Does Your Faith Deliver?

Each week I get a “Barna” update and 7 out of 10 times I don’t have the time to read them. This week was no exception. Now you may think what I am about to say is a completely made-up story and I don’t care. It is a 100% true account. As I was just now sitting down to write this Thursday Night topic I was asking God what to talk about. I got, “Does your faith deliver?” I then thought of Barna so I went to his web site and read his update: “Half of Americans Say Faith Has “Greatly Transformed” Their Life.” Let me say, that was all I needed this week to hit this topic of faith.

As it usually is with Barna, he breaks each study into %’s and other classifications done by surveys. Then in his Barna way he seems to say that what people feel the given religious topic of the week is usually a complicated mess needing more clarification. Barna then explains why people answered the way they did, while at the same time making issue, especially with topics like this that the answer people give usually do not have a totally biblical reason behind the answer. The point? We often believe things easily that have no real substance, but because we “feel” or just “think” very strongly about an issue or belief we tend to put a lot of emotional currency into our beliefs making it very difficult to look objectively at why believe what we do.

How do I know if you do this, how do I know if I do this? You and I say things like, “I don’t know, I just believe it’s true,” or “I can’t explain why, it’s just what I believe.” Is there no TRUE compass? Our downfall as postmoderns is our lack of compass. We like the “what’s good for you is ok if you don’t hurt others” idea, but get very upset when our beliefs are challenged, especially when they seemingly do not hurt anyone else. Interestingly enough, I think this is our strength as postmoderns as well. Why? Because of this we are very willing to accept almost anyone who does not look, act or believe like we do. And that is a very good quality. It’s just that damned thing of TRUTH. What is truth? Ahhh, a question that brings this to mind.

John 18:37-38
"You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." "What is truth?" Pilate asked.

Does your faith deliver? I don’t care what faith you are really, it is your business. But whatever you are how do you deal with the issue of “What is true or truth?”

To read the Barna article: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=240