The Point of Faith

By Josh Davis

Is Christ worth pursuing? Is faith worth saving, worth fighting for? The Point of Faith is for the Christ seeker on all stages of the journey, seeking to strengthen their understanding against the onslaught of anti-Christian thought. The Barna group stated 73% of Americans identify as Christian and that faith is personally important to them. Yet only a small portion have a biblical worldview or paradigm. This book is an invitation to free the mind from assumption, step back and examine the viewpoint of Christ and the Bible. If we think of life as a journey, then we see that for the Christian, Atheist, and Agnostic alike, each use a kind of road map, or paradigm as a guide. It is my assertion that each of these worldviews is based on some degree of faith, trust, or belief. If ones paradigm fails to guide them to a good destination, then what good is it? I believe we need to ask what I call the seven fundamental questions of life, which are: Identity, origin, meaning, purpose, ethical value, love, and consciousness. These questions apply to any worldview. I believe through the recovery of true, Biblical faith that Christ will transform lives. Christs own words bid us; I came that they may have life and have it in abundance. 10:10.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512764116

Josh Davis

Josh Davis is a multi-ethnic worship leader, clinician, songwriter, ordained minister, and music missionary. A third-culture person himself, Josh served as a missionary to the Dominican Republic before founding Proskuneo Ministries (www.proskuneo.org), a ministry that exists to bring nations together in worship on earth as it is in heaven. Josh is the co-author of the book Worship Together In Your Church as in Heaven. In his spare time, Josh loves to jog, learn languages, and drink coffee. Josh lives with his wife and four children in Clarkston, GA where over 60 languages are spoken in a 1.5 mile radius.

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SECTION 1

THE PATH OF FAITH

CHAPTER 1

FAITH BEGINS IN GOD’S CALL

By Faith Abraham, when he was called (by God), obeyed by going to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a foreigner in the Promised Land, as in a strange land, living in tents (as nomads) with Isaac and Jacob who were fellow heirs of the same promise. For he was (waiting expectantly confidently) looking forward to the city which has foundations, an eternal, heavenly city) whose architect and builder is God.

—Hebrews 11:8–11

T he mantra of modern life is that we need more and we need it now. Abram was an old man who had it all—well, almost all. Abram lived alone with his wife in the lap of luxury. They lived in the ancient deserts of the east. By worldly standards, Abram was a success. He was the owner of his own business, and servants cooked him meals and attended to his every need; he rarely wanted for anything. Yet the problem was that Abram’s world almost made sense—except he longed for more. Abram needed a crisis to spur him out of his comfort into the unknown.

Abram’s life made sense—until he felt a call that exposed what he really needed. God’s call instantly exposed all that Abram had buried, all that he had emotionally resigned, and all the life he had discarded. Abram lacked what he truly desired: descendants, offspring, a son, and a legacy. His life was a token of what so many of us face—the desire for more. The desire to add meaning and depth to the seemingly mundane things of life was the challenge of Abram that still lingers with us today. This is a problem that transcends time and place and confronts many people who long to fill their lives with the echoes of little voices down the hall. Money and comfort can simplify our lives, but they can never add depth. Only God can add depth. Only God adds the deepest meaning and fulfillment to our lives and gives us the knowledge that everything we’ve worked for won’t be in vain. That’s really what the pursuit of more is about—filling the God-sized holes in our worlds that never quite add up. Our lives are like a puzzle missing the center piece. We can see the deeper and bigger picture, but something is just missing—the center. We are so desperate to find meaning in our lives that we seek. We stand at the point of faith, hearing the call but not ready to abandon the comfortable here and now for the unknown leap that transcends our monotony and transports us out of doldrums.

Abram, though, was comfortable in his life. He was seventy-five years old and wealthy. This was a man who owned his own army. His own army! The Amplified Bible tells us that Abraham was out of Ur, likely of the Chaldeans. Archeologists uncovered a good life there. With multiple-story houses, schools, and a very developed infrastructure, life in modern Ur was good.³ He had likely given up the notion of having kids and settled for blessing his servant Eliezer with a legacy.

