Thinking This Week

HELP YOU BELIEVE?

The recent multiple shootings across our land sure help you believe… in evil, in wickedness, in profound brokenness.

Death. Sudden. Brutal. Tragic. Senseless. We see it way to often. And we name what is behind it: evil. Such awareness of evil helps you believe that there must be something more to existence than the brief, unpredictable and too often brutal time we have here on earth.

The fact the we can identify something as evil confirms that there must be something that can be called good. How could we know evil if there wasn’t an opposite? Evil and good are more than equivalents for painful and pleasant; they point to a reality beyond the material world. There must be something more.

Let the recent tragedies played out on our national TV these last couple weeks strengthen your belief in evil. Evil days can point you to a hope for more, a hope for better, a hope for good, a hope for GOOD.

A hope for an antidote for our sin, sick world.

This Easter weekend we celebrate the antidote for evil: Jesus Christ crucified and raised. May a greater conviction of the existent of evil whet your appetite and increase your yearning for the one who is good.

BUT DO WE HAVE ANY BUSINESS BELIEVING A HOPE LIKE EASTER?

Many scoff at the Christian message.  They use disparaging comments about the foolishness of people who are so hopelessly weak that they need the “Christian crutch.”  Tremendous amounts of ink and air time have been used to undermine the truth of the Christian message.

All for naught…

The historicity of nothing else in ancient history is better attested than the death and resurrection of Jesus.

• Multiple eyewitness accounts
• Conversion of sworn enemies of the faith
• Superb textual evidence.
• Sacrifices made by believers (who would have known if it was all a lie)

What business do we have believing that God has forgiven our sins, that he watches over and protects us and that we will spend eternity in Paradise? Just this: Christ crucified; Christ raised. As prophesied and predicted, the Temple (Jesus) was torn down, and in three days it was rebuilt (resurrection).

To strengthen your confidence in Jesus this Holy Week let me suggest the following readings:

• Matthew 26-28
• Mark 14-16
• Luke 22-24
• John 18-20
• I Corinthians 15
• Psalm 22
• Isaiah 53
• The Case for Christ or The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel

What business do we have believing? It is the person, the promise, the power and the presence of Jesus!

WHEN YOU NEED MORE HELP TO BELIEVE

If not the unrestrained evil in the recent shootings, there are other things in your experience that from time to time will make you question the Christian faith. Doubt is a consequence of the nature of faith. While we are to walk by faith, you can bet we will often be plagued by doubt.

Thomas doubted, so did Sarah, Gideon, Zechariah and others.  Don’t be surprised when doubt strikes you. Jesus told us not to doubt because he knows we do.

When doubt does arrive, dig in—don’t bail out. When Satan brings doubts to your mind, make sure you:

• Search the Scriptures. It is in and by the Word that God will meet our doubts with stronger faith.  It is no accident that those who are most regular in their Bible reading are more firm in the faith.

• Spend time with other Christians. Seeing Jesus at work in others’ lives can be a big support to you in your time of doubt. The sad reality is that when people experience a crisis of faith, just when they should be coming closer, they start to pull away.