Questions, Questions

So I have had a lot of questions thrown my way recently about what I believe. Some of those questions come from people around me or videos that I've watched on YouTube that ask some tough questions about Christianity. But the main one that seems to be a common issue with most of the people (or videos) that I've talked with (or seen) is the issue of faith. Just from talking with people about what they think faith is I have come up with a basic definition of how faith is being defined in the world today: faith is believing something is true, but can't be proven. So I asked myself, is that what my faith is? Am I believing in something that can't be proven? I will answer this question later, but to start off I looked up the definition for faith and found a total of 8 different definitions for it:

1. confidence or trust in a person or thing.
2. belief that is not based on proof.
3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion.
4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.
5. a system of religious belief.
6. the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.
7. the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one's promise, oath, allegiance, etc.
8. Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

So we can see there is a variety of definitions for the word faith. Honestly I would say the definition for faith, as it relates to Christianity, is a combination of all of the above definitions. Christians have trust in God (def #1), some things can be proven with facts but not everything can (def #2), Christians believe in God (def #3), Christians have a code of ethics (def #4), Christians have a system of religious belief based off of faith (def #5), Christians follow some fidelity for what it looks like to be a Christian (def #6 & #7), and obviously Christians believe that humans can be "saved" (def #8).

So back to my question I asked earlier: since I am a Christian, am I believing in something that can't be proven? There are things that I have seen and/or read and/or experienced that I would say are evidence for the Christian faith. Two books that I recommend everyone read, whether you're a Christian or not, are "The Case for Faith" and "The Case for Christ," both by Lee Strobel. Lee Strobel used to not believe in Christianity, and then, as a reporter, he began to investigate Christianity and what it stated. One thing that he mentions in his book is that the Bible is accurate in the placement of where a city was back then. He mentions that people have been able to find a lost city because of the Bible; a city that no one could find before has been found because the Bible stated where that city was, and people looked there, and they discovered that lost city. Does this fact alone make the Bible 100% believable? No, but it helps. He also mentions that all of the prophecies in the Bible came true. But he asks the question, "Is it possible that people wrote the books of the Bible after the 'supposed' prophecies happened?" In answering his own question, he did research on when the books of the Bible were written only to find that the books of the Bible were written hundreds of years before the prophecies came true. Does this fact alone make the Bible 100% believable? No, but that's pretty amazing. He talks about more things like this in his books. He talks more on the Bible in this video: http://www.leestrobel.com/videoserver/video.php?clip=strobelT1142. I say all of this to make one last final point: I've put out a lot of info in this blog (and honestly my mind is a little tired just from thinking about these things and writing them all out, LOL!) and the info I've given you is good and it's interesting and it gives some people some confidence in what they believe; yeah these facts are nice, and I think everyone needs to do research and look at facts and ask tough questions, but honestly the thing that makes me believe what I believe are the experiences that I've had; the things that have happened to me and people around me that I can't explain with any science or logic or facts. These things are the reasons why I believe in God.

A Look At The Other Side...

I'm not sure who reads my blog, but whether you are a Christian or not I'm hoping these videos will at least get you thinking about what you believe. I would like to do a series of these so get ready! Here is the first video:
This video is from the perspective of someone who is not a Christian.

Come To My Rescue, Part 2

So I've decided that I'm going to try to be happy about my life even though things seem to be pretty bad right now. Life is more fun when you're happy anyways! :)

Come To My Rescue

Honestly, there are a lot of things going bad in my life right now. Mostly they are things that are looming over me. I see that they are coming, but there's nothing I can do to stop them. Let me tell you, if you haven't been in this position before, it's the crappiest position to be in and you just feel crappy all the time...you don't even feel like yourself! But anyways I guess this is where I'm at right now. So if I seem to be acting weird or strange then that's why.

Honestly, it feels like I can't win right now...that my whole life will be a struggle that I will just have to trudge through. My heart is very heavy, and my shoulders are burdened. Where else can I go? There's no other name by which I am saved...then Jesus.

Respond If You're Alive, Give Me A Sign of Life

One thing I think about often is "How many people's lives have I affected in my life so far?" and "Who would show up to my funeral if I died right now?" Those are just some of the questions that I ask myself pretty frequently...I guess ones that I've been thinking about more recently are: is my life just another voice in a room full of talking people or is my life a loud scream in that same room? How does my life stand out from all the rest? Do people turn and look at what I am doing because I am choosing to be different or are we all looking at the same thing, waiting for something or someone more exciting to come along? I gotta say it......the time is now! If we look at our lives and we think, "Yeah, someday I'll change that," or "Eventually I'll get that taken care of," I gotta ask, what are we thinking?! Do we want our lives to end with a bunch of "somedays" or " eventuallys"? Or at the end of our lives do we want to be able to say "I am who I am supposed to be and I did what I was supposed to do on this earth"? My challenge for those of you who are reading this is to ask yourself questions like this...respond if you're alive.