People look at the world in different ways. Some people are optimistic – the glass is always half full; some are pessimistic – the glass is always half empty. It’s the same amount of fluid in the glass and it’s the same glass; but two people will assess the situation according to their temperament and outlook. The objective reality is constant, but the perceptions are different.
That’s because of our human condition. Our predisposition – not reason – dictates the way we see what is actually happening around us. We look at life in our own particular way.
And that is the problem. Our perception. Our perception colours what we see, and therefore how we react. That can lead to problems. People disagree, and that can lead to untold difficulties, even wars.
People see the truth their way and, of course, their way is the right way and therefore the only way. It isn’t, of course, but that is how life is. Full of disagreement.
The biggest problem and the biggest disagreement most of us have, concerns the most important question of our existence. Where do we come from ? Did we evolve from lower forms of animal life, or were we created by God ?
For a lot of people, that question is not a real question. It is a stupid question based on a stupid and superstitious view of life. For them, it is obvious that we evolved; we descend from monkeys who came down from the trees and started to smarten up and get clever. Why we should have adapted and adapted into more intelligent beings, frankly I don’t think anyone can explain. But they take it that this is what actually happened. Even though it really takes some believing to think that lower life forms can become higher life forms of their own accord; or that they do so in response to the conditions of the world about them. Where does that capacity for evolution come from ? Where does the ability come from which enables us to respond to our environment and become more intelligent in relation to it ? It certainly does not come from ourselves. How can we who do not understand ourselves or our environment fully, how can we have within ourselves the ability to improve ourselves.
Personally, I don’t find that either feasible, credible or logical. And if you look at the evidence for that theory, you will find that there are gaps in the evidence and that the evidence is really quite limited. In fact evolution depends on how you choose to look at the world. And if you refuse to accept God as Creator, then that is the only option you are left with to believe in.
Personally, I don’t buy it !
Most people think that way though because they cannot face up to the alternative explanation. They cannot face up to the fact of God. Because if we have a Creator, then that Creator has a claim on us, doesn’t he ? If we have a Creator, he must know how we human beings operate and function. If we have a Creator then I must have some sort of relationship to that Creator. I and the rest of the human race; we do not exist in a vacuum. We are not alone. And if there is such a Being, and such a Being necessarily acted to create the world and everything in it, then is it not conceivable and logical that such a Being will continue to be interested in what he has created ? Indeed that such a Being is capable of communicating with us ?
Given the fact of a Creator, and given the fact of a Creation, surely there is a relationship between the two ? There must be !
In fact God has communicated with us. Evidence ?
- the Design, the incredible complexity and balance of the world about us speaks of a Creator Being
- God has placed an awareness of his existence in each and every human being
- God has placed a sense of right and wrong – of morality – in every human heart; we didn’t put it there !
- God has declared himself in the person of Jesus Christ – in his teaching, in his miracles, in his death on the cross and resurrection witnessed by hundreds of people
- God has provided us with the Bible – its existence is a miracle and cannot be explained by the design or conspiracy of men: how can 39 documents, written by 3 dozen authors, over many centuries, and recognised as holy by different generations of men at different times, all come together in a coherent whole with one central theme – Jesus Christ ?
The evidence is before us and demands a response. But that response is only possible if we humble our pride and accept that our perception of our existence is wrong, and that God our Creator is right. That we must agree with him. That his assessment of us is the right one, and that our assessment of ourselves and our world is wrong.
And that is when the miracle can take place. In chapter 7 of Mark’s Gospel account, we reach the account of a gentile woman who comes to Jesus to ask for a miraculous healing of her daughter. Jesus likens her people to dogs – she is a gentile; she is not a Jew; she is not worth helping !
What is her response ? Does she object ? Does her pride remonstrate with Jesus and insult him ? Does she rebel against his perception of her – a demeaning and uncharitable perception ?
No, she accepts what Jesus says. And accepting it, she takes his logic further and gains the miracle she humbled herself before him to receive: her daughter is delivered of the demon in her life.
You too can be delivered of spiritual unbelief in your life.
Accept you are a sinner; accept that only Jesus Christ can help. Go to him. Ask him. Bow yourself before him, and resolve always to live henceforth in obedience to him, forsaking your own proud assessment of yourself.
Christian Preacher
Christianity 