The Bible introduces Abram at the ripe young age of seventy-five years old. Like Abram before the call of faith, we are not even sure what we need more of, but we are pursuing it as fast as we can get it. We get more and it burdens us, stresses us, and drives us to seek even more stuff. It’s just a downward spiral with no end; it’s a trap that is spiritual—and sometimes physical. Some people fill their lives with all the material stuff they can find along the journey, while others pursue pleasure in every form and fashion. Either way, we want more. When the emotional high is over and we are left with ourselves alone, are we really happy? Abram wasn’t.

Is it really more, or better, that we need? What do we really need? The problem is that life almost makes sense but does not really. When we finish our journeys, what things will we look back on with pride and see that they are still standing? I doubt the buildings, houses, and cars that we are so obsessed with today will evoke much more than a curious glance in one hundred years. If not that, then what will really matter? Whoever the person, whatever the situation, and wherever they are, at some point in our lives, we each come to a crossroads. Abram at seventy-five years old stood at a crossroad of crisis.

Standing at the point of faith, we can turn, we can go straight, or we can turn around. This is the point at which Abram stood when he got a call. Abram’s call was spiritual, but it affected his whole life. This call was unique to him. This call would disrupt his life, remove his comfort, and take him away from his family and their homeland. Abram received the call of God upon his life. Abram and Sarai were alone despite being surrounded by crowds, family, and friends and the opulence of wealth. Then the call from God would disrupt everything and take it all but ultimately give so much more in terms of meaning and promise. The call of God upon their lives and the crisis of faith that Abram felt gave them something that money and comfort never could. God’s call brought hope. So many people live life without hope, and God never intended it that way.

THE CALL

Genesis 12:1–3 says,

Go away from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the Land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you (abundantly), And make your name great (exalted, distinguished): and you shall be a blessing (a source of great good to others); And I will bless those who bless (do good for, benefit) those who bless you, and I will curse (that is subject to My wrath and judgment) the one who curses (despises, dishonors, has contempt for you) And in you all the families (nations) of the earth will be blessed.

Don’t miss the demand God is making here. In essence, God is saying to trade all you know and follow him, leaving your family behind because they won’t understand. Trust in and rely completely on him. God just emptied the world Abram built for himself, and it’s not the only time he would do this to Abram. Each person stands here at some point in his or her life—or maybe like Abe, multiple times—alone before Jehovah God with only the unknown ahead.

The concept of faith has progressed as the people of God have journeyed through salvation history. Scholars tell us that faith may mean something as simple as trust in God. Other times, faith involves active obedience without completely knowing the end or outcome. Like Abram, we are called to trust the person of God.⁴

Scholars teach us that faith for Abram would have meant not only trusting the person of God but also recognizing God as the creator and sustainer of life and as sovereign in control of history. Abram would have had to trust God over and above the competing theories of his day. The relevance for us today is striking. Abram’s life became the foundation for generations and nations following his example of faith. When the Israelites entered the covenant with God, they did so as the children of Abraham. Genesis 15:6 tells us, Then Abraham believed in (affirmed, trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord; and He counted (credited) it to him as righteousness (doing right in regard to God and man). (See also Romans 4:3, 18–22; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23).

Perhaps the greatest lesson to learn from the faith of Abram is that one person armed with the faith and favor of God can change the course of history for everyone who follows. The danger is found in the reverse: if God is issuing his special call and we choose to reject it, then those looking to us for an example could be damaged or destroyed.⁵

Abram experienced the call of God, but God wouldn’t call him forever. In Genesis 6:3, we get a sampling of the idea that God has set limits for humankind. God says, My spirit shall not strive and remain with man forever, because he is indeed flesh. I suspect this was the only chance Abram would get to fulfill God’s call for his life. Jesus won’t call forever; one day his patience will run out. The Bible calls this the Day of Judgment in the book of Revelation. The question is In whom do we trust? Psalm 20:7 says, Some trust in chariots some trust in horses, but we will remember and trust in the Lord our God.

