FAITH NOT ONLY FOR MIRACLE BUT MISERY

"Faith not alone for miracle but misery"

Evidently, so many Christians define faith in God as something that will always deliver them from disease, deformity, debilitation, danger, distress, discouragement, destruction, darkness, dejection, dungeon, death; in short faith will release us from all sorts of sufferings. 
Sadly when these doesn't seem to happened or miracle doesn't take place in long run many a believers tend to loose faith in God or withdraw themselves from Christianity. 

But the question comes to us is; is this portrayal of faith is the full truth or there is something more to it ? 

A closer look at scriptures opens our eye to the flip side of the story and helps us answer this question. 

Hebrews chapter 11 is one of the most powerful at the same time very popular chapters of the Bible. It talks about the heroes of faith in its two third of the whole chapter. Interestingly enough, the unpopular part is the last portion of the same chapter; the rarely read and rarely preached portion (verse 36-40). 

Someone said that 'the truth is bitter' and here it is; 

Hebrews 11:35-40 KJV

...and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection [36] And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: [37] They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; [38] (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. [39] And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: [40] God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 

An embodiment of this experiences are Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, Stephen, James, Paul, Peter and even till today this list goes on with you and me. 

We don't always receive by faith but give, not only get delivered but bounded, not only taken care of but tortured, not only freed but fenced, not only calmed but disturbed, not only healed but diseased, not only at rest but restless, not only housed but wander, not only plenty but poverty, not only prosperity but persecution. 

All by faith and faith alone. 

You may have been going through some physical, personal or family problems you have no answer to. But if your faith has not decreased over the time you are a Hero of faith. There may be some reasons for this problem to be in your life, however, none is known to any men, therefore, whether we fall on any side of these aspects of faith let's come out as heroes. Its God who does choose human agents for to perfect His purposes for His glory.


I pray that God will provide you ample strength to endure such pain yet remain persistent in faith towards God.

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The Armour of God #4 The Shield of Faith

इफिसियों 6:16 और उन सब के साथ विश्वास की ढाल लेकर स्थिर रहो जिस से तुम उस दुष्ट के सब जलते हुए तीरों को बुझा सको। Ephesians 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

4. Shield of faith- The Protection

Shield is a highly defensive armour. It's made of iron or bronze, it was always big enough to protect whole body from top to bottom. It would have thick animal skin on top of it, which was made wet to quench the fiery darts of enemy. Faith in Christ's blood is our first defence against great accuser. Zec. 3:1-5. 

Faith runs the world. As we live our day today life we live it by believing random people for some specific reasons. Though be it sitting in a plane, a train or an auto everything requires faith on Pilate. Eating food in mess requires faith on cook. Everything requires faith on unknown persons. Similarly in Christian also we need to put our faith on God for everything even if you are capable enough to get things through by your own. It a recognition of God's favour in your life. Faith in God evidences His existence and His works in a believer's life. And this is what makes our life possible on this earth. Despite having the aptitude of fulfilling our daily needs we ought trust God, was the key emphasis that Jesus wanted to communicate through the Lord Prayer when he said, 'Give is our daily bread'. Sadly enough, Satan wants to kill that very faith in God. The only reason Satan attacks Christians is to make them loose their confidence in God. Job is the classic example of this fact. What was God doing with Abraham at his age of 95, testing his faith on Him. What was Satan trying to do with Job, kill his confidence in God. But Job said my redeemer liveth. 

Jeremiah 17:7-8 

If anything you wanted from God and over the time you are loosing your faith in Him, thinking that He would not fulfil His promise, that's where Satan is getting victorious in and through You. 

When you think that you are weak, you can't overcome the challenges of life. God doesn't strengthen the one who is faithless. 

At the expense of your faith you find strength from God. God strengthens the one who has faith in Him not other way around.

Example of Israelites: why did God take His people through wilderness? Just to test their faith. And they miserable failed it. Our protection doesn't lie on haughty buildings, angels or even mighty hand of God but simple faith. 

Nothing can help you withstand satan's devices other than your simple Faith in God for the final victory, if not the immediate battle.

