Determining Your Faith

A few years ago, we had a Creationist come and speak to our youth group. He was quite insightful and I personally enjoyed listening to him. One of the things I remember that he had said was that the  majority of the young people who leave the church is because of a poor foundation in their faith. This had convicted me when it comes to our youth group and it became my personal mission to give them a good foundation to stand on. Since then, we have taken our youth a few times to the Creation Museum in Kentucky and the recent Ark Encounter as a means to hopefully bring them to a good understanding of Genesis as a foundation, in addition to taking them deep into the old testament.

I believe the young people in our youth group are beginning to have a stronger foundation. But I have come to another conclusion of why youth leave the church and that is because they do not adopt the Christian faith as their own. It is all too common for young people to grow up in a Christian home, read their Bible, go to church, and pray because that is what their family does. But when they leave home, is that belief system still standing or have they abandoned it, no longer under their parent's roof?

Since I was about twelve, I have been playing guitar. Mind you, I have not really learned to actually play until I was about 17 or 18. Throughout my learning and playing experience, I have had varying music genre tastes and in each genre, instrument preference changes. As I became a more experienced guitarist, it had become my dream to own a real Gibson Les Paul, and even more, with EMG active pickups. Well, within the last year, I had finally bought one and switched to the pickups I had so badly wanted and couldn't be happier with it.

I have shown a few people this guitar, some guitarist and some not. The guitarists naturally are interested in it while the non-guitarists think it's neat but don't really see the value in it. For both, they may see the price tag and know that it is monetarily valuable. They may recognise that it is an effective, pristine sounding instrument and know that it has value. But the difference between the value to them and the value to me is that this is my guitar that I own (not to mention being my dream guitar). I take exceptional care of my guitars, but my Gibson is the only one that I keep in the case, not placing it on a guitar stand. I handle it gently and when done playing, I polish the body, polish the chrome, clean and oil the strings, and clean the neck and fretboard to keep it in great condition.

This is a great guitar and it is one thing to own it and another thing to be able to play it. And what I have noticed is that this guitar is much like our faith. A Christian can see the value in their salvation and realise that they have a relationship and connection to God. But all too many people don't recognise the personal value it has to them. They may see the price tag of Jesus' death, they may see the amazing things God does, but they do not own it and use it to it's potential. My Gibson is a very effective guitar in itself, but is laid to waste if left in the case and not played. Someone who has accepted Christ, but placed their beliefs and faith in a case to not be used, it is wasted. If someone does not accept their faith as their own, but rather the religion of their parents, they may abandon their faith altogether.

We must make the decision to accept Christ and adopt the faith as our own. Not because that's what our parents do, not because it's what our pastor preaches, but because we realise the value of our relationship with our savior and the amazing things God can do through us. But we must decide to take our faith our of the case and make it our own. In the words of Joshua, "Chose you this day whom you will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." He decided that he will serve God, making his beliefs his own. Joshua is the example we should follow and determine our faith.

The Pharasees of Today

Photo: Scene from movie The Passion of the Christ

Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
Matthew 23:1-8


Throughout the gospels, Jesus spoke several times about the Pharisees and quite frankly, didn't have much good to say about them. As we read through and see the descriptions of the Pharisees, we picture someone of high status that is corrupt, as we would see on the movie The Passion of the Christ. When we hear of people so hypocritical as the Pharisees, we tend to look down on them. We see them as a villain of a movie or time period that could never exist in our world today. Even non-believers condemn hypocrites.


But I want to think about something that brings the teachings about the Pharisees to practical light. Jesus primarily taught people to not be like the Pharisees, not because they were wicked people by the world's standards, but because they lost sight of what God's word is and what it means to have a relationship with God. Yes, they knew the Bible quite well, even prided themselves on having the Bible practically memorized, but they were lacking something.


As we see in the above passage, they knew the Bible, they knew what God commanded, but did not act. These were the leaders who taught the people as we see they sat in Moses' seat as the religious leaders of that time. They would be like today's pastors and were highly regarded by the people, I imagine. But as we see, they did not follow God's law, they took the offerings for themselves, they indulged on their own pleasures without regard to God's word, even though they knew it well, and even paid to have Christ crucified.


Do we not have this problem today? I think what we need to take from this is that the religious leaders aren't the only people who can become the "Pharisees" of today. What the Pharisees were guilty of is the same thing that all too many people are guilty of. How many people study the Bible, memorize verses, read Christian books, read through the entire Bible, attend church faithfully, tithe every week, and know the right verse for each issue? But how many people really act on it?


I know this because I have found that I have been guilty of this. I faithfully read my Bible, memorize scripture, and study the Bible deeply, and see what God wants each of us to do, yet seem to keep it to myself. God calls each of us to spread His word and to live in a way that honors Him. And I believe that the more we know, the more responsibility we have. God calls us to grow and mature as Christians, but that cannot happen without us being willing to live out His word and be the light in this world. He wants us to live a life that reflects Him and grow our relationship with Him. And I'm sure most of us realize this and have even known these truths from a young age, but how many of us act on it? I know some denominations don't even encourage to live out a righteous life and separate ourselves from the world. Some denominations allow a sinful life, as long as you continue to learn the Bible and confess every so often. But my question is how can someone study God's word and see that it is OK to live out a sinful life and still expect rewards from God?


We need to strive to be less like the Pharisees and more like the disciples who lived for Christ and, for some, even died in His name. We have two examples in the Gospels: one of a hypocrite and one of a faithful, dedicated follower of Christ. I encourage each Christian to strive to be more like the disciples and more importantly, like Christ so that in the end, you may hear "well done, good and faithful servant".