I lack Faith

Paleophyte

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That's my lack of belief in a nutshell. Somebody seems to have left Faith out of the recipe when they whipped me up. I believe in that which can be poked, prodded and tested. Some of those beliefs are wrong but I can check them and then have a good laugh at my own silliness.

Clearly, that is going to be a poor way to approach religion.

So what is Faith? How do you cultivate it? And why do you want or need it?

And no, that isn't intended to be an underhanded insult. I truly don't understand these concepts.

Thanks,
- Paleo
 

Dave G.

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Here is the deal, we all lack faith, that is we lack perfect faith. We are all growing in faith. Most of us start/started with little to very low rations of faith. Jesus said, all you need is a mustard seeds worth of faith and come to Him with that. He will take it from there. He will deliver the evidence to you if you just stick with Him once you turn to Him. Faith is built upon a foundation, starting with one little block. You don't need philosophy or Greek scholars, nor science, nor religion. You need to take the tiny little piece of faith you probably have inside you or you wouldn't be concerned, and take a leap with it and ask the person of Jesus Christ into your life. Then learn about Him and follow Him and your faith will grow from there. You will still have doubts crop up, that is when you turn to Him all the more. Nobody can do this for you, because it comes in faith small as it may be to begin with.
 
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rockytopva

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If E = mc2 then we can divide and conclude that...

Mass (m) = Energy (E/c2)

And there are three varieties...

Natural E/c2 - All mass is basically cooled plasma
Mental E/c2 - Mentally, A mathematical formula, but this has chemical and spiritual properties as well.
Spiritual E/c2 - E (motivation, warmth, love) / c2 (faith, hope, charity, joy)

Your entire nervous system works by faith. As you were typing this thread your fingers were responding in the faith generated by your mind that the keys would be pressed.
 
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Saved.By.Grace

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Before you can understand the nature faith, you first need philosophy. More specifically, you need to understand the abstract, the structured metaphysic. Aristotle is a good place to start.

NO way!, "So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ".(Romans 10:17)

Read the Holy Bible and ask Its Author, God the Holy Spirit to grant you understanding and help build up you faith! Forget ALL others!
 
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Saved.By.Grace

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Before you can understand the nature faith, you first need philosophy. More specifically, you need to understand the abstract, the structured metaphysic. Aristotle is a good place to start.
That's my lack of belief in a nutshell. Somebody seems to have left Faith out of the recipe when they whipped me up. I believe in that which can be poked, prodded and tested. Some of those beliefs are wrong but I can check them and then have a good laugh at my own silliness.

Clearly, that is going to be a poor way to approach religion.

So what is Faith? How do you cultivate it? And why do you want or need it?

And no, that isn't intended to be an underhanded insult. I truly don't understand these concepts.

Thanks,
- Paleo

"So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ".(Romans 10:17)

Read the Holy Bible and ask Its Author, God the Holy Spirit to grant you understanding and help build up you faith! Forget ALL others!
 
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Drick

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Jesus said, all you need is a mustard seeds worth of faith and come to Him with that.
I disagree. Sure, it's easy to say that it'll just come to you, but I don't think you realize how much that actually is to ask of someone. I had a lot more than a mustard seed's worth, and that didn't stop me from falling away from my faith in my later teenage years. Faith isn't something that can just happen, not for everyone, anyway. I had to intimately understand the psychological implications of Christianity to even think about returning, and even at that, it took an event too miraculous to be explain for me to actively call myself a part of the body.
Faith is built upon a foundation, starting with one little block. You don't need philosophy or Greek scholars, nor science, nor religion. You need to take the tiny little piece of faith you probably have inside you or you wouldn't be concerned, and take a leap with it and ask the person of Jesus Christ into your life. Then learn about Him and follow Him and your faith will grow from there
You're right, faith is built upon a foundation, and it has a name: Experience.
You can't just come into a church, open the Bible, and start believing. That's not how it works for us. We need actual foundations, and well-tested philosophy. You speak of the mustard seed as if it's something inherent, but that's not the case for many of us. The proverbial mustard seed, then, needs to be something obviously real.
Nobody can do this for you, because it comes in faith small as it may be to begin with.
Again, this may be true for a select group to whom belief comes easy, but I guarantee that no one who has had the active realization that they don't believe will this work for.

NO way!, "So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ".(Romans 10:17)

Read the Holy Bible and ask Its Author, God the Holy Spirit to grant you understanding and help build up you faith! Forget ALL others!
I say the same to you. All that is perfectly easy to tell people, but for the mechanically-minded of us, it's worthless. We need to actually understand something before we can accept it, or any implications it might have. Those of you who indulge in explanations without answers, those of you who take these logical shortcuts, are what make the atheistic worldview so appealing to begin with.
 
