Rock Solid Faith

Rock Solid Faith

I want to take a brief intermission from our studies in Genesis and visit a widely misunderstood topic—FAITH. Rock Solid Faith!

Hebrews 11:1-3 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it (faith) the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

            Faith is not some fickle or whimsical and fleeting idea that one is supposed to trust and believe in. Rather faith has substance. It is rock solid bedrock, if you will!

            God is not asking you or me to believe in to put our trust in some pie-in-the-sky abstract. He is asking us to believe in something tangible. Something we can sink our teeth into! Nothing can be more rock solid and tangible than God’s creation!

Romans 1:19-20 “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewn it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

Psalm 19:1-3 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.”

            The substance of believing or having faith in God is His creation. It is not some abstract or whimsical idea—it is rock solid. And yet scientists everywhere are determined to disprove His existence and power. No matter how hard they try, no matter what “new thing” they discover—it will never disprove the existence of God. And you know what? God is not worried in the least about it; he hasn’t lost a wink of sleep pondering whether or not those earthlings will be able to disprove His eternal existence! “Oh, my goodness, now I’m just a myth!”

            Science is always finding the “missing piece” to solve the mysteries of the Universe. They will never find it because there are no “missing pieces”. The “missing pieces” they search for are right here under their noses. It is God’s marvelous creation!

Foolish things confound the wise

1Corinthians 1:27-29 “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence.”

“Wise” men/scientists are confounded by the simple, mundane, and despised things for God has chosen it to be so.

            All one needs to do is to go outside and examine just one flower or dandelion; I mean really ponder it, How did this come into being? Think about it. If it came into existence by some explosion millions or billions of years ago-then why is it always so perfect? If man evolved from monkeys, Why isn’t it still happening? Why do dandelions always duplicate themselves all over your beautiful lawn? Why do tulips always look the same and have the exact same fragrance? Every day creation is speaking to us, telling us of His great power and Godhead. Every night the starry skies give us knowledge. You can watch the sun rise and go down and yet it always appears the next day. We take note of the milky-way, the big and little dippers and all the constellations and marvel how they are always in the same place. As a young lad I used to lie in a field and gaze up at the clouds and see various identifiable shapes, animals, cars and so on. I was so awestruck by the majesty of it all. These are all simple things.

And yet man is determined to make things more difficult than they are. Do you see the irony?

            How anyone could dismiss the awesome power of God and His majesty by simple observance is beyond me. And yet that is all God requires—examining the evidence. That my friend is FAITH!          

            Ask yourself-How could all this come to be if it were caused by an explosion? What effect does an explosion have? Could an explosion, even billions of years back in time, create such beauty, such majesty, such an array of color, uniqueness and order?

            Don’t get me started on so-called mutations or variations of species. I’ll save it for another lesson.

That’s why it’s so important to teach our children and youth about God’s creation, “In the beginning God.”

Believe me our children will be challenged in the schools across the country and around the world. From early childhood education through college they will be challenged. Many a college graduate will testify to their faith being shaken to its very core. If our children are not rooted and grounded in God’s existence and creation, it will be extremely difficult to get them saved and living for the Master. Even more adversely is to realize that the children of today are the leaders of tomorrow! Frightening isn’t it! Read once again Romans 1:19-32 and witness the progressiveness into sin and degradation simply because they refused to acknowledge God and His power.

David and Goliath

David’s faith in defeating Goliath wasn’t whimsical by any means. as a young shepherd boy he learned to trust and know his God by everyday experiences. Most notably  when he slew the bear and lion.  As a result David was more than ready to face Goliath. Recall that he selected five smooth stones? The other four were for Goliath’s brothers, the sons of Anak, the giant. Had the need been called for he was ready to face them as well. Rock Solid Faith!

Salvation

Once again, our salvation is not fabricated on whimsical premonitions or hapless thoughts. Rather the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is perhaps the most documented event of history. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ was predicted by the prophets centuries before it occurred and witnessed by hundreds after He arose from the grave.

As an unbeliever, Josh McDowell set out to disprove the resurrection story and became a profound minister of the gospel and authored numerous Christian books, including Evidence that Demands a Verdict, 1992, and a host of other Christian apologetic themed books.

Once again—Rock Solid Faith!