We all must answer this same call that God placed upon Abram, that would eventually change his name to Abraham. What will you personally do with the call? Jesus promises to bless us to be a blessing to others, but he demands all from us. God promises to answer the question What is the higher meaning in life? He promises to do more than just answer questions. Jesus is the blessing and the promise to supercharge our lives with dynamic meaning and transformation. Questions like Who am I? and What is our ultimate identity? simply don’t bother the great people of faith. Put simply, these are questions people ask at the point of faith but who then proceed beyond satisfied with the answer I am a child of Jesus, adopted into his family by his blood. Abram’s answer was likewise; he was a child of God and a person of promise, and God used Abram’s willingness to change history. Jesus, in John 17:3, said, This is eternal life, that they know You, the only true (supreme and sovereign) God, and (in the same manner know) Jesus (as the) Christ whom you have sent. (Amplified Bible)

Saying yes to God at the point of faith changed all for Abram and it can for you. It took all that he had, emptied him of self, and as he stood at that divine appointment where time intersects with eternity, Abram said yes. God showed Abram that there is something more than what we have now. There is eternity, and it starts with the journey out of our own Ur toward the Promised Land. This journey started in crisis for Abraham and was not easy. God demanded all Abram had then asked for more, and asked for more and asked for more. God asked for more till Abraham was spent up, burned up as an offering standing before the Lord with empty hands, but having changed all of eternity for all the nations. God promised this to Abram, called him, changed his name to Abraham, and made him the father of many nations. This is the promise of God: to change your name, to supercharge your life and your journey with meaning, to bless you one hundred fold, to pour himself out for you. God promises to take your life of meagerness and do something extraordinary, but it will cost everything—and more.

At the junction of faith stands Jesus. He will not force himself on you but simply stands and calls. Jesus took the same path we did. Hebrews 4:15, from the Amplified Bible, says,

For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness and temptations, but one who has been tempted (knowing exactly how it feels to be human) in every respect as we are, yet without (committing any) sin.

This is the promise at the point of faith. Science and logical systems alone cannot empathize with humanity at its points of weaknesses, nor can it recognize the grand totality that we are wonderfully and fearfully made by a creator who deeply understands us and knows us. He traveled human roads. Jesus struggled on the same paths we do. Jesus, while he was human, was stressed out, had to eat food, and had to rest. Jesus sought God in order to get refilled for his journey. Jesus suffered just as we do. Interesting that people hurl objections of suffering as counter-evidence against Christianity. It is precisely at the point of suffering that we find faith at its strongest. Second Corinthians 12:9 tells us that God’s power is perfected in our weakness. We serve a God who identified with us in every conceivable way. Jesus suffered. God the Father suffered the loss of his only Child. Jesus suffered so much on this earth that he is recorded as sweating blood. Jesus wept, which means he was disappointed. He was happy and probably told jokes with his friends. Yet his closest allies, people he took as friends, betrayed him. People he shared meals with betrayed him. The very people he invested in turned him over to his enemies. Yet this is the same position in which we find ourselves. Suffering is therefore not the antithesis of Christianity but promises hope in its place.

However, be forewarned Jesus’s answers are deeply polarizing. He taught us that he was the only Son of God and sent from heaven to die in our place. He was resurrected for our sins and wants us to follow him even to the point of death. Jesus promised more than simply a way of looking at life. Jesus will change our lives, for the better. Jesus is the fulfillment of Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans and thoughts I have for you, plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster to give you hope and a future.

Jesus’s stand on personal identity and meaning was so powerful that it fundamentally changed the course of history. We each must stand face-to-face with him at the point of faith. Some people believed he was simply a confused wandering peasant who taught good things and loved everyone and as long as they did enough good stuff they would be okay. Ironically, the most religiously educated people of the time completely missed him.

What’s it like to see Jesus? What does it take to really see Jesus and not just to overlook what he actually said in favor of our own understanding of what he said, our own interpretation? This is a question that transcends cultural and political correctness and smacks the confronted existing person squarely in the face and asks, What do you do about Jesus? Accept him or reject him, but here he is. Who you think Jesus is and who he actually is may be very different. Don’t follow a Jesus of your own making.

In another sense of the word, this is the point of faith, to see the risen Christ as he stands. To meet God as Abraham did, in the deserts of our life. Paul says we see dimly, as through smoky glass, but we use our faith to give us the substance (1 Corinthians 13:12). It is simply a trust born out of relationship. Then each person should answer the problem of what to do with Christ. This is the point of faith.