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Tracey4g

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I might be wrong here but I think everybody has faith. Faith in 1 thing or another. most people have faith that the sun will rise in the morning or that our mother loves us, It's not quite the same as having faith in god or Jesus but it's faith none the less x
 
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Saved.By.Grace

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I disagree. Sure, it's easy to say that it'll just come to you, but I don't think you realize how much that actually is to ask of someone. I had a lot more than a mustard seed's worth, and that didn't stop me from falling away from my faith in my later teenage years. Faith isn't something that can just happen, not for everyone, anyway. I had to intimately understand the psychological implications of Christianity to even think about returning, and even at that, it took an event too miraculous to be explain for me to actively call myself a part of the body.

You're right, faith is built upon a foundation, and it has a name: Experience.
You can't just come into a church, open the Bible, and start believing. That's not how it works for us. We need actual, foundations, and well-tested philosophy. You speak of the mustard seed as if it's something inherent, but that's not the case for many of us. The proverbial mustard seed, then, needs to be something obviously real.

Again, this may be true for a select group to whom belief comes easy, but I guarantee that no one who has had the active realization that they don't believe will this work for.


I say the same to you. All that is perfectly easy to tell people, but for the mechanically-minded of us, it's worthless. We need to actually understand something before we can accept it, or any implications it might have.

Sure, the Bible very clearly says, "if anyone lacks wisdom, let them ask of God" (James 1:5), which is ALL of us!
 
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Saved.By.Grace

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I might be wrong here but I think everybody has faith. Faith in 1 thing or another. most people have faith that the sun will rise in the morning or that our mother loves us, It's not quite the same as having faith in god or Jesus but it's faith none the less x

There is no a single person who can awake one morning and say, today I will have faith in Jesus Christ and become a Christian, without the prior working of God the Holy Spirit in their life!
 
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rockytopva

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If E = mc2 then we can divide and conclude that...

Mass (m) = Energy (E/c2)

And there are three varieties...

Natural E/c2 - All mass is basically cooled plasma
Mental E/c2 - Mentally, A mathematical formula, but this has chemical and spiritual properties as well.
Spiritual E/c2 - E (motivation, warmth, love) / c2 (faith, hope, charity, joy)

Your entire nervous system works by faith. As you were typing this thread your fingers were responding in the faith generated by your mind that the keys would be pressed.

People say that they do not have faith... Yet you see them in the store buying lottery tickets.

God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. - Romans 12:12

Every man has a measure of faith, it is up to that man to cultivate it.
 
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Drick

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People say that they do not have faith... Yet you see them in the store buying lottery tickets.

God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. - Romans 12:12

Every man has a measure of faith, it is up to that man to cultivate it.
Sorry, what does buying lottery tickets have to do with faith? It doesn't take faith to gamble, only a rudimentary understanding of the rules, risks, and potential rewards.
 
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Wolfe

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So what is Faith? How do you cultivate it? And why do you want or need it?
Faith in biblical sense just means to trust, trust in God.

Not the definition of faith that we have so cleverly woven into society today, that being that faith is the belief without evidence.
I have yet to meet a Christian who does not have evidence for why they believe.
 
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2PhiloVoid

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That's my lack of belief in a nutshell. Somebody seems to have left Faith out of the recipe when they whipped me up. I believe in that which can be poked, prodded and tested. Some of those beliefs are wrong but I can check them and then have a good laugh at my own silliness.

Clearly, that is going to be a poor way to approach religion.

So what is Faith? How do you cultivate it? And why do you want or need it?

And no, that isn't intended to be an underhanded insult. I truly don't understand these concepts.

Thanks,
- Paleo

Hi Paleophyte,

You probably already know that you're going to get multiple viewpoints from Christians as to just what 'faith' is. And indeed, the epistemic contours of faith are specific to each person, coming in a variety of ways and expressed by each person in an individual manner that befits his/her own personality.

Essentially, 'faith' is a response to whatever it is that a person senses God is providing them, but what Christians will all have in common to their individual forms of faith is their being informed in some way by the Word of God (the Bible) and by fellow Christians (the Church of Christ). So, if you need to poke, prod and test things, that's fine, but just realize that according to God's Word, that epistemic strategy will only take you just so far. It can take you some distance, but not to the point that all by itself, a scientific investigation will suddenly reveal to you that God...is there.

Why do we want or need faith? Well, only you can answer that. It's kind of difficult for me to tell you that you 'should' want or need faith if your brain patterns are such that you don't have a concern over the real prospect of dying. But, if somewhere in your mind you have a hint of concern for yourself and as to whether there is more to this life and more than this life, which to me would be a reasonable expectation, then you might find yourself thinking that you want or need to find Christ as your Lord and Savior. It would be the sensible conclusion to come to.

