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Anonymous said in January 1st, 2007 at 10:43 pm

Greetings:
My name is Mike and I am a friend of Scott W. My wife and I attend worship with Scott and Wendy. I am very impressed by your wed site and your approach to understanding theology.
I did want to offer you some thoughts for constructing a more concise explaination for the source of your faith. There may have been more than I found. I’m not very savy about the internet. But all I read was your discussion of how the created world is the basis for belief in a Supreme Being.
When asked about my faith I begin in the same place.
1. The creation: Rom. 1:20, Ps. 139:14 (I would add nothing to what you already noted.)
2. The Bible: God’s revealed will to man is a source of faith because of the following attributes.
a. It’s endurance: Matt. 24:35
b. It’s ageless wisdom for guiding our lives: Ps. 119: 97-105 (I find its precepts just as relevant today as ever.)
c. It’s “super-human” (divine) wisdom: Isa. 55:8-9, I Cor. 1:25
The more I study the Book the more I am convinced that it could not have originated in the mind of man.
3. The testimony of changed lives: Acts 9:21 Very few people find Christ on thier own. Most are led to faith by the influence of others.
a. Those like me who were raised by parents who are believers begin with what I have come to call an “ancestoral faith”. I believed for a time simply because my parents believed and I trusted them. But at some point this faith must become personal or it will fail under testing.
b. Others, who come to faith later in life have another kind of “borrowed faith” that comes from the one that leads them to Christ. Most people initially respond to the gospel because they trust the person teaching them and have observed in them the life changing power of faith.
There is no greater “visual aid” we can use in teaching the lost, than a personal demonstration of a godly life.
4. The personal experience of providence: (Jas. 1:6) This “faith booster” only kicks in after the first two (or three )foundations of faith are in place. (I am convinced that God works in the lives of the lost to move them toward repentance {see Acts 17:27, I Chron. 28:9 Ezek. 33:11} but few recognize it as such until they look back through the hindsight of faith.
But for the faithful Christian tuned to accept and receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14) the direction and discipline can be major building blocks of faith.

I hope these will give you some food for thought and I look forward to reading more in your web log.

Mike H

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