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You can change your life! No matter who you are or what you’re experiencing right now, that’s good news. If you’re living in glorious victory, you can go on to even greater glory. If you’re living in defeat, you can turn it around.
You don’t have to live with lack. You don’t have to live in mediocrity. You don’t have to live in sickness. In Jesus Christ, you can change your condition!
Mac, Faith, and Religion. Daniel Knight - 2001.04.13 - There are a lot of parallels between Macintosh evangelism and religion, an issue which has come to the forefront this week thanks to Rodney O. Lain's 'Fallacies of Christianity' piece on Applelinks. But this time the focus is on the Christian faith and church more than on the Macintosh. In this book, MacArthur does an excellent job of laying out the foundations of our Christian faith. As a parent - and especially as a father - I try to be diligent in presenting the Christian faith to my three children. This devotional is an excellent resource in explaining to our children what we believe in as Christians and why we believe it.
You Need Real Bible Faith
I don’t care how many faith fanatics you’ve known or how many faith failures you’ve heard about; real Bible faith is the most powerful force you’ll ever apply to your circumstances. If you want to change the quality of your life, you’re going to have to learn something about it. That’s all there is to it.
One of the best ways to learn about faith is to study the life of Abraham. Except for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, no person in the Bible lived more fully by faith than Abraham did. When I think about Abraham’s walk of faith, two words always leap up in my spirit—“fully persuaded.” Abraham was a man who was fully persuaded that God’s promises were true.
Paul said so in Romans 4:18–22. Speaking of Abraham, he wrote:
Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Like it or not, if you want to enjoy the promises of God in this life, you’re going to have to receive them just as Abraham did—by becoming “fully persuaded.” Partially persuaded won’t do. Almost persuaded won’t either. The marvelous promises of God will be yours when and only when you, like Abraham, become fully persuaded.
Consider healing, for example. Are you so fully persuaded that God’s promises concerning health and healing are true that if in the next week your doctor told you that you had cancer in your body, it wouldn’t shake you? Are you fully persuaded that God is going to meet all your needs— even in a recession?
How about during a war?
Would you greet news that the economy was entering another Great Depression with peace or panic?
Real Faith Never Fails
I’m convinced that most Christians are not really fully persuaded about God’s promises. That’s why we have so many so-called “faith failures.”
Real faith never fails! But often, people get into trouble by trying to act on something when they’re not fully persuaded.
Sometimes a person who’s battling a disease will say, “I’ve confessed my healing for two weeks. Now I’m supposed to act like I’m in faith, so I guess I’ll quit taking my medicine.” Then that person gets sick and dies. He wasn’t fully persuaded that he was healed. He was only partially persuaded!
How do you know when you’re fully persuaded? The answer lies in the life of Abraham. Abraham “staggered not at the promise of God.” In some versions the word “stagger” is translated waver. Abraham didn’t waver at the promise of God.
Have you ever wavered at a promise in God’s Word? When you’re standing on a promise and some friend comes and tells you how terrible things are, do you feel yourself wavering a little? If so, you’re not yet fully persuaded.
When God promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, Abraham didn’t consider the circumstance of his aged body, even though he was 100 years old.
Don’t Consider The Negative Circumstance
When you’re confronted with a negative situation in your job or finances, do you consider the circumstances? Or are you, like Abraham, so focused on the reality of the promise of God that you don’t even look at that impossible circumstance?
If you consider those negative circumstances—you’re not yet fully persuaded.
When human reason says there’s no way things are going to work out for you, faith still keeps hoping. If you’re not continuing to hope when all basis for hope is gone, you’re not fully persuaded.
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Remember this: The only things you are going to receive from God are those things about which you are fully persuaded. I don’t care how many times you confess it.
Regardless of how badly you want to believe it, you’re not going to experience the delivering power of the Holy Ghost and receive the promises of God until you’re fully persuaded!
Mac Musings
Daniel Knight - 2001.04.13 -
There are a lot of parallels between Macintosh evangelism andreligion, an issue which has come to the forefront this week thanksto Rodney O. Lain's 'Fallacies ofChristianity' piece on Applelinks. But this time the focus ison the Christian faith and church more than on the Macintosh.
Rodney is an iconoclast. (The term refers to those who destroyedimages in the Roman Catholic churches during the Reformation andalso to the earlier IconoclasticControversy in the Byzantiine church.) He knows where he standsand states his position without mincing words. You've gotta respectthat.
You've also gotta understand what the church did to him: Theyencouraged him in ministry, grew jealous of his success, andexcommunicated him. Excommunicated. They cut him off from thechurch, from fellowship, from the Lord's table.
Okay, that's Rodney's spin on things; I'm sure his former pastorwould tell a very different story. Still, I'm inclined to believeRodney's tale is closer to the truth, because I've comeface-to-face with an ugly truth the church is loathe to admit: Thechurch is flawed.
