Today's entry is inspired by that legendary philosopher himself, Oddball. In case you dont know who he is, Donald Sutherland played a funny, but thoughtful tank commander in the 1970 comedy, "Kellys Heroes". One of his memorable lines in the movie was: "have a little faith baby, have a little faith."
Faith. Here are some common secular responses you will hear if you bring up the topic of “faith”: “What is it? Why is it important? I don’t like to have faith, I would rather know something for sure; I only have faith in things that I can see, or touch, or experience; faith is only in your mind.”
Throughout times of great crisis, people have exhibited great faith that they would be saved from suffering and/or death. Good examples of this are found during the great wars of the 20th Century. The common stories you hear from prisoners of war often center on the necessity to have faith when all else fails. They had a kind of faith that defied their deplorable conditions in their confinement, giving them a sense that they would one day be rescued. The strength they gained through their faith allowed them to muster enough hope to get through each day, one at a time. With the loss of faith came the loss of hope, which was usually followed by the failure to survive. Our youngest son, Kyle, had leukemia when he was a young boy. Our faith in the treatments, the doctors, the nurses, the hospital, and most importantly our God, was all we had sometimes to keep us going. Even hope by itself was insufficient, because hope usually has to have some basis in fact or possibility/probability, whereas faith does not necessarily have to. Faith enabled us to have hope when hope, by itself, didn’t make any sense and defied logic. Faith transcends logic when necessary, to accomplish the desires, goals, and will of the Lord God. The secular world misses the primary importance of faith when they deny its importance or existence. However, the Bible has a great deal to tell us about what faith is, what it accomplishes, and why it is so important. So what is faith?
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (HEB 11:1).
It has been put this way: Faith is the sense of the soul. I like that analogy a lot. We have very unique limited senses to interface with the world around us. In fact, we can only sense what is around us using these finite abilities. If faith is the sense of the soul, we have another sense added to our arsenal of discovery. By denying faith, we are unable to even begin to use this feature, in the same way that if you never opened your eyes you would never know what things actually look like. You could choose not to use your sense of vision. Why would you ever want to do such a thing? Why then, would you ever not want to use or exercise faith in anyone or anything?
Now the question becomes, well then, who do you suggest we put our faith in? When I fly a Boeing 767, I can think of nobody better to put my faith in than the creator of that aircraft (Mr. Boeing and his engineers). Why would I entrust my own life (physically and spiritually) to anyone but the one true creator. The “other gods” of society and culture make no promises or claims to have the ability to sustain or save anyone from anything. The primary objective of “faith” found in other “gods” seems to be to either pacify the god, keep him at bay, or live free from suffering. What a remarkable difference is found in the Holy Bible, which describes faith in the one true God and His Son, Jesus Christ. We have faith in Him because it is only through Him that we can have a relationship to our creator here and now, and throughout eternity! No other god can even come close to offering a relationship with himself (if he actually existed), but simply offers a religion or change in perception (which is temporal at best), to get through this life.
So why then is it important to have faith? Back to Hebrews again: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (HEB 11:6).
You simply cant please God without faith in Him, His Word, and His nature. That’s pretty clear in this verse. But, why is that? Let’s look at an illustration involving a little boy and a father in a swimming pool. A loving child has ultimate faith and trust in the parent. If a father stands in 6 ft. of water and coaxes a young boy to jump into the water (even if he cant swim), and the boy trusts his father to catch him, then he will jump. If the water was only a foot deep the boy wouldn’t worry if the father didn’t catch him, would he? The boy must have faith in his father to catch him. The father catches the boy and tells him that he loves him and we can see that the boy loved his father and knew he loved him. He had faith in his father. The love and faith shared between the father and son enabled an event which defied logic or reason, but resulted in the boy being saved from drowning, and the bond between the two being strengthened. Without the father making the offer to catch the son and save him and the boy having faith that the father would follow through on the promise, the whole event would not have occurred.
Our very salvation rests in the fact that we are saved by the grace of God, through faith in His son Jesus Christ (“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God..). EPH 2:8. Placing our faith and trust in Jesus Christ then becomes the reception of the offer of salvation, much like the little boy accepted the father’s offer to catch him in the pool, for example.
In the time when the author of Hebrews gave his readers so much encouragement and exhortation to have faith in God, there was tremendous pressure from secular society and the Jewish culture to cause the early believers to abandon their new found faith in Jesus Christ. This pressure still exists today. Hebrews chapter 12 goes on to encourage the young converts to Christianity to hold fast in the faith, because there are countless examples of the faithful that have gone on home to be with the Lord. Additionally, remember what Jesus said? If you had the faith the size of a mustard seed you could move mountains. That concept defies commonly taught secularist logical thinking, doesnt it? Move mountains? Hey, if the creator of the universe says I can do it (through Him), who am I to argue?
So in closing just remember the words of Oddball, “have a little faith, baby, have a little faith”.
Blessings!
George
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