Faith and other thoughts

Last night was our little bible study. It was good. The discussion was actually pretty good. Its not easy to get a group of people to talk about God and what that message meant to them. Last night, though, a couple people spoke up and let it fly. Also, though, I think that the subject was something that was sort of enlightening. It was the second sermon by Andy Stanley in the "Faith, Hope, and Luck" series. In it, he questions what we think faith is and offers this definition:

"Faith is confidence that God is who He says He is and that He will do everything that He has promised to do."

Thats it. The main question that I posed and still rattle around in my brain is how does that change your preconceived ideas? Faith becomes something very simple when you think of it in this light. Its not a force or power that you can wield. Its hope taken one step further, with God's promise guaranteeing it. But this also means, that unless God has promised it, then we can't expect it. We can hope for it, we can pray for it, but its up to God to determine if it will happen. That almost sounds defeatist, but not when you realize that no matter what happens in our situations or in our life, He is still God. He can do anything, He might want to do what we ask, but He also might have another plan that we don't know about. But, our faith rests not on our understanding, but on God's ability to do what He says He will do.

I don't want to muddle that too much, but of course I have other things going on in my head. No, its not about Desire, but there might be a post where I devote some time to talking about that later this week. Instead, I am thinking about music. I love music. I enjoy singing it (in my car, away from others) and I enjoy just listening to it, which I am doing right now. It is such a wonderful thing to enjoy. I thought about this when on Sunday my wife was going to sing a special at my parents church. Well, we had just placed her CD in a case for Weezer. That isn't exactly the most "christian" case to have in church. But, they have some great music. I thought it was sort of funny, but then I thought about how many times we receive something from God in such unintended places. Maybe the artist or the writer or director or whatever didn't mean to reference God, but we see His work or His message displayed. I am thankful for those times and I am sure that pastors are as well, so they have something "cultural relavant" to share at church. I think that more than anything, that it just goes to show that all of creation speaks of God's work. I think that I will have that Desire post later this week and go into this more.

But, for today, thats all I got in me. Take luck!