Fastbreak: Who Do You Believe?

In this Fastbreak episode, Dave is asking the question, “Who do you believe?” or maybe more accurately, “Who should you believe?” What we believe obviously affects our world view, with our actions following. Dave suggests that all truth must be found outside of ourselves, and in this particular example, the truth that God deeply loves each of us. Experiencing that reality generally makes us more outward-focused in our approach to life…and church leaders must begin with that framework.

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Transcript

Hey everyone, this is Dave Workman with the Elemental Group! 

I’ve noticed that Christians who have developed an outward-focused approach to life tend to typically believe that they have a heavenly Father who deeply loves them. It is an act of faith. And it seems to me that loved people love others.

I’ve sat with Christians who’ve told me “I just can’t believe that God really loves me.” There are times when I’m feeling a little feisty that I’ve said back to them, “Wow, that’s too bad…because it’s not true. But if you want to believe a lie about God, that’s up to you.” This is simply about choosing to believe and act on truth rather than how past experiences have affected us. You can choose to believe the One who gave His Son as the ultimate expression of love…or you can choose not to. But real faith is activistic; it’s not sitting around hoping something’s true.

I love the Message paraphrase of Luke 12. Jesus is talking to his disciples and says, “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting…so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works, fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.”

That’s great language, isn’t it?

We can either choose to believe that and get a whole new worldview or we can debate until we’re blue in the face. Everyone chooses what their truth source is going to be…and ultimately, every “truth source” will be outside of yourself.

When I first became a Christian, I worked with a man who liked to argue about the credibility of Christianity. His point was that no one could really know for sure, no one could be certain. He was into the writings of a philosopher named Krishnamurti.

Krishnamurti was a really interesting guy. In the early 1900’s, he was only fourteen years old when he was adopted by a group of people called the Theosophical Society who believed he was the coming World Teacher, to be the reincarnation of Christ in the West and of Buddha in the East. He was groomed as the next messiah. At one point they believed he would visit Australia by walking on water. Krishnamurti took a boat instead. But in his mid-thirties, he renounced everything, saw it all as a sham, disbanded the group who believed he was the messiah, and walked away. He later wrote that “Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever…”. In essence, all you can really trust is yourself; no authority can come from the outside.

One day my co-worker said to me, “Krishnamurti says you cannot trust anyone as a source of spiritual knowledge and authority except for your own self and your own senses.”

I asked him, “So why should I believe him?”

The truth is: God is deeply in love with you. That’s a truth that comes from outside yourself. And it’s up to us as leaders to teach people that truth.