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Sure, we confess our need of salvation on Sunday and our needfor grace, but we like to pretend our fear and pride stop at thechurch door. Sorry, but it just isn't so. Churches are imperfectand filled with imperfect people, from the pastor on down.
When the dysfunction reaches the point of church discipline, youhave three choices: grin and bear it, find another church, or turnyour back on the whole lot of hypocrites. If the dysfunction isinstitutionalized in the leadership of the church, staying reallyisn't an option.
For reasons that remain unclear to us many years later, my wifeand I were put in a similar position by our previous church. We'dbeen members for years and were both actively involved in ministry.We knew there were some unspoken problems, but we avoided churchpolitics.
Evil can twist the good, just as Satan tried to tempt Jesus byquoting Scripture. 'Jump! God won't let you stub your toe.' In ourcase, the church had used the Network program developed by WillowCreek Church to help us discover our style, our gifts, and ourpassions. Mine is building communities. My wife's is buildingfamilies.
Of course, with the Network results in our file, when theleadership decided it was time for us to move on, all they had todo was attack the things that were most important to us. In ourcase, they attacked us as parents using exactly the phrases asocial worker (Linda) would see as most damning. They attacked hercore; our family never attended that church again.
We spent months trying to find a comfortable church - and endedup in one with several other refugees from our previous church.
It's not the same. In some ways, it's a whole let better. Theydon't condemn people and attack kids for being different; they love'em and minister to 'em. But I miss my choir and other aspects ofour old church. Still, after the way they tore into my wife,there's no way we can go back while the present leadership isentrenched.
(Since leaving, we've talked with many other individuals andcouples who have been 'nudged' out of that church. The pattern issimilar: someone perceives a threat, cuts to the core, and drivesyet another 'troublesome' family or individual away. It seldom, ifever, comes to excommunication; we leave first.)
So Rodney went through a period of disillusionment. Count on it.It hurts being betrayed by 'the body of Christ.' On one level, itgives us some idea how Jesus felt when Judas betrayed him with akiss.
I'm not going to debate theology with Rodney. There's no point.You don't make disciples that way, but you can deepen the riftbetween God's child and God's community.
At core, you either go on believing that God exists, call it alla lie, or try to ignore the issue. If God exists, you continue totrust him, but you've grown wary of his followers. It's not the waythe church is supposed to be, but what do you expect from humanbeings?
Unless you turn your back on God, you trust that all things willsomehow work out for those who trust him - sometimes against allevidence to the contrary. You hope, but you also know betrayal. Youtry not to let the bitterness grow within you and turn your warmfaith to ice.
Rodney's experience with churches was far more negative thanmine. Then again, some traditions are a lot more into authority andcontrol than others - as are some people.
I grew up in a tradition that tried to teach us to think andlive as Christians. As is true of all organizations, some followedlike sheep and some learned to find their own way within the faith.I'm now two steps removed from that tradition, deeply appreciatethe good that came from it, and see the shortcomings even moreclearly from the outside than I did on the inside. It's a goodtradition, but I've found another that fits better.
What About the Mac?
Yeah, the church can be abusive, but they're far from unique inthat regard. Look at all the sheep who use the OS with 63,000 knownbugs, fears and laughs about the blue screen of death, and thinksreinstalling the operating system is just part of the computingexperience.
Yet for the most part, people stay with the state church,following the faith of their IT staff. Few are willing to becomeProtestants, whether Lutherans, Baptists, Calvinists, Pentecostals,etc.
Even among Mac users, we may not be safe. There is the OS Xcult, which condemns those who don't jump right in as luddites.There is the Traditional Mac OS faction, which just wants things towork as they always have. Here there are even cults of System 6 andSystem 7 fans. There is the power cult, which can't comprehend howanyone could still be using a Quadra, let alone a Mac Plus. Andthere is the Compact Mac cult, which things everything larger thanthe Color Classic was untrue to the original Macintosh vision.
At the same time, we tend to be pretty civil in ourdisagreements - at least until someone says something nice aboutMicrosoft Office, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, or even(shudder) Windows. That's been the cause of more flames on theLow End Mac lists than religion,politics, handguns, and other 'off topic' subjects.
In the words of Rodney King, 'Can't we all just get along?'
Looking at the history of the fragmented Christian church, myanswer is, 'Probably not.' But we should still hold that as animportant goal.
Links
Ifaith For Mac
- Weaning you offthe Kool-Aid™: Fallacies of Christianity and the Macreligion, Rodney O. Lain, Mac Spirit, Applelinks, 04.09
- What is good about the 'Mac religion'?, David Schultz,Applelust, 04.11.
- Testimony andCredo: A reply to Rodney O. Lain, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks,04.12.
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Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986,sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, andhas been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.
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