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Book Review: Philosophy & the Christian Faith by Colin Brown

Pages: 320, Year: 1969, ISBN-10: 0877847126

Colin Brown is senior professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He served as editor of The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and is the author of several books, including Miracles and the Critical Mind, History and Faith, and Jesus in European Protestant Thought.

Chapters include:

I. Medieval Philosophy; Augustine and Greek philosophy 2. Metaphysics 3. Anselm and Ontological Argument 4. Aquinas; Five ways and analogy 5. The significance of Medieval Philosophy

II. Reformation thought

Rationalism; Decartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Pascal, Empiricist; Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Enlightenment; Rousseau, Voltaire, Lessing, Kant

III. 19th century philosophy

1.      Schleiermacher, Hegel and Idealism, Kierkegaard, Atheism and Agnosticism; Feuerbach, Marx and Dialectical Materialism, Nietzsche, Comte and Positivism, Mill and Utilitarianism, Peirce, James and Pragmatism, Darwin.

2.      Trend in theology; Liberal Theology, Catholic reaction, conservative scholarship

IV. 20th century philosophy

Logical positivism, Reaction, Religious language, Existentialism; Bultmann and Tillich, New Radicalism; Bonhoeffer, Honest to God and Death of God

Secular British philosophy; Wittenstein, Moore and Russell, Humanism; Otto, Buber and Teilhard, Neothomis, Reformed theology; Til, Barth, Schaeffer.

He categorizes his work thus; "Histories of philosophy are not normally designed to be read through in bed, and the present one is not necessarily intended to be read through consecutively."

Colin Brown uncovers an astute brief review of alternative philosophical bases of Christian doctrine that influenced the faith of Christians in the course of history. This is an orderly work of an unusually gifted, and intensely dedicated theologian to present an analytical history of philosophy, with an emphasis on the diverse interpretations of the constant encounters of the trends and approaches of philosophy with Christian faith. Colin Brown concludes in the postscript with lessons from the past criticizing the inadequacy of philosophical systems. Although he cautions against reliance on a particular philosophy, he identifies the need of the philosophy's stimulating analysis that pushes Christian theologians to reassess their positions.

In contrast to his planned fast tour of medieval philosophy, he already started to interpret Anselm by Barth and Hartshorne. The author gave the Twentieth Century a comparative elaborate and critical assessment of new drifts in logical positivism, and religious language before he analyses existentialism in the instance of Bultmann and Tillich. He then presents New Radicalism in Bonhoeffer, before his thorough exposition of J.A.T. Robinson's, Honest to God. He would not abstain from analyzing the 'Death of God' movement, but gives his overview on Cornilius Van Till and Francis Schaeffer.

“As we saw when we were looking at theological trends in the nineteenth century, Evangelicals made great contributions to evangelism and even to biblical scholarship; but they contributed little or nothing to the philosophical defense of their faith. For many, scholarship had a largely negative value. It was useful to defend the faith against hostile criticism. Few Evangelicals seem to have considered the philosophical implications of a faith based upon God's revelation of himself and their significance for apologetics." (Pg. 245)

Author closes, "The task of the philosophy of religion is the descriptive and critical analysis of the act, content and presuppositions of belief... It will seek to analyze the phenomenon of prayer, and the validity of claims that are made that God answers prayer. It will be interested in the credentials of alleged miracles (both biblical and otherwise). The question of the existence of evil is one which each generation has to face. It will be especially interested in the Christian claim that God is the creator of the world and its sustainer in the light of the widespread assumption that the world is to be explained entirely in terms of natural causes. The study of philosophy is no task for those who have opted out of life... There are many unsolved problems... But because the Christian is convinced that God is the God of all truth, he will not lose heart." (Pg. 288-289)

Unlike most histories of philosophy, he does not start with the Greeks, but with medieval philosophy (Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, etc. The objective of this book is to make a study of the core thinkers and cerebral movements of western thought of the past thousand years, with a view to presenting how they move Christian belief. In just over 300 pages, Brown covers a lot of ideas. For anyone interested in philosophical studies, this is a great introduction to philosophical theology, or for a general overview of the history of philosophy. 

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