Reasons to Believe - Number 5 - Rest

Do you ever feel tired? Do you ever feel burdened and crushed by the weight of what you have to deal with in life?  Perhaps work is overwhelming or perhaps its family and relationships,  or perhaps it is an illness or death, or maybe its just the suffering that a friend has shared with you.  We all have burdens and sorrows in our lives and they can weigh down on us sometimes.  Jesus shares these words with us; Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.   

Knowing our need for rest, God designed it into the very creation order, giving us one day in 7 to rest through his example.  Come to Christ again and again and cast your cares on Him.  He cares for you and listens, and you don't need to be worried that he will not be able to handle it.  He will give you rest, and just bringing the burden to him can ease the load on your shoulders. God made us. He knows how we work and how we tend to burden ourselves down with things that we have no need to bear.  Drop those burdens onto the shoulders of Christ.  Bring them to him and leave them at the cross

Reasons to Believe - Number 4 - Creation

Being a Canadian means I have to live through Canadian winters. But it also means I get to see the glory of God displayed in ways that others may not. I have seen the beauty of gently falling snow first hand.  I have gone skating on a pond on a winter night and enjoyed the time warming up around the woodstove after with a warm drink.  I have seen a side of nature that is both wondrous and dangerous at the same time.

Others of us who live elsewhere have had the chance to sail the oceans or ski on mountains or glory in the Grand Canyon or marvel at the size and heat of a desert.  There is so much variety and complexity in the world around around us.  There are geographic differences.  There are millions of different species of animals.  There are ecosystems we haven't even found out about yet.  And all this is just on this planet.  We have increasingly become aware of the immensity of the universe that our planet exists in.  The more we see of the immense complexity, and at the same time, clockwork like precision, of the universe in which we live the more it should cause us to look for the creator of all this.

Just like a great painting or song or scientific discovery can make us respect and admire the person who made it, so the great beauty and complexity or the world around should turn us to the one who made all of this and believe in the creator of this universe!

Reasons to Believe - Number 3 - Relationship

There is something sad about seeing someone lonely. We can't help but feel sorry for that guy sitting there in the restaurant eating his dinner by himself or that girl who always sits by herself in the back of the class and doesn't seem to have any friends. We all want relationships and we feel that there is something wrong when they are aren't there. We hate death partially because it means the end of our relationship with that person. Relationships are important to us.

The amazing thing is that God offers us a relationship with himself. He offers to be our Father and our friend.  The King of the universes says come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The righteous God has opened up a path for sinners to be in relationship with him.  God has designed us to desire relationships and he has also provided us the path to the ultimate relationships.  As wonderful as they are our human relationships with our spouses/kids/parents/friends will not fulfill us.  That fulfillment is to be found in a relationship with God.

Reasons to Believe - Number 2 - Justice

We all love justice.  We hear of atrocities all over the world with people killing each other, mistreating and abusing each other, lying cheating and stealing from each other and we want something to be done about it.  The news seems to be filled with injustices and we seem helpless to do anything about it.  Is there really justice in the world?  Is there justice for the parents who child was kidnapped and killed?  Is there justice for the town that was destroyed in an act of genocide?  Is there justice for the millions of people that have been abused and killed by their governments? It doesn't seem right! These people are getting away with it!  Where is the justice?

The answer is found in the justice of God.  The justice of God is not a very popular doctrine in general.  Most of the time we hear about the love of God and the peace of God and the joy of God but we don't always like to think of the justice of God.  That's sad, because it is such a wonderful doctrine.  There is justice! All that suffering and horror in the world? God will make it right! Being made in the image of God means we have some of his desire for justice and this desire for justice can only be fulfilled if we look for its fulfillment in God.  He alone has the power to bring about complete justice.

Of course, the reason we don't like thinking about this doctrine is that it doesn't just apply to the child molester and the serial killer.  It applies to me. It applies to you.  Its a wonderful doctrine and a scary doctrine, but the true wonder of God's justice is that it allows him to display so wonderfully his love.  Punishment for our sins will happen, but if we believe in God he fulfills his justice marvelously.  He takes those sins and punishes them completely and thoroughly.  He wipes them away forever.  And he does so through his Son hanging on a cross.  What a wonderful thought!  Justice will be served and love will be displayed!

Reasons to Believe - number 1 - God tells us to

Its very simple isn't it? Why should we believe in God?  Well, he tells us to do so and he knows what is good for us.  I know this isn't some long detailed argument.  I know it isn't even a 'logical' argument.  But its right. Think back to when you were a kid and your dad told you not to do something.
'But why not dad?'  
'Because I said so.'
Maybe you hated hearing that when you were a kid, but there were still two reasons in there to listen to him.  First of all your dad was a lot smarter than you and probably knew what he was talking about, and secondly if you didn't listen there were consequences. Its the same with God.  We can whine and complain about it and maybe even rant against his command, but when it comes down to it God knows better than us and if we don't listen to this command there are consequences!

God says to us 'This is how you are saved.  Believe.'  So do it.  Listen to him.  Believe!

Reasons to believe - Introduction

Everyone believes in something.  There is belief in God, belief in Buddha, belief in self, belief in the government, belief in science and belief in any number of other things.  We all have something or someone that we believe in as our saviour or that gives us meaning in life.  Believing is a part of life. 

The question is, why do we believe what we believe?  Obviously there are a lot of answers to that question.  People might say our beliefs come from what we are taught.  They might say our beliefs come from choices we make or they might even say they come from something external to us.  As I'm sure you know, I believe in God and so I would like to present some of the reasons that I believe what I do.

This series is not intended to prove the existence of God or to be a list of 'evidence' in favor of Christianity. It will merely be a list of reasons that we should believe in God. There are many, many reasons to do so and I am persuaded that this is indeed a reasonable faith so I hope you enjoy the series!