Does Faith Work?

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."

                                                                                               ~ Augustine

A mind-numbing question: "Why doesn't faith work?"

Muslim Brotherhood executing Christians

I'm not speaking of the 20+ Coptic Christians murdered by ISIS in Egypt for their beliefs this year; nor am I speaking of the Russian Christians who held on to their faith during the Cold War as 98,000 priests were martyred nearly a century ago, or even the murders of the African Christians throughout that continent.

I am speaking of the American Christian who has everything at his fingertips demonstrating the grace of God in his life.
Why isn't that Christian's faith a true reality in his life?

The truth is that in America, Christians tend to treat one another worse than everybody else.
This is magnified if you are a pastor; I have heard so many stories of pastors and ministers being hurt in their ministry by the very people they are called to serve.
At this hour in my life, I even have a few stories of my own.

Indeed, some are made better by faith; yet, there are others who are made infinitely worse. 
Instead of using faith as the life-spring to God's grace, implemented instead are a set of rules the Christian is to follow.

And while, in the modern world, a church would never admit to being legalistic; the truth is that we have stoned many believers right out of the Body of Christ with our own rocks of judgment.


For every gracious saint of God, there is a mean-spirited one.
Why doesn't their faith act and look the same?


In the 1960's, at the height of the protests against the war in Vietnam, free love and racial conflict in America, a very intelligent man asked a profound question.
The question was later made popular 30 years later in the 1990's, but it is no less profound.
That question for the Christian: 'What Would Jesus Do?'

Taken to its real implications in our lives, WWJD is quite disturbing.
If every Christian would take this phrase seriously, not only would grace abound but also many modern tables would be overturned in our Pharisaical Temples we call churches.
In your life, my life - indeed, What Would Jesus Do?

I'm not always sure what Christ would do in every situation, but I do know that one of the times I tried to be as Christ-like as possible was when I ministered to a homeless couple that had come in contact with the Church I was serving.
One family in particular determined that they weren't the church's 'kind of people.'
Appalled, I spent this Easter setting in a pew rather than proclaiming from a pulpit.
But I digress.

Maybe millions of Christians suffer from a narcissistic disorder; I know a handful that do, but maybe it is on a much more massive scale than I thought.
I truly believe that millions of Christians live in a make-believe bubble world where there is little ability of thought or projection beyond themselves.

I'm sure everyone knows at least one Christian like this, since there are so many of them; but it is somewhat heart-wrenching for those who are trying to follow Christ as best we can to be compared to those who are in our midst, yet so unlike our Lord.

Sadly, many Christians have become so self-centered and self-indulgent.
And it is true that most Christians don't think or believe incorrectly; instead, Christians tend to behave and live wrongly/badly.
A common path walked by an American Christian is the fact that we will accept grace, but soon realize that they can't live the faith as Jesus describes and on which the Apostle Paul expounds.
Therefore, the Christian then tries to earn his way to approval before God...and fails again; all the while ignoring the gift of grace through our faith.

So, what will happen in life, instead of the faith in the heart guiding decisions towards others, our decisions become based on principles.
When a person is kind because of their principles rather than originating from a belief in the heart, this is no faith at all; it is instead ascribing to a code of morality.

In truth, we have the Gospel ideals and on the other side we have the acts of true life.
These shouldn't be different, but they are.

In reality, you and I are never, and I mean NEVER going to achieve with perfection God's ideals set forth in the New Testament; nor are we going to live up to our own ideals concerning truth and morality.
And this is why we need grace - simply because we are not going to achieve God's perfection without His help.

Be sure, we should never judge God's Holy ideals and His Infallible Truths by our inability to meet and keep them.
If a deacon is walking home from a wild night and he is staggering from side to side along the road; is that any less the way home?

You see, our failures do not devalue or disprove God's truth; instead, our shortcoming prove the truth of grace altogether.
And idea or truth cannot be held responsible for the actions of those who profess to believe it. Therefore, our faith may be weak at times and even falter; but it does not fail if we continue on in grace.

Soldier with Iraqi Orphan after Invasion

But every now and then, us fallen human beings get it right and truly honor God in horrid situations.

In our world, we are ruled by law and order; in such a place, the notion of grace is a contradiction. This contradiction is magnified when it comes to the Christian faith.
As humans, we desire fairness; in the Gospels, God gives us an innocent man murdered on a Cross who cries out for the forgiveness of those who are killing Him.
We want respectability in life, Scripture elevates the hated tax-collector and the suspect harlot.
Many believers want success as well, but the Gospels show a dramatic change of what it means to be successful by moving the downtrodden to the front and the wealthy to the rear.

My friend, things have changed because of Jesus Christ.
Maybe you and I need to change from what was to what is, and that which is, is Jesus and His way.

At the beginning of this writing I asked a simple question, 'Why doesn't faith work?'
As I have pondered, an old thought returned to my mind an old man of God once said, "Man must bow down to something..."

That man of God was right.

Yet, when God is forgotten, everything is permissible; this was seen in past empires and is being seen in America today.
And that is why faith doesn't always work - God has been forgotten.

The blame lies solely on the doorstep of the Church.

Nobody can live up to the ideal we set forth; we cannot accomplish it any more than the Nation of Israel could perfectly fulfill the Law.
There was nothing wrong with the Law, but there is everything wrong with humanity.
That's the reason we have been given grace.

In our world, millions of Christians and their churches are wanting to lower the standards of the Body (which they have no right to do) to become more 'accepting' to a fringe.'
Well, Jesus never lowered the standards for anyone; He did, however, never fail to offer forgiveness and grace to all who would come to Him and ask.

Like thousands of other Christians, I too have a long list of complaints against the church; not the ideals which the New Testament established, but through those who are members of the Body of Christ.
Maybe all believers have a list of complaints.
But I must ask, 'Who among us rises to do something about the things we complain about?'

The answer is simple: It is those whom we crucify.

With that, we must remember that Jesus is best seen, not in the words we speak or proclaim; but in the actions of His people.

All Christians can criticize and critique, and sometimes even unfairly so; while few offer solutions to the real problems of poverty, disease, legalism, and a host of other issues within the Body.
But friend, remember, we may not know the answer to evil, but we do know grace.

And God's grace is enough to carry on in the manner in which He desires us to live, even when others criticize Christians for doing so out of honor for the Lord.

So, yes, faith does work - but only when you're serving the right Lord.

Until next time, win one for the good guys.