And that's basically what it comes down to, more or less, and within the variations that all my brethren here will be expressing to you. Just add what they say on to what I've said since, it should be obvious, faith is a complex thing.

I hope that helps a tad bit, Paleophyte, and I hope that somewhere in your mind a little spark will soon be flickering and in turn lighting a blaze in your heart for Jesus.

Peace,
2PhiloVoid
 
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rockytopva

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Sorry, what does buying lottery tickets have to do with faith? It doesn't take faith to gamble, only a rudimentary understanding of the rules, risks, and potential rewards.

If people did not believe that they would win... Why would they gamble?
 
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paul1149

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Everyone has been given a measure of faith, and will be judged on what they did with it (Rom 1).

Get yourself in the Bible. Start in the New Testament, say, the Gospel of Mark. Maybe good ancillary books and videos would help as well. The Bible is God's special revelation to man, and will give you the grid for understanding how the world really works.

One of the great ironies is that once your eyes are opened, you will see that the things that are invisible are more real than those that are visible.

Also, be careful of getting sidetracked on human philosophy. That can be a bottomless pit, and an extreme waste of time. The central focus should be on Christ - what He is like, who He is, and what He has accomplished for us. This is what you will find in the Bible. So many have come to that book skeptically, absolutely sure they would disprove it, but end up saying, with Martin Luther, "I am conquered by scripture!", and thanking God that they were. Once you taste and see that the Lord is good, you will not want the fleeting and illusory things of this world.
 
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Hidden In Him

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That's my lack of belief in a nutshell. Somebody seems to have left Faith out of the recipe when they whipped me up. I believe in that which can be poked, prodded and tested. Some of those beliefs are wrong but I can check them and then have a good laugh at my own silliness.

Clearly, that is going to be a poor way to approach religion.

So what is Faith? How do you cultivate it? And why do you want or need it?

And no, that isn't intended to be an underhanded insult. I truly don't understand these concepts.

Thanks,
- Paleo

Thanks for your openness and honesty. That's a wonderful characteristic to have.

About faith, while I don't think the existence of God & Satan, angels & demons, Heaven & Hell, etc can be boiled down to the level of a lab experiment, I don't see Christian faith as a blind faith. If your eyes become opened to it, it's actually faith backed up by archeology, history, geology, biology, and other sciences. But as I was trying to say to another atheist, as these matters pertain to the creation/evolution debate, there will always be a certain degree of subjectivity involved, no matter what position you take. She clearly didn't want to her that because she discontinued all contact with me.

I hope you are more open-minded than that, because as I could also add, my faith has been increasingly reinforced over the years by receiving greater revelation from God, tangible outpourings of the Holy Spirit, and dozens of instances of moving in spiritual gifts. So while what the world essentially says is "I'll believe it when I see it," what I've experienced in my life is the exact opposite. Because I believed it, I have thereafter moved into the place of having increased reasons to believe it. Some may say this is finding what you want to find. They are free to feel that way. My reply is that I have never denied looking at that which I didn't want to find. I just don't happen to agree with it. So I think my opponents are just as guilty of the very things they accuse me of, if not more so. But my faith is built upon a whole host of evidences and proofs now. Whether others chose to see them that way is their business.
 
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Dave G.

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My point further back in the thread is that we come in simplicity and it gets built upon. When we give that mustard seeds worth I mentioned is when our eyes begin to see and ears hear. If we become truly born again then we should be wanting to seek more and more. But till we make that initial move we can wonder about it till the cows come home. My personal experience has been much as Hidden In Him has described as well.

And for the doubters or nay sayers of what I have said, I never said it was completely easy to stay on board, I've had my moments as you have and He was faithful to bring me home and through it all. I am His and He is mine forever. Once in the fold He never leaves us nor forsakes us. So far I am a living testimony if to no one else than to myself that that is the truth.. And it started simply in 1979 upstairs in my bedroom, it's been a long road since then but more and more is revealed to me all along the way. We serve and live before an Awesome God !

FWIW, my wife sees it even more simplistically than I do .
 
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Faith is like trusting in a pilot to get you safely to where you need to go. Like whenever I travel by plane, which is rare, I place my total trust in the pilot that he knows what he's doing and will help me to get to my destination safely. Sure there's going to be some turbulence along the way/journey, but that's supposed to be expected. The turbulence of life's trials and tribulations can kind of..make you feel doubtful and scared, but then you remember the pilot and you trust that He knows exactly how to fly even through turbulence. Like..I can't see the Pilot behind the cabin..but I know He's there. He's guiding me to where I need to go..and He'll lay down his life for his passengers if he needs to in order to save them all.
 
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