Quintessentials (eBook)

Jeffrey S. Carlson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
406 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-3817-6 (ISBN)

QUINTESSENTIALS is a year-long, daily devotional that covers core essentials of the Christian Faith. It is written in a teaching style covering twelve themes over the course of fifty-two weeks. Marked by grace, humor, and candor, it is an earnest attempt to aid those who wish to learn something of substance that can affect the meaning and practice of their faith.

QUINTESSENTIALS is a year-long, daily devotional that covers core essentials of the Christian Faith from the perspective of a pastor with over four decades of experience. A vast number of Christian devotionals have been produced over the years. They have been written in a wide variety of styles. QUINTESSENTIALS is written in a teaching style covering twelve themes over the course of fifty-two weeks. Marked by grace, humor, and candor, it is an earnest attempt to aid those who wish to learn something of substance that can affect the meaning and practice of their faith. The twelve themes in QUINTESSENTIALS include: Reasons; Beliefs; Aims; Practices; Laws about God; Laws about People; Implications of the Resurrection; Perspectives; The Five Books; Pursuits; Last Things; Reflections.

THEME – REASONS

There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every [person] which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.

– Blaise Pascal

OVERVIEW

What does it mean to search for God? It means more than believing God exists or even having a religion. It means more than just holding on to untested assumptions or even finding beliefs that are supported by reason and evidence. Searching for God is a passion to find and live by the truth – truth that will lead you to a personal trust in God as revealed in Jesus Christ. It is the joy of knowing that while you have been searching for God, God has been with you all along, drawing you to himself by his amazing love and grace.

MONDAY (Day 1)

When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13 NRSV).

Have you have ever searched for the Great Pumpkin? The Great Pumpkin is a holiday figure from the Peanuts® comic strip. He seems to exist only in the mind of the character known as Linus. Every year, Linus sits in a pumpkin patch on Halloween waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive. But the Great Pumpkin never shows, and a humiliated but undeterred Linus vows to wait for him again next year.

Linus takes his mission to inform everyone about the Great Pumpkin very seriously. But few people join him in his quest. And those that do usually quit by November 1st.

We may like the story of the Great Pumpkin as a source of entertainment but if someone were to propose it as a serious quest we would likely dismiss it out of hand. If asked to give our reasons we may say something like, "This has nothing to do with everyday reality. The idea of sitting in a cold pumpkin patch all night is unappealing (if not ridiculous). And the consequences are insignificant even if the Great Pumpkin exists."

But what if we change the proposal and asked instead, "Have you ever searched for God?" How would you answer?

TUESDAY (Day 2)

It’s impossible to please God without faith because the one who draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards people who try to find him (Hebrews 11:6 CEB).

Most people believe in God. David Frost made his reputation as a journalist and television presenter known for his interviews of famous people such as Richard Nixon. One time he was interviewing Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the well known atheist who championed the banning of prayer from schools. They began discussing whether or not there is a God. Frost found himself in the awkward position of defending faith. Now either he was unable to communicate his reasons for faith or he had never really thought about the reasons in the first place. In any case, he got so frustrated that he decided to determine the controversy by a show of hands. He turned to the studio audience and asked, "How many of you believe in God or some kind of supreme being?" Virtually everybody raised their hands.

But just because a majority of people believe something is so does not make it so. The majority could be wrong. After all, there was a time when most people said the sun went around the earth.

What is needed is an examination of the evidence. But even if we arrive at the conclusion that there are credible reasons for believing in the existence of God, that does not mean our search is complete. The command to “search for God” is found in various places in the Bible and almost always addressed to people who already claim to believe in God.

WEDNESDAY (Day 3)

Prayer

We praise you, God of the cosmos, that you call all people to worship you and to fulfill your purpose in this world. We thank you for the gift of faith we have received in Jesus Christ. We recognize the great diversity that exists among the peoples of the world. For you have conferred your grace upon Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and others. O God, may we celebrate your goodness, seek your truth, and demonstrate your holy love. In wonder and delight, in humility and respect, we offer our praise to you. Amen.

THURSDAY (Day 4)

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder (James 2:19 NRSV).

Faith is not just a matter of believing God exists. Most people believe God exists. Ironically it takes a great deal of faith to believe that God does not exist.

Consider the case of world renowned philosopher Antony Flew who for nearly half a century was known as the world's most notorious atheist. But in 2004 he changed his mind. He says:

There were two factors in particular that were decisive. One was my growing empathy with the insight of Einstein and other noted scientists that there had to be an Intelligence behind the integrated complexity of the physical Universe. The second was my own insight that the integrated complexity of life itself – which is far more complex than the physical Universe – can only be explained in terms of an Intelligent Source. I believe that the origin of life and reproduction simply cannot be explained from a biological standpoint despite numerous efforts to do so…I think the origins of the laws of nature and of life and the Universe point clearly to an intelligent Source. The burden of proof is on those who argue to the contrary.1

It is not surprising that most people recognize the existence of God. There is more than enough evidence to persuade us of this truth. But for many people, believing that God exists makes no practical difference in their lives. As nominal believers they are indistinguishable from nominal atheists.

FRIDAY (Day 5)

From there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul (Deuteronomy 4:29 NRSV).

It is important to search for God because God wants to be found. But where do we start?

You could start your search by looking at philosophy. Then you would need to check out the nearly three hundred different philosophies from around the world.

You could start your search with an examination of religion. But there are over twenty major religions– each with at least 500,000 adherents. There are also a countless number of smaller religions.

Or you could start with the one person who has had more influence on what we believe about life, the world and God than any other person in the world. I am talking about Jesus of Nazareth. Yale historian Kenneth Scott Latourette has said:

As the centuries pass the evidence is accumulating that, measured by His effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet.2

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., was the director of the Human Genome Project. He is the author of the book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. His recognition of the limits of science and his examination of the complexity of living things led him to believe in the existence of God. But he did not stop there:

…a search to learn more about God's character led me to the person of Jesus Christ. Here was a person with remarkably strong historical evidence of his life, who made astounding statements about loving your neighbor, and whose claims about being God's Son seemed to demand a decision about whether he was deluded or the real thing. After resisting for nearly two years, I found it impossible to go on living in such a state of uncertainty, and I became a follower of Jesus.3

A search for God needs to include an examination of the life and teachings of Jesus. Such an examination will point us to a kind of faith that satisfies our deepest longings. This is a faith that is practical, time-honored, compelling, meaningful, spiritual and matches reality – in other words, a faith that makes sense.

WEEKEND (Days 6 and 7)

And last of all he appeared to me, as if I were born at the wrong time (1 Corinthians 15:8 CEB).

My mother, who knew I was not a morning person, took a pragmatic approach to try to introduce me to religion. When we moved to town she looked at the church ads in the newspaper to find the Sunday School with the latest starting time and it turned out to be the Presbyterian Church. So I became a Presbyterian because I like to sleep in. One of my favorite posters says, “If God had meant us to see the sunrise, he would have scheduled it later!”

So I went to Sunday School and went through confirmation and then I was done. I stopped going to church. I believed in God but could not see how Jesus or the church had any relevance for my life.

But throughout the early part of my high school years I felt like something was missing. There had to be more to life. By...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	29.11.2020
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
ISBN-10	1-0983-3817-0 / 1098338170
ISBN-13	978-1-0983-3817-6 / 9781098338176

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