FAITH

A LIVING RELATIONSHIP

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the
trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to Adam
and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said "I heard
your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I
was naked; and I hid myself."

One of the most important words in the Christian vocabulary is the word, faith.
Everything hinges on whether or not you have faith.

But the problem is that many good Christian people have a very confused idea
about what faith is. The faith they think they have, or the faith they try so
hard to acquire is not faith at all.

For instance; there was a time when a Sunday School teacher or a pastor thought

he was doing some troubled soul a big favor when he said, "Don't ask questions;

believe! That's the way it is believe:".....as if telling someone to shut up

and believe would bring him to faith in God!

Many people think they have faith because they have never allowed themselves to
question what their grandmother told them about God, or what the preacher or the
priest said. Some think they have faith because they claim to believe every
thing that's in the bible. (Of course, they never read the bible.) What these
people call faith has taken the place of the fairy tales that used to delight
them as a child. They take a dose of faith once-in-a-while as a diversion, a
little break from reality. Then on Sunday afternoon, or Monday morning, they
lay their faith aside and get down to business making a living and getting
ahead according to the jungle law.

To other people, to have faith means guessing your way through life. There are
certain things about life which we cannot know for sure, at least not in the
same way that we know things we can see and touch: What happens when you die?
Is there a spirit world? Is there a God watching us all the time or is there
nothing out there beyond the stars but an infinity of black space? So you pick
out a set of guesses and call them your beliefs. These guesses don't influence
your living very much, but they make interesting conversation.

To still others, faith is a system of positive thinking. It is thought that if

you believe a thing is going to happen----and believe hard enough----somehow it

will happen. You want a promotion. So you start "putting your faith to work."

You think promotion. "I'm going to get that promotion! I know I'm going to get

that promotion." One day the boss calls you into his office and, with a big
smile, tells you the good news.

But when Jesus Christ talks about faith, he is not talking about going by what
your grandmother said, or taking a Sunday morning excursion into fantasy, or
guessing your way through life or thinking positive thoughts. When Jesus Christ
talks about faith, he is talking about a living relationship with the living God.
When Jesus says, "Have faith in God." He is telling you to know God for yourself.
Not what somebody told you about God. Not having a few opinions about God. Not
throwing some prayers up into the sky and hoping that someone "up there" might

catch them. Not sitting in a room talking to yourself and calling it prayer.
But to know God better than you know yourself or your husband or wife or mother
or father or child,

"And this is life eternal, that they might know

thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom

thou hast sent." ....and that's what faith is.

You don't have to feel guilty if you don't believe everything your grandmother
told you to believe. You don't even have to feel guilty if you find it hard to
believe that the earth was made in six twenty-four-hour days....or because you
have some negative thoughts interfering with your positive thinking. So you
have questions....any honest person is going to have questions. Concentrate on
one thing: Get to know God. Then you will have faith, the only faith there is,
and your questions will work themselves out.

But how do I get to know God? How can I, a flesh-and-blood man come to know

the invisible Spirit of Glory behind all things? I cannot see him or touch

him or hear him, so how can I know him?

Who says you can't hear him? Who says you have to be some kind of special
prophet in order to hear God? YOU CAN HEAR GOD.

"And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in

the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among
the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to
Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I
heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because
I was naked; and I hid myself,"

....that's why we don't hear God. Not because
God isn't calling, but because we're hiding. Every time the sound of his voice reaches our ears, we cover them and run farther into the bushes. We're afraid because we're naked, we're in no shape to stand in his presence.

If I just finished murdering the child of my best friend---the blood is still
dripping from my hands----and suddenly I hear my friend's voice calling to me
from off in the distance, which way am I going to run? If I just finished
burning down your house and you come along and ask me for a match, you won't
see me for dust. So when the living God calls to us by name, we don't say
"0, isn't that nice! Here comes God; I've been looking forward to meeting
him." We look down at our hands and they are shaking. Our knees begin to
buckle under us. And if there is a manhole we can jump into, or a closet,
we're gone.

