Skip to main content

Extraordinary claims!

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs.
DR DREYFUSS

That quote is from a recent horror movie I watched 'Mama'. This came to mind yesterday as we were discussing with friends the sensational and earth shuttering Christian claim that "God lives in me". The world is certainly right to ask, 'we hear you, but where is the extraordinary proof?'

In other words, how is your life radically different given this extraordinary claim that "God lives in you"? We are after all talking about the One who called worlds into existence. The one who through whom all things hold together. What is happening in your life your life that lends weight that He has truly taken up residence?

Pondering these questions remind us that the truth of God taking up residence in the walls of our hearts is both comforting and troubling. Comforting because we have God's infinite resources at our disposal through Jesus Christ and we now stand fully powered by His Spirit. As the Bible declares : 
"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire" (2 Peter 1:3, 4)
It is troubling because in our day to day many of us, if we are honest for a moment, do not think God's thoughts after him. We have no yearning to know him more. He is a mere cash machine. We are not showing any sign that we are being empowered by Him to transform lives, plant churches, weep with the persecuted and see His glory at work! There's no evidence of this Holy Spirit enthused divine power. It is mainly theory - and no one it fails to persuade the world!
The scripture for us then is this one : "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realise this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs. St Paul like Dr Dreyfuss rightly acknowledge the importance of empirical proof! Christian faith is not blind faith. It is faith based on what we know and see God doing in our lives. And if we don't see it we must test and see where we truly stand. Are we everyday becoming more and more like the God we claim lives in us? In word, thought and deed?

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Shame of Worldly Joy

Only a Christian can be joyful and wise at the same time, because all other people either rejoice about things that they should be ashamed of (Philippians 3:19) or things that will disappear. A Christian is not ashamed of his joy, because he is not joyful about something shameful. That is why the Apostle Paul in [2 Corinthians 1:12] defends his joy. He says, I don’t care if everyone knows what makes me happy, because it is the ‘testimony of my conscience.’ He means, let other people can be happy about base pleasures that they are afraid to admit; let other people rejoice in riches, fame, or popularity; they can be happy about whatever they want, but my joy is different. ‘I rejoice because of my conscience.’ A Christian has a happiness that he can stand by and prove. No one else can do that. They will feel embarrassed and guilty if their happiness is found in something that is outside of themselves. They cannot say, ‘this is what makes me happy’. But a Christian has the approval of his ...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Incarnation and Modernity

[The Bible] resituate modernity's prejudices within a wider context from which they were originally wrenched, showing them to be reductive heresies of a more complex biblical reality. So whereas modernity privileges an unchanging a-historicity, in the incarnation God enters history at a particular moment to gather a people to be with him not in a Greck eternity of unchanging timelessness, but in a biblical eternity of never-ending and ever-renewed intimacy and relational richness. Whereas modernity subordinates the particular to the universal, the Bible perfectly marries the universal "image of the invisible God" together with a particular first-century Palestinian Jewish man. Whereas modernity seeks the abstract over the material and finds itself painfully akimbo between the twin idols of materialism and immaterialism, in the same gesture the incarnate Christ validates material reality and prevents his followers from ever worshipping it. Finally, whereas modernity secks ...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Jesus Never Fails

Many a times in my life, the words of this childhood hymn has been a tremendous encouragement. I pray this may encourage you too. Keep looking to Jesus! Jesus never fails, Jesus never fails The man of the world will let you down, but Jesus never fails. Your mother will let you down Your father will let you down The man of the world will let you down, but Jesus never fails. Your husband will let you down Your wife will let you down The man of the world will let you down, but Jesus never fails Your brothers will let you down Your sisters-will let you down The man of the world will let you down, but Jesus never fails Your church will let you down Your work will let you down The man of the world will let you down, but Jesus never fails Your friends will let you down Your country will let you down The man of the world will let you down, but Jesus never fails Your wealth will let you down Your health will let you down The man of the world ...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →