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Friday, December 21, 2007

FAITH: Evidence

Christians get asked why they believe that God exists. You'll hear many different answers. I think it's reasonable to expect a multi-faceted God who created everything in the universe to reveal himself in many different ways. For some, God's existence is most clear in the glory of his creation "since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:19-20). With the science-minded, it might be the complexity of the human eye, or how many of the constants in physics and chemistry are so perfect that if one of them was off by the most miniscule amount, the world as we know it would be extraordinarly different if not nonexistent. With the aesthetically-minded, it might be the glory of God reflected in breath-taking sights like the snow-capped Rockies or a colorful sunrise stretching above the ocean waves.

For me, though, the proof that penetrates me the most is God's work in people. Yeah, God does miracles - otherwise unexplainable medical turnarounds, hopeless situations being resolved as a result of the mere act of prayer and seeking God. But to see God change hearts, turning darkness into light, turning hopelessness into joy, seeing some of this in myself but especially in others, is what gives me certainty. I once read somewhere, that in the case of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo, perhaps the biggest miracle was not that they came out of the firey furnace, in which they were thrown as the death penalty for not bowing down to an idol, alive, but that God could produce such men as these. Just knowing some of the people in my life, who haven't done stuff on the same level as the biblical trio, but who persist in seeking God and serving him with their lives in the face of trials, that's what does it for me.

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