Why do you think the people of Israel killed the prophets? It was simply their
way of stopping their ears and hiding in the bushes. They did not want to
hear what God had to say.

But just because we run and hide----that doesn't stop God. Just because we
busy ourselves with everything under the sun but the things that count, or
keep looking the other way, or continually change the subject; just because we
pretend to be concerned about human justice and human rights and world peace,

when in fact the only thing we're concerned about is our own image and our own
survival----God is not hindered. He keeps coming on, coming on, calling to us
just as he called to Adam! "Where are you, my child? Where are you?"

Then to have faith is a very simple matter. All you have to do is have enough
courage to come crawling out of the bushes and stand there to meet the One who
is calling to you and is at that moment approaching you. "Here I am, Lord.
Here I am. I'm naked. I'm stained with evil. I'm chained to a demon, but
here I am.

When you do this, you find yourself looking right into the face of Jesus Christ.
And instead of condemning you for what you've been, he gives you a robe to cover
your nakedness----a robe just like his----and says, "Come, follow me."

But when the fullness of time was come, God sent
forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law, (under the
curse of their own guilt), that we might receive
the adoption of sons.

He comes out into this wilderness with his blood already shed for us, and calls
us like a shepherd calling his lost sheep. Calls us by name. Calls each of us
as if each were the only one out here. All we have to do is answer, "Here I am,
Lord. Over here. Help me!" That's what it is to have faith.

And the minute we have faith----the minute we step out of the bushes and answer
God's call, that minute God comes to us and does something for us. Something
happens that we can see. You don't have to stand around guessing whether there
is a God. You don't have to spend your whole life scratching your head and
wondering whether your grandmother told you the truth. You can know:

When the shepherd found the lost sheep, he immediately picked it up and carried
it home and had a celebration. The sheep knew that it was found. When the
prodigal son was still a great way off, his father ran to him, fell on his neck,
kissed him, put a robe on him, a ring on his finger, shoes on his feet, killed
the fatted calf and called for music and dancing. The father made his penitent
son to know that he was a son. He was welcome. This was his home where he
belonged. Do you think God will do any less for you?

God will make you to know that you are really now his child and that he is now
really your father.

"And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the

Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, Abba: Father!

You are no longer a slave to the elemental spirits of
the universe. You are a son, a daughter, and heir of God through Christ. And the Spirit of Christ in you, makes you to know this.

It is not a matter of guessing. The Spirit of Christ has come into you, and
you are changed by him. You are driven by a power that you never knew before.
You have a liberty that you never had before. You can conquer things within
yourself which before you just could not master.

But notice carefully: this does not happen until you come out of the bushes.
Too many people are trying to be saints over there in the bushes---- trying to
have faith and live a sham at the same time. It cannot be done. Of course
it is embarrassing to come out naked before God. But what are those bushes,
those fig leaves of pretense to cover your nakedness, compared with the robe
of righteousness, washed in his own blood, that Christ offers you? Better to
come out of the bushes and confess to God what you are and what you have been
----now----and get it over with, and get that robe, than to wait until the
Judgment and have God lift the bushes and expose you, with nothing ever to cover
your nakedness in all eternity.

So many people are trying to have faith the hard day----the impossible way.
They are trying to make themselves believe other men's guesses. Or they are
trying to believe by crawling back into history seeking to verify events that
took place twenty centuries ago. And the harder they try to believe, the
more they are plagued with doubts.

You can't go back 2000 years and check it out. You don't have to. For the
Christ who died outside Jerusalem for the sins of the race is alive and calling
you by name right now. All you have to do is answer him.

Answer that voice that you know has been calling to your heart. You've been
running away. Stop. Turn around, and say, "Lord, here I am. Come and get me."

And he will. Before this day ends, God will confirm your faith. He will put
a robe on you to cover your nakedness. He will put a ring on your finger,
shoes on your feet. He will kill the fatted calf. There will be rejoicing
in heaven. And in your heart there will be a new Spirit that cries, "Father!
Father!" bearing witness to your spirit that now you are indeed a child of
God.