ONE: Life – MAPLE AVENUE CHRISTIAN CHURCH: Recent Episodes
Maple Avenue Christian Church
Throughout this series we’ve talked about doubt and faith, doubt in the storms of life, doubt when things go wrong, and now how to overcome doubt. The remedy for doubt is faith, and faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
The hardest time to trust God is when everything seems to be going wrong. It gives us the ‘evidence’ that we have been left alone and not even God wants to help us. What do we do? And why does God seem so far away and silent? The good news is that there is always something we can do and the better news is that God never abandons us, never leaves us, nor forsakes us.
Life produces storms. Sometimes they are the gentle rain storms that nurture and grow, sometimes they are the snowstorms that blanket and smother, and sometimes they are the hurricanes and tornadoes that completely obliterate a family, a community, or a life. How do we make it through these storms? We seek shelter during the storms of life.
If we are going to be honest, WE ALL HAVE DOUBT. We all doubt something or someone or some event. It’s just that many people have been taught wrongly that it is wrong to have doubts. Our goal is to eventually get to the place that no matter what doubts we might have we will be convinced that we can trust God. Trusting God in the midst of our doubts isn’t easy.
Have you ever been on an underground cave tour where they turn off the tour lights and it is absolutely dark? You really can’t see your own hand in front of your face. It is hard to imagine trying to walk around in that environment, yet that is the way a lot of people live their lives, walking around in total darkness. However, God wants us to walk in the Light of His Word.
Researchers tell us that Americans are increasingly biblically illiterate. The purity of our country and the purity of our churches globally is declining where the Bible is not consulted. We have become a people who no longer thirst for the Word of God, but instead we seek to come to church to be entertained, not educated and certainly not encouraged to transform to a Biblical worldview. At MACC we want to provide everyone an opportunity to be exposed to the Word of God and to approach it exegetically—that is we want to allow the Bible to shape our believes, no impose our presuppositions on the Bible.
The Word of God is living, can shape our minds, and can change everything about us. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Many believers do not know the Word of God and have ceased memorizing scripture. However, The Word of God is important for us in our daily living and we must be filled with it.
The Bible is great literature and the all-time number-one best-seller. It contains history, entertaining stories, poetry, philosophy, and personal letters. But, more than that, the Bible is God’s Word. If we have to speak of a single purpose of the Bible, it would be to reveal God to us. There are many things that we could never know about God unless He told them to us. The Bible is God’s self-revelation to humanity. The Bible also tells us who we are. It tells us of our sin and of God’s plan of salvation in Jesus Christ.
God’s Methods are higher than our understanding. God’s methods don’t always make sense to human minds because we are so limited in our thinking. Often times we can’t see past the way we would do something.