The Meaning of "Faith"

I hear this a lot from people that I meet every day and people out on the streets when we do street team events.  I grew up in church, and I saw a whole bunch of this from the church members − even my dad who was the pastor of the church. 

I remember when I was 18 and finally decided to leave the house. I didn’t go to church much, didn’t care about it, nor was it a conviction of mine to seek God.  “Finally, freedom!”  I would say to myself.  I went day in and day out for 2 years, with everything going right on the outside, but I was screaming inside because I knew I was going against my conscience.  I asked God to show me who He was because I was at the end of my rope, and I knew something was wrong.  And then, one day I met a guy who is a part of the YCRBYCHI ministry, and he preached something to the people in the church that I had never heard before.  It’s funny, because there were 30 or 40 people there, but it was like he was speaking directly to me.  I learned that God has a standard called the Ten Commandments, which I myself was not keeping.  I learned that it didn’t matter what everyone else was doing, it mattered that my life was upright before God, no matter how many excuses I had.  His ways are not like mine.  He gave me His Son Jesus Christ!  I saw that he had the power to conquer sin and to “create in me a clean heart, … and renew a right Spirit in me” (Psalm 51:10).  

Now I can truly say there is a God in Heaven.  I know this because He answers my prayers constantly, and as a Father to a child, He corrects me and chastens (disciplines; Hebrews 12:16-17) me because He loves me with the truth (1 John 3:18).  This is a mini version of my story that I get to tell people everyday when I see them.  

My response to the man earlier in the blog was, “Just because people are hypocrites and don’t practice what they preach, doesn’t mean that you should be the same way.  That is a lack of Christianity!  The problem is that you like your sin, and want to keep doing the things that you know are wrong.”   Needless to say he was offended, but I know he understood.  

We wrote a song called “Faith” which deals with this very topic.  It’s not just talking about it, but it points the finger at those who know better.  Let me ask you something.  How many times have you heard the Gospel and never turned to Christ?  How many times has God given you life and breath and yet you still turn your back on Him?  How many times have you said the very thing that the man said earlier?  “How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity?” (Proverbs 1:22)  It’s YOU who Christ is after, and it is HIM that should be your standard, not man.