Hope: Looking Ahead At What Could Be

The Biblical text for this blog comes from Acts chapters 3 and 4. This section of text starts off just after Peter gave his dramatic sermon after receiving the Holy Spirit, right at the start of the early church. As Peter and John are walking around Jerusalem (I imagine feeling pretty confident in their new gift), they come into contact with a lame beggar outside the gate to the temple. Although this does not seem uncommon for someone who is familiar with the Bible and the works of Christ, the people of Jerusalem at the time are astounded by these works done by Peter and John. Peter then goes on to deliver a great sermon at Solomon's Portico.

Fast forward to chapter 4 and Peter and John are standing before the religious leaders in Jerusalem after they were arrested for their preaching. The leaders know Peter and John have not committed a crime, but yet they try and find a way of shutting down the ministry of these apostles.

While going through this passage in Acts class with Dr. Randy Holm this year, he informed us of a word he made up to describe the actions of these religious leaders. He decided to call this word pistisphobia (if you understand Koine Greek, you'll know that this word, if it were a word, would mean the fear of faith). They are scared of the faith of Peter and John because they bring a new hope found in only in Jesus Christ. 

To have hope is to desire something that is coming that is coming that will make a present situation better that it already is.

This hope scared the religious leaders of the time. Peter and John were not coming to say that their religious practices were not good enough, but rather that there is something even better than their Judaic law for people who accept Jesus as the Messiah.

This principle is same for Christians today as it was back then. We are supposed to be living with the hope of Christ's resurrection because that is the basis for all our beliefs. Yet, too often (myself included), we live as if this world were good enough. To live in a way that lives out Christ's living hope, we cannot get satisfied with our present living conditions. We always have to be looking forward, not only to heaven, but to every day that we can be walking closer with Christ. Living in hope requires a constant effort to better ourselves as an imitation of Jesus Christ.
People all over the place are looking for hope. We live in a world is filled with catastrophe and disaster, and it can at times seem like humanity is going to hell in a hand basket. This is where Christians are supposed to be different. We are supposed to be able to see the hope in the hopeless. This is what the world is looking for. They are not looking for people who scold them every time they do something wrong, but rather they need to see what is different about Christians.

Again, I am reminded of a story told by Dr. Holm. He had a relative named Harvey who was always being scolded by another relative (I can't remember exactly who) about how he wasn't a Christian and how he was going to hell. This was an ongoing criticism that Harvey received and one day he finally got fed up with all of this religious banter. He responded to this relative in haste, saying, "Give me a reason to hope, and then I might listen to you!"

Faith: A Journey, Not a Pit-stop

To be completely honest, I feel that out of faith, hope, and love, faith is the one that I know the least about. I almost feel inadequate writing on this subject, because I feel like often I have grown up thinking that I am someone who has such little faith. So what better place to start a blog than with something that I know little about? I hope it will be a learning experience for the both of us.

Now, first off, I do not think that I would be doing my good Christian duty if I tried to talk about faith without mentioning that wonderful chapter in Hebrews 11 that talks about the faith heroes. These are the guys who as Christians we are taught to aspire to be and hope that maybe one day we will have faith like them.

This chapter starts off with a definition of faith, the classic definition that is recited in most Sunday School classes when starting a discussion on faith. It goes like this: "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see" (Heb 11:1, NLT). For years I thought this was the only way to define faith. I didn't really fully understand it, but I tried to live by it. That doesn't even make sense! As a result of this belief in something I didn't fully understand, I would end up kicking myself whenever my faith wavered and when I found myself doubting God or what He could do.

I knew that Christians were supposed to have unwavering faith. Everywhere I looked I saw examples of great spiritual leaders living lives that, as far as I could tell, were full of unwavering faith. Surely these people never doubted God or His power. I felt really weak and inadequate as a result of this misconception of what faith is.

