There is a friend of a friend who has come to a place where he can no longer embrace a faith in God. He told his spouse that he loves her and he will attend church with her if she wants him to, but she needs to know he is doing it for her, not because he believes. His primary reason – there are simply too many unanswered questions.
I like the honesty… if it is truly the honest response of a searching person. However, it may be that he is trying to put the infinite God, Who wants us to come to Him by faith, into a box. If he is seeking a nice, safe, fully understandable god, then he is not really looking for the Creator God… the infinite God of the universe… the God of absolute justice and total love.
Frankly, God doesn’t want to be understood; He wants to be known… to be experienced. He will not subject Himself to our experiments. He won’t fit into a test tube. I am an engineer, a scientific person. Admittedly I wanted, and still sometimes try to, define God in terms that make sense to me. This is not wrong. But it will always be limited and fall short of capturing Who the Infinite Other really is.
I have experienced God. Baby steps of faith grew to the point that I went all in and committed my whole life to Jesus several years ago. God entered my life that September day in 1983 and I suddenly knew that He was real. It was not theoretical. It was not a faith of straining to do the right things. It was an overwhelming reality that God’s Spirit had taken up residence in me and was beginning the process of changing me for the better.
I have been thinking about and praying for this friend of a friend for several weeks now. In a couple weeks I am going to meet him for lunch. I will try to answer some of his questions. But I know that answers to his questions are not what he truly needs.
I have thought about the wind the last few times I was praying for this friend. I can give a scientific definition of wind… the movement of air from a higher pressure area to a lower pressure area. But for a person who has never been outside to feel a cool breeze or walked on the sea shore and experienced the tangy, salty wind blowing in from the ocean, my scientific definition is of little value. They get much closer to grasping what wind is by seeing it’s affect… trees swaying in the winds of a storm, coastal trees permanently shaped by sea breezes, snow drifts, and clouds moving.
Ultimately they will only begin to really understand what wind is by stepping outside and experiencing it.
Jesus used wind in one of His most famous illustrations. He was talking to Nicodemus, a religious leader who was curious. The conversation was recorded in John’s gospel, Chapter 3:5-8 “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘you must be born again’. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it come from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
My baby steps of faith were bolstered by seeing evidence of God in other people’s lives. I saw the changes and transformation of character that had taken place. I realized that my striving to make me a better person had always seemed to slip back. And then God met me and offered me a new life… a life in Him which had only this promise. “I will never leave you or forsake you.” He said.
Folks, I stepped into the wind that day and I experienced life for the first time. And He has never failed to keep His promise. The life I have lived has been blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I thank the Lord for drawing me to Himself, for pouring His Holy Spirit into me, and for shaping me with the wind of His love that others might see and seek Him out too.
Love you guys. Have a blessed day. And let the Lord bless others through you.
areliablefaith 