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Path: utzoo!decvax!mcnc!akgua!akgub!cylixd!charli
From: charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Why you should believe
Message-ID: <416@cylixd.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-Oct-85 19:30:52 EST
Article-I.D.: cylixd.416
Posted: Thu Oct 24 19:30:52 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 27-Oct-85 05:58:02 EST
References: <2309@ukma.UUCP> <4109@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips)
Distribution: na
Organization: RCA Cylix Communications , Memphis, TN
Lines: 37
Summary: 

>. . . . In the long run, a
>Christian has to feel God calling him, and to see God at work in the
>world.  It has to be very frustrating to set out to manufacture these
>perceptions when they have no basis in your actual experience.  I
>envision coming to see God as a process of becoming more sensitive to
>the spiritual implications of what is going on around us, . . . .
>It is hard to see
>how someone can become more sensitive when he is gritting his teeth
>and trying to manufacture a faith he doesn't feel, . . . .
>[Charles Hedrick]

I agree with much that Charles said (in particular his recommendation
of _Surprised by Joy_ - that's a *wonderful* book, by one of my
favorite authors.)

But I feel compelled to comment on his statements quoted above.  It
sounds like he's saying that one is saved by having the appropriate
feelings regarding God and Christ.  I can most assuredly tell you that
that's not true.  I am not given to "mystical" feelings of the presence
of God, of faith in Christ, of "the spiritual implications of what is
going on around us".  If I had to have such feelings in order to be
saved, then I would most assuredly be damned.  But because I trust God,
and not myself, I know that I am a Christian *in spite of* anything I
feel about the subject.  I made a willful decision to be His.

If, for some reason, I don't *feel* faith in God, that doesn't matter.
I don't have to manufacture feelings of faith.  God will give me all 
the faith that I require, and He will keep me.  The feelings and visions
and 'doo-dads down the spine' that other believers experience (and that
I, too, have experienced from time to time) are nice, but *they are not
necessary*.  Our faith can be strong when we can't see God, perhaps
even stronger than when we can.  (Blessed are they who haven't seen,
and yet have believed.)

		charli

	Prayer of the Day:  Lord I believe.  Help thou mine unbelief.