BookTrends: Belief Matters

We skipped out of Sunday school. We weren’t the first to do it, but it was a glorious feeling nevertheless.

Marc, Mike, and I shuffled toward the small lake at the east end of the church property. The lake was frozen over...or so we believed. In a display of boyish confidence and courage, Mike waltzed forward onto the ice without a second thought and began sliding about without a care. I hesitated, hearing in the back of my mind a little voice (probably my mother’s) saying, No, Peter. No! But in the front of my mind I was hearing a bigger little voice (undoubtedly mine) saying, Yes, Peter. Yes! Don’t be a wimp. Be the man—go for it! Somewhere in my mind a decision was being made. Was this safe? Was it worth the risk? Did I believe the ice would hold me? I made the decision. Both Marc and I eased onto the ice.

Bad choice.

What was strong enough to support one boy was completely inadequate to hold three. In an instant we were swallowed by the icy teeth of the dark waters, devouring us whole in spite of our breathless thrashing and frantic lunges for the safety of the shore and for air. The fight for life continued until we realized that the water was only about three feet deep (deep enough if you’re only five feet tall, but hardly life threatening). Our feet settled into the murky slop on the pond’s bed, leaving us muddy and soaked to the bone and with plenty of explaining to do.

I had believed; I had made a conscious choice to place my faith in the strength of the ice. But in spite of my sincerity, what I believed was false.

In reality, we were fortunate that day. Every winter, the Wisconsin newspapers are filled with four-sentence articles about F-350 pickup trucks carrying groups of ice fishermen that break through the thin ice and disappear in the dark. And every year boys venture onto thin ice over waters deeper than three feet. The drivers of the trucks and the boys in search of adventure believe the ice will hold. But it doesn’t. (And the parents of those boys suddenly realize that belief is often a matter of life and death.)

Wiser ice fishermen, on the other hand, also believe that the ice will hold. But they have something that the boys do not: wisdom and information. They wait until they know with certainty that the ice will sustain them. Many drive their trucks out to little ice villages, where people fish in huts discreetly crammed with easy chairs, satellite TVs, refrigerators, stoves, and enough beer to sustain a football team for a lifetime. Road signs and stop signs regulate the traffic flow down the ice streets.

They too believe that that the ice can hold them. And it does.

Yes, Belief Matters, But...

The accepted wisdom of our day says, “What you believe doesn’t matter as long as you believe it sincerely.” That is a lie. We would never accept that type of reasoning when considering non-spiritual things, and we have absolutely no reason to accept that idea when contemplating issues of faith. What you believe does matter because if what you believe is false, you can be as sincere as you want, but you’re really just sincerely wrong.

People in cults believe with sincerity. But is what they believe in worthy of their trust? The ice looks as if it will sustain them; it looks safe. But is it? The thin ice of false faith is, unfortunately, a harsh and bitter eternal reality for far too many people.

Brrrrr.

Belief matters every second of every day. It matters in the moment-by-moment thoughts that flow through your mind hour after hour. Belief matters in those obvious moments when important issues of life hang in the balance:

• A flood of negative circumstances rushes through your life. The existence of a good God begins to seem very questionable. What kind of a framework do you use to combat growing doubt?
• You hear a knock on your door. Two nicely dressed men want to teach you about truth...about salvation. Apparently using Scripture as their guide, they begin to teach you—but the things they are teaching don’t seem completely accurate. Can you figure out what is wrong? Can you defend your family and lovingly communicate why they are in error?
• A coworker stops by your desk and notices that you have a Bible verse on your calendar. She asks you to tell her everything you know about Jesus. Where do you start?
• You reach midlife. Nothing you are working for seems to be worth the sacrifices you are making. Choices are looming—choices that will determine the course of the rest of your life. On what basis will you make those choices? What do you use to evaluate your options?
• After years of faithful prayer and worship, the “God experience” is drying up. Your words and your songs seem to be going nowhere. Where do you go to start to bring authentic praise and worship back into your faith?
• Perhaps you are standing on the edge of a great compromise. Conflicting thoughts and desires are pulling back and forth. The tension is great. Where do you go to begin to resolve the inner conflict?

In those times—when belief seems to matter the most—where can we turn to determine right from wrong? Where do we go to test our thoughts and our ideas to determine whether they are worthy of our belief?

To the Bible, that’s where.

I know that this isn’t a given in our society anymore. Many people approach the Bible with skepticism at first rather than acceptance. Understandably, they give it a questionable look because they have been told that it is filled with fables and inaccuracies. Others have felt the bitter sting of Scripture being misused to justify racism, abuse, manipulation, and condemnation. Approaching the Bible with skepticism is understandable and even acceptable. Questioning the authority of the Bible is fine as long as you’re willing to investigate it honestly and factually.

Many a skeptic who began their investigation of the Bible with a cynical disbelief walked away with a dynamic and devoted belief in it. If you have questions about the Bible’s accuracy and authenticity, start digging and keep searching until you have solid answers to your doubts. Books like Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell are a great place to start. At the end of honest investigation you will find a document that is alive and used by God to speak into our hearts today. The Scriptures open windows of illumination that are ignited by God’s Spirit to show us things we could never discover or verify on our own.

The Bible tells us when we are on thin ice, headed for the dark and murky depths. Equally important, it points to a life of freedom and adventure. It tells us where, when, and how we are to skate about freely with confident abandon.

The Bible is the place we go to test our belief, and it also tells us about the importance of belief. The Old and New Testaments address the issues of belief hundreds of times. Here are just a few:

Everything is possible for him who believes (Mark 9:23).

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:28-29).

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31).

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Romans 4:2).

Belief is also the key that opens the door to the most incomprehensible possibility: a relationship with God based on grace and love (rather than fear and performance). God is asking us to step onto the ice—the type of ice that he has confirmed as safe and good in his Word.

I stepped onto the ice spiritually when I was four years old. We were living in England at Cedar Home, our small house on the grounds of Capenwray Bible School. While Dad was teaching, I was investing enormous amounts of time combing the verdant hills with my friend, throwing chestnuts at unsuspecting sheep. (Hitting them in the head with a nut was worth more points than harmlessly bouncing a shot off their fluffy coats.)

One day my mom whisked me into the car for a fairly long drive to the grocery store. We had time to talk—which was good because some of the essential truths my parents had been teaching me were starting to raise questions in my developing mind. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? How does his death make any difference for me? Why does Dad say, “This is going to hurt me more than you,” before he spanks me? How do I ask Jesus, a grown man, into my heart? (I couldn’t figure out how he could really fit very well.)

As the English countryside whipped past my window, my mom slowly and carefully walked me through the eternal truths of the gospel. Somewhere inside me, something clicked. It was all coming together, and it all made sense. In the store between the fruits and the vegetables, I grabbed my mother’s hand and said, “Mom, let’s do this!”

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“What?” she asked.

“Let’s get Jesus in my heart, right now.”

As my mother guided me, I inched onto the ice, nervous and unsure. The ice held, and it holds me still. God is ice like nothing else. Never thawing, never giving way, always firm beneath my feet though I often slip and slide.

My questions continue, of course. I often ask why, and sometimes I hear no answer. Sometimes I fear that everything at my feet is cracking and giving way, but it never does. When I am faithless, he remains faithful. When I am weak, he is strong. When I look back on that day in England, I know I believed. Today in Dallas, I still believe. Belief matters to me.