Tag Archives: miracles

discipleship, Finding Answers to Stuff Churches Don't Discuss, Uncategorized

Airtight Alibi

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Traveling back to North Dakota after attending a Lute Society of America seminar decades ago, I encountered a young lady carrying healing tuning forks and crystals. I asked, “Why do you believe in this stuff?” Her response was, “I dunno—it just seems right.” God-fearing Christ-followers have a different approach and airtight alibi: we know what and in whom we believe and why.

Many things lend credibility to what we know to be true, from eyewitness accounts and personal experiences to fulfilled prophecies. They help us to have a defense for the “hope that is within us,” according to the apostle Peter, who shared his knowledge and experiences-fueled alibi with excellent results.

During the first Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension, God’s Spirit enabled the apostles to preach the Gospel in their languages. Peter taught about “Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst,” who “God raised … up again.” Peter’s preaching touched the hearts of the listeners who believed and asked, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent …” (Acts 2:22-24, 32-33, and 37-38). The apostle Paul was also a rockstar with an airtight alibi.

Besides the thousands he shared his Christian alibi with, Paul mentored Timothy, a young Greek. In 2 Timothy 1:8-12, Paul reminds him that Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light.” Paul is so sure of all Jesus has enabled that he writes, “for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him.” Paul’s alibi in Athens is the stuff of legend!

On trial for preaching a foreign God, Paul connected with his accusers and others by acknowledging their religious nature and mapping their ‘unknown god’ to the one true God. Read Acts 17:19-31, and you’ll find this golden nugget: “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

Here’s a final arrow for your airtight alibi quiver: an unbreakable chain of custody and eyewitness accounts. Church father Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of the apostle John, who was a disciple of Jesus. And Jesus fulfilled hundreds of ancient prophecies, was killed, resurrected, and then appeared to hundreds of people, including the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:6-8).

Summary. We who believe in and follow Jesus have plenty to develop an airtight alibi. Having and living by one is essential to a healthy marriage-like relationship with God and effective evangelism, proving He is King, the only rightful one. No King but YHVH seems like a great topic, so let’s go there next time! Meanwhile, learn well, behave well, and live.

God’s blessings and peace,

Dr. Ron Braley, MDiv, DMin.

discipleship, Finding Answers to Stuff Churches Don't Discuss, Uncategorized

A Leap of Faith!

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Jesus encouraged us by saying that faith can move mountains. Fine. But what is faith, and how do we get and keep it? You’ll find that it is the outcome of experience turned into action. Let’s explore this by first defining faith.

Faith defined. Faith, confidence, belief, and assurance are synonymous and provide the foundation and motivation for all else in a Christian’s journey: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”(Hebrews 11:1)

Faith’s sources. Faith in all things related to God is born and nurtured, never meant to be blind. Even Jesus fostered great confidence about God’s Kingdom and power through Spirit-fueled miracles and fulfilling ancient promises. Our faith comes through learning about these things: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). A primary source is the Scriptures that “were inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Faith also develops by witnessing God’s work in people’s lives through testimonies and our own experiences as we activate what we’ve learned. Of course, the common experiential source is God’s Spirit, who works through us on God’s behalf, illuminates His words and ways, and nudges us to stay on the Way of Life (e.g., John 16:13). The vehicle for all of this is discipleship.

Creating a foundation through discipleship is of utmost importance in developing (and keeping!) faith. Besides charity, it is supposed to be the church’s focus. Every function within it must support discipleship, or the church becomes just a collection of nickels and noses fueling religious business: a whitewashed tomb. Discipleship demands walking with people in their daily rhythms of life as Jesus did. And, as He also did, it involves training, observing, correcting, and sending. Discipleship is the soil that produces good spiritual fruit (Matthew 13:3-8 & 18-23). It’s the stuff of obedience, imitation, and replication that ensures faith is, and faith does.

Faith is as faith does! We love claiming that we are ‘saved by faith alone’ as if actionless belief in Jesus alone magically keeps us from God’s judgment. As Paul Harvey often quipped, “Now for the rest of the story!” Faith in God through Jesus MUST lead to charity (Godly love): “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. …” (James 1:22-25) “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. … But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?” (James 2:17-20)

Summary. Faith is confidence in what God has done and is doing. It is built through experiences born of discipleship and the Spirit, and it must produce. Relationships are the backbone of discipleship, so let’s go there next time. Meanwhile, believe, grow spiritually, and get to work!

God’s blessings and peace,

Dr. Ron Braley, MDiv, DMin.