It's a simple matter of cloaking yourself with denial.
I don't need to learn about other faiths.
Because if you did, your faith might prove weak enough to unravel.
I don't need to witness to unbelievers, that's the Holy Spirit's job.
Because to witness about Christ, you have to actually follow Him.
I don't need to train my children to know God's word; won't they just naturally become Christians?
Then when they turn to foreign gods and pagan practices, you can say "The church failed us."
I don't need to study the Word, know how to defend it and present it. That's the pastor's job.
Because study takes work, and you'd rather be on Facebook.
I can just shy away from controversial topics, because offending someone isn't loving.
Because speaking the truth in love means less to you than being liked.
I'm comfortable in my faith, I don't need to challenge myself to research why I believe it.
Because you just might find stumbling blocks and seek the truth instead of comfort.
The burden of history and culture has weighed on me lately. Meanwhile, layers of dust coat the passion for God's word and I pretend I am working for His kingdom. Isn't raising godly children a noble ministry, after all? Yet I can't give the power and peace of the knowledge of Christ to my children if I'm desperate for it myself. I can't empty myself without being filled. We carry the good news, the Gospel, the dead-raising truth of sin redeemed and chains loosened. We carry it in shiny little seeker-friendly packages, speaking with the articulate and repetitive language of Christianese, we try to squeeze our way into the pantheon of foreign gods as just another option to a hungry and seeking world. We have no idea the cost of Christ's sacrifice, or the blood dripping from the martyrs fingers, and we go about our days and weeks and months weak and ineffective, lacking wisdom in how to confront and engage this godless age.
Why DO I believe?
What proof do I have?
How do I know for sure?
If we value our salvation at all, we just can't shrink away from these questions and from seeking their answers in confidence. They throw heavy, weighty topics at us.
"What about the Crusades?"
"What about the mass genocide of Native Americans under the guise of Manifest Destiny?"
"What about centuries of human slavery when Christians used the Bible to support it?"
"What about the way women are treated in the Old Testament?"
"How do you know the Bible is true? Don't you know how many men wrote it?"
"What about the eternal fate of people who died before Christ came?"
"What about the angry, violent God of the Old Testament?"
"Why did God allow Satan into Eden if He knew Eve would sin?"
"Why did God then punish mankind for the sins of two people?"
"So you mean anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus is going to hell?"
"Why would I believe in a God who sends people to hell?"
We shake in our boots and grip our sweaty Bible in our hands and slowly back out of the room and away from the risk. It's better to stay silent, stay private about our faith, lest we open our mouths and prove we know nothing. It's fine to know nothing at all but Christ....in the beginning. But where is the solid food in this wimpy generation? Are we so diluted with political correctness and the brokenness of the era that we can't even say "I know why"?