It was only this year that I started to get a picture of faith being more than some sort of absent minded belief that God is the way and the only way, and if we ever doubt that truth, bad things are bound to happen to us. I was writing a paper for my International Development and Missions class on the topic of Mission and Education and I had a bit of a revelation on the subject of faith. In the process of writing this paper, I knew that the all-knowing Gus Konkel had written many articles on this subject in the past, I was able to obtain some of those articles from Gus himself to aid me in my writing of this paper (for those of you who are unaware, Gus Konkel was the president of Providence University College up until this year). I came across a quote from Gus in one of these articles that was very unexpected, but yet very powerful. It went like this:

"Faith is not a claim of always knowing what to believe. Faith is a pilgrimage of learning about life, of discovering the unknown and correcting error." - Gus Konkel

I had to double take while looking at this quote. Here, Gus was saying that I don't always need to know the answer to what is right and wrong? That realization was a huge weight off my shoulders. I had always thought that if I didn't have an answer for a spiritual question that I simply didn't have enough faith. But this was not the case at all. I just had a wrong view of what faith actually is.

I am still currently immersed in learning how to live out this faith. This is not a faith based on spiritual highs, nor a faith that is ruined every time I experience doubt. Rather, this faith is something that I am attempting to grow in, through the grace of God. It is not a pit-stop where I can come back and refuel myself on spiritual highs before running out of gas again, but rather a journey that takes time and effort to get through. It is not always easy and not a guaranteed path of perfection all the way, but yet is the way we are called to live as Christians. I hope to be advancing in this journey everyday, in an effort to walk more in step with God every day.



I have attached two articles from Relevant magazine that speak on faith. The first one talks about living a life of spiritual highs, and the second talks about faith and doubt. Enjoy.

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/blog/29017-qi-used-to-be-on-fire-for-godq

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/deeper-walk/features/24847-why-doubt-isnt-a-dirty-word

What We Could Accomplish With a Little Faith, Hope, and Love

Over the past year, 1 Corinthians 13:13 has been a verse that has often been on my mind. If you are not familiar with the verse, it reads like this: "Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love" (NLT). 


During my time at Briercrest College last year, it was brought to my attention in my Hermeneutics class with Dr. David Miller that the great scholar St. Augustine categorized these three attributes as the foundations of the Christian faith (if you really are pretentious enough to care to read his thoughts on faith, hope, and love, here is a link to his work http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/augustine_enchiridion_02_trans.htm#C2). I began to think more and more on the subject, and began thinking if I found this to indeed be true in my own life. Was there any way that I am required to act as a Christian without taking faith, hope and love into account?


Now I admit, I am no expert on any of the three subjects at hand here, but I do feel like I have been learning more and more about them during my studies. During my next few posts, I am going to do something that goes against many of my beliefs as a BTS student and not view this verse exegetically, but rather to look at the subjects of faith, hope, and love individually and see how we can apply these things into our lives today. 


Knowing that these three subjects are ones that I hold dear to my heart, it would not surprise me if I kept coming back to them throughout my time blogging. This goes back to me attempting to live a lifestyle of learning, always trying to gain more knowledge so that I can in return share my knowledge with others in attempt to better those around me as well as at the same time bettering myself. 

First Things First

Well, here she is, my first ever blog. 

This has been something I have been itching to try out for the last couple months, and alas, with my time off from school this week, I have finally gotten around to doing so. Back in high school I hated all writing assignments and wondered why people would want to write for fun in the form of blogs, but through my advancement into the University College ranks, I have almost started to come to enjoy writing *gasp!* (And no, this doesn't mean I'll start writing your papers for you). Writing is a way for me to clarify the thoughts in my jumbled up mind and formulate those thoughts into proper words and sentences, giving them structure, purpose and meaning.

What can you expect to see in this blog? Well, really anything that I think comes to be of importance. Being a Biblical and Theological student at Providence University College, there is a good chance that my posts will have to do with the Bible/Theology. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately, depending on your view of the Bible and Theology), this will likely not be the extent of my posts. Other things I view to be important that I may blog about could include sports (mainly hockey), music, or anything else that catches my attention, be it on a personal, national or international scale (I'll probably stay away from the national and international stuff for the most part). 

I never want to stop learning, so my posts will always be up for discussion/modification. In the field of BTS (or anywhere else for that matter), it is never good for one to think that they know it all. I know that readers of this blog may be more knowledgeable than myself on certain issues I may choose to blog about, and I welcome your constructive feedback, whatever that may be.

I hope you take time to read my humble bloggings. It would be much appreciated.

daniel