I used to work with a guy that was an atheist. What was funny, is that every week he would come into my office and ask me what I was going to be teaching in my Wednesday Bible Study class at my church.
Over the next year or so, we became friends and he opened up to me about his childhood and how he had been abused. He questioned, “If there is a God, why wasn’t He there when I needed Him?”
I looked him in the eye and told him, “God WAS there! He was right there with you, crying with you, holding on to you, grieving this with you.” God was sadly watching you experience an abusive and broken person exercise the very same gift of free will that He gave to you. In order to give us free will, He had to give it to everyone, and He challenges us ALL to use it responsibly in order to, hopefully, pursue Him! Sadly, many do not.”
I continued, “But instead of reaching out to God to help you and heal you in your hurt and pain, you abandoned Him. Believe it or not, I get that. I understand. But here’s what I also believe… I don’t believe that you don’t believe in God; I believe that you’re just MAD at God for feeling like He abandoned you. But, it’s the other way around. God never stopped believing in you and He never stopped loving you. As a matter of fact, God is still waiting to hold that little boy in His caring arms so that he can be healed, affirmed, and loved.”
Soon after that conversation, my friend said that he had moved from being an atheist to being agnostic; perhaps there is a God after all. Then one day he came in and told me that the night before he had done something that he had never done before… he had prayed. A year or so later, he moved on to another company out of state. And about a year after that he had a heart attack and died. I do not know whether or not he ever came to Christ, but at least he had started to open the door to that possibility.
I tell this story because I want you to CONSIDER THE SOURCE for my friend’s atheism, for his belief in his disbelief of God. The SOURCE of his belief was his woundedness, his hurt, his pain.
What is the SOURCE for what you believe? I am sure that each one of us has our own particular beliefs about God, religion, sexuality, unborn babies, politics,… virtually everything that shapes how we face and walk through the world today.
Someday, we will all be held accountable for everything we believe. We will be held accountable for our desires, for our motives, and for our beliefs. So, while we still have a chance, we MUST take some time to do an internal inventory on WHY we believe what we believe. We must seriously CONSIDER THE SOURCE of our every belief.
Like my friend, perhaps your belief system is sourced in your hurt or pain, though hurt and pain can lie to you. Perhaps your belief systems is sourced in your pride, though every pride will eventually fall to humility. Perhaps your belief system is sourced in compassion for others, though we must not offer compassion at the expense of truth. Perhaps your belief system is sourced in group-think, though we are all accountable for ONLY ourselves.
So, what is your SOURCE? We are hearing a lot about MORALS & ETHICS in the news today. And all these “SOURCES” seem to be in conflict! How can that be? What are the sources?
Most atheists and secular people will say their morality is based on what “humans feel is inherently ‘right.'” The problem with that statement is, everybody’s definition of what is “right” is all over the map. They cannot find agreement between themselves. Their belief is relative to what is in their personal best interests. These are CULTURALLY Based Morals, and they are often at odds with each other, as is evident in our society today.
You know, thousands of years ago God gave us a MORAL code around which to shape our beliefs. He gave us an ETHIC around which to shape our behaviors. He gave us a simple and concise, yet profound, SOURCE by which to live. A SOURCE based on His very nature and His character. And that SOURCE is the Ten Commandments and rest of His Word, the Bible, that surrounds it.
If we genuinely call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, then why are we following so many worldly sources? Why are we succumbing to cultural bias? Why are trading Solid Truth for relative lies? Why do we not CONSIDER THE SOURCE that GOD and His Word is BETER THAN, GREATER THAN, MORE RELIABLE THAN A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G this world has to offer?!
It’s so much easier to “LISTEN to the masses” than it is to “STUDY HIS WORD.” I want to challenge all of us, myself included, to do the hard thing. The hard thing is to CHALLENGE our beliefs. Look at anything that divides our society today and ask, “I know what I’ve always believed about this, but what does GOD say about this?” Then, go to Scripture to find the answer.
See, we cannot afford to understand God and culture on our terms. We must understand ourselves and our culture on GOD’s TERMS. Ask the questions. Be honest. Do the work. Seek God’s Truth and find Him in His Word. CONSIDER THE SOURCE.
“God qualified [Jesus] as a perfect High Priest, and He became the SOURCE of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).
God almighty is the ONLY one that will not let you down. His Son Jesus Christ confirmed this with His blood and freed us from the world with His resurrection. CONSIDER THE SOURCE!
God bless you all, and we hope to see you Sunday!
