The Unseen

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God has been teaching me and showing a lot lately about the faithful and unseen hand that he has in my life. As I often ponder why he even cares about me, I have come to the realization that no matter how bad I screw up and how bad of a testimony for Christ I can be, that He is right there with me. I have also realized that if I remain faithful to Him and reaching out to others no matter what, God will still use me. I think as Christians we stop at the feelings of failure and never move forward.

We forget that in every aspect of our lives, we exercise faith. We sit on a motorcycle, having faith that it won’t fall apart when we sit on it. When we are pulling up to a green light, we trust that cars coming the other way will stop because those drivers are facing a red light. When we compare that faith to the spiritual realm, however, some of us, including myself feel or think that we have anything really substantial on which to base our trust. No matter how we let the devil rake us over the coals with our thoughts of worthlessness, well simply put – that’s just not the case!

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11 Paul mentions to the Hebrews in his letters to them about some different men like Noah, Abraham, Enoch, Abel, Moses, Jacob, etc.. and the list goes on, about the unseen faith they had to have to accomplish the things God called them to do. In the first verse of this chapter it says: “FAITH is being sure of what we hoped for and certain of what we do not see”. Somehow in this Western Culture we have come up with a list of things we need to do to be good little Christians, which quite frankly is a box I do not fit into very well. We end up judging ourselves by the list and not by God’s standard.

In many cases we become holier than Christ. The hard thing is, is that certain religions have these lists of what you should do or shouldn’t do, what standards you are lacking, or why bad things happen in your life, and have a million scriptures to back it up with, with there own interpretations. Pastors are very guilty of this as well as the rest of us. The Bible is not a weapon folks, and should be used for encouragement not damnation! I can honestly say that about 70% of

church services I attend make me feel bad and all the things I need to be changing. It makes me sick because I am tired of that. I do not like being manipulated into things. This may sound strange coming from a Pastor, but the point I am getting at here is if we have the hope in the substance we can’t see and have faith, then the way we see ourselves and the way we judge others will have a lot more grace involved. That’s the only way we can change the church and the world. Otherwise the Church will continue to diminish.

I could go on forever about my opinion of the state of our modern day church, but I will stop. I forget that there is a spiritual realm out there that I can’t see. God has given me tons of examples about His power, love, and faithfulness. If you look at nature you can really see the creativity and power of God. If you look at the life and sacrifice of Christ’s life you can gain understanding of what His purpose for us is. Still, faith, by its nature, remains a mystery. The choice to trust Him today, however, is our challenge. We don’t see Him, and we don’t audibly hear Him, but God has given each of us a sense that He is there and that we can trust Him. The more I think I am failing God, the more these thoughts help me stay strong and stay in this fight.

Please remember this, that true FAITH stands on the past and reaches out for the future, trusting that what God did in the past He will do one more time ---- for me .. See you on the road!

Thanks for taking the time,

Will

Aka. Scootman