Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose your footing and begin to fall. Just beside you as you fall is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it is more than strong enough to support your weight. How can it save you? If your mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support you, but you don’t actually reach out and grab it, you are lost. If your mind is filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out and grab it anyway, you will be saved. Why? It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch . . . It is not the depth and purity of your heart but the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf that saves us. (Tim Keller, The Reason for God, 244-245)What do you think of it?
Friday, January 7, 2011
Here is a powerful illustration I have been thinking about lately in regards to faith.
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Found this post, as well as message on Sunday so helpful. Lot to think about in any discussion of faith.Felt so sad for a friend this morning. In a discussion about my sister who has had surgery, she said how much she loved my sister who had always been so special to her,and wanted to pray for her but knew that GOd would not hear her because of the way she lives.I am probably wrong, but feel that God might hear her before some people who are considered important in the church, but who do not have the heart for God like this one.Just saying...HSM
ReplyDeleteBorrowed the "Just saying" from some teen ( in post above). Actually,got into a discussion with someone else about whether or not God would hear a prayer from anyone other than a Christian or someone asking for salvation.At my age I should have all the answers, but so many people have a way of proving their point, and with scripture!!,and even, having been in church, and have read the Bible all of my life, find myself speechless,(that would be the day!). Always wonder if other people have that problem. HSM
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