couple notes on faith...

i had a friend once tell me that, 'the way he sees it, as long as people get fulfilled out of it, it doesn't matter what they worship...they can worship a tree and get fulfilled and its all the same...'  and this is a guy i love (in a totally dude way)...he's an awesome dude, and i'm not mentioning this to ridicule his thinking or anything like that...actually, i get it...totally get that thought.  it's this idea that, as long as it works for you, then it's cool.  it's this post-christian era mindset that anything goes and all faiths are created equal, cuz hey, we're all going to the same place anyway, right...  seems like it kinda makes sense when you think about it.  i mean, wouldn't it be easier if it just were that way.  that it didn't really matter what you believed as long as you believed in something....

maybe a part of me wishes that was how it worked...sure would make it a lot easier to look around at a world so lost and so broken and just shrug my shoulders and say, 'eh, it's all the same...you're god is as good as mine...see you on the other side...'  then i would know that a lot of my friends and people i know and love that don't know this Jesus that i know, would still be going to heaven, even though they don't know Him, or even believe in Him. it would be a lot easier to think that way.

but what if that's just not true...after all, the easy way is rarely the real way.  what if it mattered not if you had faith, but what you were putting your faith in.  see this is where the power of faith really lies.  it's not if you have faith...lots of people have 'faith'.  people put their faith in all kinds of things...some put it in the stock market.  some put it in their job.  some put it in gods, or goddesses, or...trees.  some put it in their friends, family...themselves.  some put faith in tomorrow.  some just have faith in faith.  all of it amounts to pretty much....well, nothing.  see faith in itself does not get you anywhere....not anywhere you wanna go that is.

 the lie.

'something, somewhere out there will save me in the end, and in the meantime it's all really just the same thing in a different package.' 

so why bother with....truth?

because my friend, the truth will set you free.

so here's what it comes down to...what are you putting your faith in?  that tree ain't gonna do much for you, so why would you worship that?  now i'm kinda joking about the tree-worship (though there probably is some out there that do worship trees or something) but wouldn't you rather worship the One who made the tree rather than the tree itself?  i mean, give me that God!  that's the one i want to put my faith in...not the one someone just made up somewhere along the line.  or the one that just works for me.  i want the real deal.  the eternal, everlasting, all-powerful, mighty, holy, merciful God full of grace and love.

it matters not if you have faith...it matters what you are putting your faith in.  put your faith in Jesus...He is the only one who saves.  that's it.  faith anywhwere else is no faith at all.  

what are you putting your faith in today?