We stand at the junction, confronted squarely in the face of Jesus who, in Luke 14:26, said, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. This stands in stark contrast to the fluffy Christianity preached by some today. I would encourage all to read the context of Luke 14;26 and ponder Jesus words. Jesus wants us to recognize how much it will take to follow him. Confronted with the words of Jesus, we are emptied and stripped of selfish ambition, vain desires, and our own abilities and are asked, What will you do with Jesus? Jesus was brutally beaten by the religious establishment and rejected by the who’s who of Jerusalem. He demands all. This is the point of faith: are you willing to abandon the comfortable—the known—and plunge into a world of complete trust in our Savior, Jesus Christ?

The problem with our lives today is that we are so busy, almost too busy. Abraham was called out of his busy life with divine direction to build a new life. The unknown was a scary proposition. God promised Abraham things that violated the laws of nature. God promised Abraham a child in his old age. Abraham was a man of the world, a man of wisdom and success; he was no fool. The call seemed rather absurd because it was unknown or new to Abram’s perspective. Abraham’s response was to trust God rather than his own experience and his own understanding of the world. This is the call that will evermore face the people of faith. Do we trust the Word of God rather than the understanding and experience of humanity?

Some of us are so busy we never take the time to ask the tough questions. This book is an invitation to the tough questions. This is not an easy, feel-good book. I intend to show Christ’s answers to the seven big questions of life. My hope is to challenge and strengthen the understanding of Christian faith as the best answer those tough questions or at least provoke the honest discussions. We are so immersed in our routines and our journeys that we carry on day to day, so busy that it doesn’t seem to matter whether or not we answer the fundamental questions of life. Do we really hear God through all the noise? Do we really know who we are?

It seems the people of the Bible had experiences with God that we simply don’t or can’t. Is God through with us? Is he sitting on the sidelines until the end of time? I doubt it. The real challenge is that we don’t believe God will part the waters we need him to. We don’t see the waters parted and we don’t see Lazarus anymore. Is Lazarus dead, or are we the dead? Does God stand ready to deliver the same miracles to us that he performed for others? Toward the end of the Old Testament, we read the words of the prophet Habakkuk. In 2:4, he says, Look at the proud one, His soul is not right within him, But the righteous will live by his faith.

Is God still alive?

CHAPTER 2

THE POINT OF FAITH IS LIVING

F riedrich Nietzsche is one of my favorite philosophers, but his answer to the point of faith was quite different from Jesus’s. He was not afraid to stand alone on top of the hill and proclaim what he believed. I think more Christians would be better to emulate Nietzsche’s willingness to be ridiculed, but for the sake of the gospel. Nietzsche was also sharp enough to accept everything that his worldview entails. This stands contrary to what the neoatheists say. Nietzsche realized that if Christianity is not true, then one cannot maintain the notion that morality or values are absolute and binding for all people. We will examine his worldview more later, but suffice it now to say that Nietzsche valued power.

The problem is that Nietzsche believed that we are nothing more than what we make of ourselves. Nietzsche would say that we only have the here and now. He was far ahead of his time and believed life was in constant change. How can you have fixed beliefs in a world that always changes? Most people in the time of Nietzsche were sitting in church without actually believing what was taught, and that perplexed Nietzsche. Kierkegaard would also address this problem with the belief that where everyone is a Christian, no one is a Christian. Two people of radically different paradigms saw similar problems but addressed them in different ways.

I wish more people today had the openness and honesty of Nietzsche. At least we knew where he stood. He said, God is dead and we have killed him. That statement was really unpopular in his day because people were culturally bound to religions. They said religious-sounding words but their lives were empty of a real living relationship with Jesus. But Nietzsche had the courage to say what a lot of people simply thought. This triumphant proclamation of Nietzsche rings true today for many who simply believe that God is dead. Ironically, Jesus would agree with Nietzsche on this point. Jesus to the Pharisees, as recorded in Matthew 15:8, said, These people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me. Nietzsche and Jesus both agreed that the greatest cause of nonbelief in their respective time was people who profess to believe one thing but privately