MMM | Issue 10

Hi all,

Well, in conjunction with the "Faith and Doubt" series, I thought I'd write one more MMM.

As usual, you can listen to last Sunday morning's message, "Faith and Belief" on-line at www.rivercommunity.ca. Also as usual, feel free to e-mail me with your feedback or questions.

Before I begin musing, I'm wondering if you might be willing to do me a favour; that is, e-mail me and tell me why you believe. I'm doing a message this Sunday morning (the last one in the series) called, "Why I Believe" and I'd like to use some of your thoughts in building my message. Just reply to this e-mail and I'll receive whatever you write. Just so you know, I promise to let you be anonymous this Sunday morning.

Now, normally when I muse, I try to build on what I said the previous Sunday. But this week, I want to look ahead. I want to give you one of my reasons for believing that I won't get to this Sunday, but I find compelling. It goes like this: I believe that the way people argue suggests that God exists.

This idea comes by way of a man named C. S. Lewis. When we argue, we say things like, "That's not right! That's not good! You're not being fair!" In other words, we appeal to a standard that is independent and objective and higher than you and I. We appeal to the idea that there is such a thing as right and wrong.

In theory, many people in our day hold the belief that right and wrong are subjective-just preference-just vanilla and chocolate. You have yours, and I have mine. Everybody is different. An author named Denis de Souza has written a book entitled, What's So Great About Christianity? He points out that in our society, we will often hear this statement: "Don't impose your beliefs on me." De Souza says he finds it interesting that we don't say, "Don't impose your geometry on me. Don't impose your chemistry on me." Why not? Because we assume that science and mathematics are about objective reality. So we don't think they can be "imposed" on us. But we often believe that morals and values are simply subjective preferences. You have yours. I have mine. It's all just arbitrary. Every time you hear two people argue, it shows we know better. We believe that moral reality is built into the way that life is.

This is exactly what Paul was saying when he wrote: "The requirements of the Law (What's right and what's wrong.) are written on people's hearts (We can't get away from this. When we argue, we show that we know this.), their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts, now accusing, now defending them." (Romans 2:15)

Every human being knows two things: There is a way we ought to behave. There is a code, a standard. We might be fuzzy on the details of it sometimes, but we have a general idea of what it is. We know there is a standard that we all ought to live up to, and we all know that we don't live up to it. We all fall short. We need forgiveness. We need grace. We need to get fixed.

Every time people argue, they imply that the universe is not an accident; that there is a moral order built into the way things are. It's there because it was put there by Somebody, and that Somebody was God. The Good News is that He is a gracious God. That's part of why I believe in God.

Well, I hope this primes the pump for this Sunday. See you then!

Keep on keeping on!