What I put my faith in does matter!

by Tom Crawford

10/12/2007
revised 11/21/2007

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In my second blog, Maybe I was too hard on Schopenhauer?  (7/22/2007), I talked a little about putting my faith in something that was false, vs putting my faith in something that is true.  The example I used was that of believing in Santa Claus as a child.  But as I grew older and learned more, my faith in Santa Claus was destroyed.

I need to make another point however.  The object of my faith matters!

One of my past times or hobbies is to do work around the home and/or to build things.  On many occasions, I have been in the garage or yard working on something, and have been using an electric drill and a saw intermittently - both of which need to share the same extension cord.  On many occasions, I have picked up the saw after using the drill for a while, lined it up with a line on a piece of wood, pulled the trigger on the saw, and nothing happens.  I picked up the saw truly believing it would saw wood, and it does nothing.  You see – I forgot to plug it into the extension cord.  I can believe all I want that the saw will cut wood, but if it is not plugged into the power, I am putting my faith in the wrong thing. I am not putting my faith in the truth; I am putting my faith in a non-truth.

Though it is not quite analogous, what we are putting our faith in with respect to God matters - ETERNALLY!  Many people believe that all religions teach basically the same thing and that they all lead to God.  You hear, “All paths lead to God!”  In contrast to this however, Jesus said:

"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.  For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.”  Matthew 7:13-14  NASB^®

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.’”  John 14:6 NASB^®

Jesus certainly does not give us the option of believing in just any god or religion.  He makes radical statements like “I AM the way! I AM the truth! I AM the life! ” 

It is not just Jesus that tells us we need to narrow down our options and focus on what we believe.  Elijah, a prophet in the Old Testament told Israel:

“…. Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people did not answer him a word.”  1 Kings 18:21 NASB^®

And Moses in the Ten Commandments commands us:

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.  You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”  Exodus 20:2-6 NASB^®

Note - in both of the passages used above, you will see that LORD is written in all capital letters. When you are reading most Bibles, they will capitalize the word just like this. Whenever you see LORD written in this way, in the Hebrew, this word is the Hebrew word, YHWH (pronounced Yahweh), the proper name for God. This word is related to the phrase "I AM" indicating that God is the Eternal, Self Existent One. Note also, Jesus used this same phrase, "I AM" when He claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life in John 14:6 quoted above. At some point I hope to go into more detail about this, possibly in a future Bible Study.

My point at the present time is: It is important who we are putting our trust in. It matters eternally whether we are putting our trust in God, in another god, or in ourselves.  We need to be pursuing the truth about God, and making sure we are trusting the True God.

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