We live in a culture where we frequently use products and throw them away. From time to time we bump into some product or circumstance that we love, and we want to hold on to it. In today’s cancel culture it is getting harder to voice appreciation for people or products. When we state truth, we may get stomped on as a racist or bigot, or even experience unfair ostracism. In uncertain times, there are things that remain universal and unchanging. These things will hold up under scrutiny. I remain faithful to God, family and life. A part of life we cannot avoid is death. So today I want to discuss things that remain true even when it seems like life is really hitting us with uncertainty.
The truth of Ravi
In May, a dear Christian brother in the faith died. I did not know him personally, but Ravi Zacharias was an extraordinary apologist, and if you look for some of his appearances on Youtube, he had many defenses for the faith. Before anything else is said about him, we all have to acknowledge that he was a great human being, The memorial service posted for him is a wonderful tribute, worth a 2 plus hour viewing.
The truth I got from Ravi was the 1) the certainty of the gospel. It was stated by someone who always spoke with confidence. He pointed out that people can easily defend the gospel if they know the Word, and the One who wrote it. He was able to speak and defend the Word in front of diverse audiences, such as atheists, Muslims and Mormons.
The truth of Jon
As I was 
thinking about Ravi’s life and ministry today, another video caught my attention. Jon Steingard, lead singer of Hawk Nelson, admitted on Instagram that he has lost his faith. He gave an interview on Youtube which is also worth watching. His story is not about a physical death but rather, a spiritual death that has many in the Christian community grieving for him.
My heart breaks over these losses in our faith community. If you watch the interview with Jon, you learn a few things abut how his faith faltered. In light of these losses to the faith community, today is a day to seek encouragement in our faith.
Jon was asked, “What things intensified your doubt?” His replies were honest and sincere. Jon’s biggest take-away response happened while filming in Uganda. He saw how desperate and cringe-worthy life is, for some of the least visible people in the world. In his words, “the thought of putting my son in that situation, being alone, and perhaps dying in a jungle was excruciating. ” How/Why could God allow this?
This is a question that has been a part of our faith since the beginning. I can mention 2 books that helped me on this account. The first is I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist By Norman L. Geisler / Frank T. Crossway. They make the case that 2) truth about God is absolute, exclusive, and knowable. From there, they proceed to demonstrate that the cardinal Christian doctrines are true beyond reasonable doubt, all convincing for us as Christians to believe. It would require a negative leap of faith for an atheist to disbelieve them. The other book I had mentioned in my apology series was “Evidence for the historical Jesus” by Gary Habermas.
The interviewer asked Jon an interesting question that revealed he had a lot of assumptions: When we first come to Christ, it is only to get ourselves right with God, to get salvation, and to show the world that we are sincere about being a good person. In some ways it could be like putting on an accessory (such as a sweater). The accessory makes us look complete, and all set. And perhaps gives an assurance that we have what we need. In our faith, we need to see God as more than an accessory. God needs to be our necessity. We cannot live without Him. With the accessory, we have the illusion that we have what we need to live, but the reality is – we will eventually die (ie, we will be separated from God through spiritual death).
Jon was clearly wounded in his faith. He wanted to retreat and lick his wounds without the entanglement of people getting on his case. Understandable emotions. It was the truth of his experience, and he did not want to focus on the emotion. The reality of God’ existence does not require emotion. When the time comes, God will reveal that he is there.
Objective truth is one thing, personal experiences another, but they both point to God. I have been privileged to experience God personally many times – those experiences are important, not to mention amazing!
It’s a miracle when a person repents and believes. It is a work of the spirit and not the will of man. God frequently does not reveal the truth until (as in my case), I had reached the end of myself, and desperately cried out to him for help. It is a process because each of us has to eliminate the ME that gets in the way. It didn’t happen overnight, but the Lord took me through a process to undo the lies I had been believing, until I could finally believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In no uncertain terms, our understanding of God will lean towards seeing God as accessory or necessity. In the accessory group, people may see suffering and blame it on God and question His goodness/existence. The necessity people will see suffering and say “God here am I, send me” and act as the hands and feet of Jesus. In the middle of our grief, he is there.
