YOUR REASON TO BELIEVE
I have been hard pressed to address this after a recent exchange of discussion with a few of Christian brothers and sisters:
Every Christian (active and believing Christians for there can be no other) must have a reason to believe what he/she believes. And must be able to express it and more importantly say it when asked. More than often, reason for believing is taken to be theology - which is understood as complicated funda among other things. While theology itself is quite a "deep" topic, reason to believe is not deep at all. It is only as deep as our understanding, knowledge and experience of God Himself.
This is something I have always argued for. If we know a BIG God, then how can we restrict talking about our BIG God to few and small words? That depends on the size of the God that we know. And since we know the SAME God, our basic reason to believe and hence the manner of expression of that must hardly differ. For some, even a note such as this will be considered theology but (correct me if I am wrong) is far from it. If my reason to believe is the same as another's and that person were to express it in 20 words and me in 500 words, then surely we will be able to see eye to eye on the matter because we will recognize the essence of what we both believe.
The expression (outright by default) of one's reason to believe can be creative and can take the form of painting, writing, singing, songs, music etc. In all cases of expression, we must be able to SAY it and back up what WE say. Let us take for example, if someone were to wear a shirt saying "God Loves You" to his school/college where he is questioned as to what God, how He loves him/her, where this God is etc., one cannot state his/her reason to believe by saying "Listen to this song. It tells you all about it", "Look at this painting I drew. It is based on what I believe" or "I wrote a piece on my reason to believe. Here it is". He/she must be able to say it clearly, in other words SPEAK it. An inability to speak it shows that there is an improper/unfounded/unsound understanding of what he/she believes - basically that they don't know what they are talking about.
A factor that enables one to effectively SPEAK what is believed is the fact that they have experienced what is believed. Infact, it is the experience that makes them as passionate about what they believe and which directs their outrightness in expression. Speaking it, then, becomes a non-issue in such a case and is done with ease. If I may be allowed to use the pun BE/LIVE for the word believe. My understanding of belief, especially of that in Christ, is that we must BE it and LIVE it. If we BE it and LIVE it, then surely we will KNOW it to SPEAK it to do which we must EXPERIENCE it.
Therefore, I encourage you that when you speak your belief (in any form) that it be founded to do which you must know the what, why and how of it. This what, why and how needn't be a theological or apologetic exposition of any sort. It must be the reason why YOU believe. By that reason, you must be totally convinced that it is what to be believed. It could be simple faith, the fact that there is nothing else more convincing, reason, logic, 2+2 must be equal to 4, common sense, the fact God or anything sensible/credible cannot contradict itself...whatever is YOUR reason to believe but it must be founded. Founded in this case would obviously mean founded on the Bible and hence the God of the Bible.
Every Christian (active and believing Christians for there can be no other) must have a reason to believe what he/she believes. And must be able to express it and more importantly say it when asked. More than often, reason for believing is taken to be theology - which is understood as complicated funda among other things. While theology itself is quite a "deep" topic, reason to believe is not deep at all. It is only as deep as our understanding, knowledge and experience of God Himself.
This is something I have always argued for. If we know a BIG God, then how can we restrict talking about our BIG God to few and small words? That depends on the size of the God that we know. And since we know the SAME God, our basic reason to believe and hence the manner of expression of that must hardly differ. For some, even a note such as this will be considered theology but (correct me if I am wrong) is far from it. If my reason to believe is the same as another's and that person were to express it in 20 words and me in 500 words, then surely we will be able to see eye to eye on the matter because we will recognize the essence of what we both believe.
The expression (outright by default) of one's reason to believe can be creative and can take the form of painting, writing, singing, songs, music etc. In all cases of expression, we must be able to SAY it and back up what WE say. Let us take for example, if someone were to wear a shirt saying "God Loves You" to his school/college where he is questioned as to what God, how He loves him/her, where this God is etc., one cannot state his/her reason to believe by saying "Listen to this song. It tells you all about it", "Look at this painting I drew. It is based on what I believe" or "I wrote a piece on my reason to believe. Here it is". He/she must be able to say it clearly, in other words SPEAK it. An inability to speak it shows that there is an improper/unfounded/unsound understanding of what he/she believes - basically that they don't know what they are talking about.
A factor that enables one to effectively SPEAK what is believed is the fact that they have experienced what is believed. Infact, it is the experience that makes them as passionate about what they believe and which directs their outrightness in expression. Speaking it, then, becomes a non-issue in such a case and is done with ease. If I may be allowed to use the pun BE/LIVE for the word believe. My understanding of belief, especially of that in Christ, is that we must BE it and LIVE it. If we BE it and LIVE it, then surely we will KNOW it to SPEAK it to do which we must EXPERIENCE it.
Therefore, I encourage you that when you speak your belief (in any form) that it be founded to do which you must know the what, why and how of it. This what, why and how needn't be a theological or apologetic exposition of any sort. It must be the reason why YOU believe. By that reason, you must be totally convinced that it is what to be believed. It could be simple faith, the fact that there is nothing else more convincing, reason, logic, 2+2 must be equal to 4, common sense, the fact God or anything sensible/credible cannot contradict itself...whatever is YOUR reason to believe but it must be founded. Founded in this case would obviously mean founded on the Bible and hence the God of the Bible.
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