in the Wrong Time (histruthwillsetyoufree.wordpress.com)
The best days are when I live in the present, with my friend, the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. With Him, there is no room for Regret or Worry.
- Evangelists Want to Convert Heathen Computers To Christianity, Create Army Of ‘Robot Pastors’ (addictinginfo.org)
On Wednesday, Gizmodo’s Zoltan Istvan reminded us that, soon, the world will be full of “autonomous, self-aware super intelligences” created by humans. Obviously, some Christians see this as an opportunity to convert something to their religion.
Evangelists told Gizmodo that these sciencey, autonomous computer brains probably can, and definitely should, be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.
- Equal to Christ. Septuagesima 2015 (deprofundisclamaviadtedomine.wordpress.com)
Jesus gave Himself for us to make us His own people who are zealous, eager, passionate about doing good works. Christians have been born again so that they may live a new life of service to God in good works.
- The Journey of Love and Commitment (vineandbranchworldministries.com)
When we wonder about in life, do we ponder the meaning of the many gifts before us and offer praise and thanksgiving or do we literally take life for-granted. Sanctification sets us apart and instills our hearts and spirit with the desire to follow the pattern Jesus gave.
- Excuse My Scepticism (pastorcharleschipere.wordpress.com)
In our Christian Faith, we are taught to believe rather than to be a doubting Thomas. We are taught to trust rather than mistrust. We are taught to give a person the benefit of the doubt before we dismiss them. But my journey of faith has had some encounters with reality leading me to embrace some sceptical attitude towards some things I have observed in the land of the living. Before I delve into my observations, please excuse my scepticism. But this scepticism does not take away my faith in God.
- An Unfathomable Gift (connywithay.wordpress.com)
“All other religions and sects teach that man has to perform many good works in order to gain bliss – salvation is dependent on man. The Christian faith is completely the opposite. It is God working salvation on behalf of man – salvation is dependent on God,” Jan Blonk writes in his book, The Unfathomable Gift: God’s Astonishing Grace.
- The Other Side (culturalatheist.wordpress.com)
Do you have a people or place that you have determined God is not present and the places and people are demonic and unclean?
- The Call of God (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
If God were human, how sick and tired He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our sanctification. We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.
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