Friday, February 29, 2008 at 2:02am
Behind the veil: Advice from a minister
Column: For His Glory
Dear —-,
Thank you for your response and for getting it in on the day that I asked you to. I'll begin by answering your question "If I ever struggle with my faith."
I think deep inside you know the answer to this question, and the answer is yes, everyone struggles with faith from time to time, including me. Yet I have had a friendship with God intimate enough to allow me, by His grace, not to abandon my relationship with Him. Every time I go through a tough time, I recall the evidence I have had in the past that reassures me that God is real and He is always with me. Those moments were real, and I lean upon them in moments when I struggle, because they remind me that Jesus lives and He is beside me always.
Your comments are very insightful and very sincere, and I want to address your comment about Exodus 16:10-11. In the Old Testament you see several manifestations of God's divine power that were made available to the five senses, such as the thunderous manifestation during the giving of the law in Exodus Chapter 20. Another example were the plagues that fell on pharaoh in the earlier chapters and the parting of the Red Sea, etc. All of these were clear indications that God is real.
Why, you ask, can't God reveal Himself that way today and remove all doubt? Hear me out — if you look at Verses 10 and 11 like you did, notice how the people reacted after seeing God's presence. They did not act in faith but rather in disobedience, even though they saw a clear manifestation of God. In the verses after 10 and 11, especially 27 and 28, the people, after seeing a manifestation of the Lord and after hearing His instructions, still disobeyed, seeing God did nothing to strengthen their faith.
True, saving faith would have looked at the cloud, recognized it was a manifestation of God and would have obeyed everything He said. However, they didn't because of a lack of faith. Seeing and hearing with our natural eyes and ears does not guarantee that we will have faith in God.
Story after story in the Bible is repeated of God revealing Himself and people still disobeying. You have David being chosen by God and then he sins with Bathsheba. Solomon has fire come down from heaven and consume the sacrifice and later on disobeys God by worshiping idols. In 1 Kings Chapters 18 and 19 you have the mighty story of Elijah destroying the prophets of Baal by a clear visible, audible manifestation of God's power, and then he runs in fear and disobeys God. Time after time the Bible illustrates stories of people who had a clear manifestation of God and still lack the faith to obey Him. Seeing is not believing. True spiritual sight comes from trusting what God says in His word, not by what we see. Jesus made this very clear in more than one way. I'll share two of them.
In the first instance, Jesus pronounces a blessing on Thomas the disciple by saying, " ... blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29). Jesus said there is a blessing on those who believe without having to see.
The second instance is more indicative of the danger of having to see God's manifestation to think that will help our faith. Jesus said of the unbelieving Pharisees in Luke 16:31: "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets (God's word), they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" And this came true because when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the Pharisees still refused to obey Jesus. In other words, seeing is no guarantee that you will exercise faith in God. True faith comes from reading and obeying God's word (Romans 10:17).
We must always trust God's word above all else because seeing is not believing.
— — —
Gio Marin is the pastor of the College Station and Waller Seventh-day Adventist Church in the state of Texas. He graduated in December 2007 with a master of divinity degree from Andrews Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, with a dual emphasis on systematic theology and church growth & evangelism. Send him an email at {email GioMarinColumn@aol.com}GioMarinColumn@aol.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Gio Marin.
Thank you for your response and for getting it in on the day that I asked you to. I'll begin by answering your question "If I ever struggle with my faith."
I think deep inside you know the answer to this question, and the answer is yes, everyone struggles with faith from time to time, including me. Yet I have had a friendship with God intimate enough to allow me, by His grace, not to abandon my relationship with Him. Every time I go through a tough time, I recall the evidence I have had in the past that reassures me that God is real and He is always with me. Those moments were real, and I lean upon them in moments when I struggle, because they remind me that Jesus lives and He is beside me always.
Your comments are very insightful and very sincere, and I want to address your comment about Exodus 16:10-11. In the Old Testament you see several manifestations of God's divine power that were made available to the five senses, such as the thunderous manifestation during the giving of the law in Exodus Chapter 20. Another example were the plagues that fell on pharaoh in the earlier chapters and the parting of the Red Sea, etc. All of these were clear indications that God is real.
Why, you ask, can't God reveal Himself that way today and remove all doubt? Hear me out — if you look at Verses 10 and 11 like you did, notice how the people reacted after seeing God's presence. They did not act in faith but rather in disobedience, even though they saw a clear manifestation of God. In the verses after 10 and 11, especially 27 and 28, the people, after seeing a manifestation of the Lord and after hearing His instructions, still disobeyed, seeing God did nothing to strengthen their faith.
True, saving faith would have looked at the cloud, recognized it was a manifestation of God and would have obeyed everything He said. However, they didn't because of a lack of faith. Seeing and hearing with our natural eyes and ears does not guarantee that we will have faith in God.
Story after story in the Bible is repeated of God revealing Himself and people still disobeying. You have David being chosen by God and then he sins with Bathsheba. Solomon has fire come down from heaven and consume the sacrifice and later on disobeys God by worshiping idols. In 1 Kings Chapters 18 and 19 you have the mighty story of Elijah destroying the prophets of Baal by a clear visible, audible manifestation of God's power, and then he runs in fear and disobeys God. Time after time the Bible illustrates stories of people who had a clear manifestation of God and still lack the faith to obey Him. Seeing is not believing. True spiritual sight comes from trusting what God says in His word, not by what we see. Jesus made this very clear in more than one way. I'll share two of them.
In the first instance, Jesus pronounces a blessing on Thomas the disciple by saying, " ... blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29). Jesus said there is a blessing on those who believe without having to see.
The second instance is more indicative of the danger of having to see God's manifestation to think that will help our faith. Jesus said of the unbelieving Pharisees in Luke 16:31: "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets (God's word), they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" And this came true because when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the Pharisees still refused to obey Jesus. In other words, seeing is no guarantee that you will exercise faith in God. True faith comes from reading and obeying God's word (Romans 10:17).
We must always trust God's word above all else because seeing is not believing.
— — —
Gio Marin is the pastor of the College Station and Waller Seventh-day Adventist Church in the state of Texas. He graduated in December 2007 with a master of divinity degree from Andrews Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, with a dual emphasis on systematic theology and church growth & evangelism. Send him an email at {email GioMarinColumn@aol.com}GioMarinColumn@aol.com{/email}. © Copyright 2008 by Gio Marin.