Fighting Doubt

 

Although my father-in-law typically steers clear of religious humor (out of reverence for our Lord and Savior) he does like to tell this poignant joke:

Satan decided to hold a garage sale.  The whole neighborhood showed up for the event, of course.  Among the various bric-a-brac, there was a collection of tools.  Some were clearly ancient and well-used, while others looked newer and shinier.  Someone picked up a familiar-looking tool and took it to Satan, to ask him how much he wanted for it.  "How did this get in there?" he replied in disbelief.  "I'm sorry but this one is definitely not for sale.  Why, Doubt is my very best tool!"

You can actually substitute any of Satan's tools in the joke (discouragement, temptation, greed, laziness, etc...), but there is little... err... doubt that this is one of his best.

For our weekly Bible studies, we've been watching several excellent apologetics DVDs from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.  Last week, we watched a Q&A held at a secular university, and one student asked Ravi how to combat spiritual doubt.  Ravi confessed that he never had any doubt in Whom Jesus is and went on, instead, to address hypocrisy in those who profess to be Christians.

Perhaps he misunderstood the question (or maybe I did), but regardless of his own personal experience, doubt is very real, and we, as Christians, need to know how to recognize it and combat it before it sabotages our very faith in God.

The Bible reminds us over and over how instrumental our faith in God and His Word is in living according to His Divine Will.  When we begin to doubt whether He can help us with a problem, or perhaps whether He even exists, we distance ourselves from Him and become hardened to His calling and instruction.  We also forsake the power which He gave us through the Holy Spirit.  And without that power, we cannot live holy lives.

When you consider that the world-at-large has forsaken God, having thrown itself into the clutches of the devil, it's no wonder that doubt is knocking at the doors of Christian hearts.  We are surrounded by a world that denies Christ, and even professing Christians (some very prominent) show signs of departure from (and sometimes outright abandonment of) God and His Holy Word.  It can make us doubt our own experience, our own faith, our own hopes that are in Christ.

How do we fight it?  Through continued study of God's Word, building on our relationship with Christ and other like-minded Christians, and reaffirming His influence in our lives.

A popular slogan of the computer age is, "garbage in, garbage out."  Continued exposure to worldly messages that deny the Christian faith and even the very existence of God works like water upon a rock, slowly wearing it down, until it is entirely washed away.  Instead, put into your mind the Word of God.  Study your Bible daily, not just to read it, but to learn what God's will is for you and to understand how to apply it to your own life.  His Word has the amazing effect of pushing out thoughts of the world and putting in His own thoughts.

You cannot maintain a friendship if you do not spend time with that person.  The Apostle Paul says to "pray without ceasing."  Talking with the Lord builds your relationship with Him.  How can you doubt a friend you know almost as well as yourself?  Likewise, scale back your relationships with worldy people, seeking instead the company and fellowship of like-minded believers.  They will encourage you, and you them.

Lastly, remember what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and those around you.  Remind yourself of your own salvation experience and how the Lord brought you out of tough spots that you had no strength or knowledge to deal with on your own.  Share your experiences with other Christians and, in turn, listen to their testimonies.  It will reaffirm to you that we serve a great and awesome God, whose love for us knows no limits!

And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Luke 12:29-34).

Revering God

Some mornings I wake up with an idea so stunning, that it stays with me for hours, or even the whole day.  Sometimes it's from a dream, others it's simply my first waking thought, often put there by the Father of Lights.  I had just one such experience yesterday morning.

To show reverence for God, you must first accept the gift of His Son, who died on the cross for your sins.  You must surrender to Him and claim Salvation for yourself.  Anything else you try to do to honor, respect, or love God is meaningless, unless you do this first.

Maybe this is obvious to the seasoned Christian, but it was on my heart to write about it.

I read recently that in East Asia it is considered good manners to receive something from a person with both hands, even if it's someone at work handing you something as mundane as a memo.  It shows that you care about that person and appreciate the trouble they went through to offer you the item.  It shows that, at least for the moment, you are dropping whatever else you're doing and making them top priority.

What do we do in America if someone tried to hand us something, especially at work?  We either hurriedly take it with one hand (because we have a coffee mug, pen, or computer mouse in the other) or, even worse, tell the person to "just drop it on my desk."

If a solicitor calls or rings the doorbell, our gut reaction (if we answer at all), is to curtly respond with "no, thanks" and hang up or shut the door in their face.  But what if Jesus Himself came by, with the best present ever offered, stained in His own precious blood?  Would you tell Him, "Oh, uh, just leave it on the step"?

Suffering Loss

 Before anyone panics (does anybody even read my blog anymore?), no this is not our house, nor have any loved ones passed on. The Lord has been very merciful to us. But I do feel like I just lost two weekends (and change) of my life, and it made me think of 1 Cor. 3:11-15, and I thought I should (finally) blog about it. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.  I've heard some use these scriptures to argue that everyone goes to Heaven, after spending some time in Purgatory, or something like that. I don't think that's it at all. Leading into this, Paul is talking about missionary work, and the wood, hay, and stubble are teachings or doctrines that missionaries add to the basics of the Gospel. I take that and extend it a little further, into other aspects of our lives. Unquestionably, The Great Commission applies to us all. After all, everything on this earth has an end, except for our own souls. What other lasting work can there be, beside leading a precious lost lamb to Jesus. He is the Good, nay, the Best Shepherd. Next to that, everything else we do is wood, hay, and stubble. But what about working to provide for our families? Is that stubble, too? Well, I would argue that being my family's sole bread winner enables us to raise and educate our son (in the nurture of the Lord) and blesses us with a financial abundance that we can pass on to others. My computer skills, though gained through a world largely made of wood, hay, and stubble, have been put to good use at our homeschooling co-op. Ultimately, as Brother Paul points out, God's fire will be the true test. And on that day, everything I've ever worked on that has not furthered His Kingdom will burn. I will surely regret seeing it go, as many have before me. But that Final Judgment seems so far away, that I'm not really concerned... until I see something I spent time, money, and energy on burn up right before my eyes. Case in point... Several years ago, my lovely wife and I made a little video, starring our son, in which he did everything backwards. We filmed him getting out of bed, eating, playing, and helping me garden, and then we used a video editing tool called Pinnacle to reverse all the footage. It was a real hit in her co-op class of 7-to-9-year-olds. No, that's not what I've watched burn. Please read on... A couple weeks ago, she asked if we could do a sequel, for another co-op class. "Sure!" I said. "It'll be even better than the original!" We planned all the scenes and then spent the better part of a weekend shooting. Then, I pulled a near-all-nighter with Adobe Premiere Elements 8, cutting footage, reversing it, slowing it down, and speeding it up. It was fun, and it gave me an excuse to get serious with this editing software, for the first time. I spent most Saturday finishing up the video portion and adding some funny songs for the soundtrack. Things played well in the editor's preview window, so, on Sunday, I decided to try rendering: no sound! "Must be the audio settings," I naively thought. I tried changing those, but to no avail. "Ah," sez I, "it says I should use AVI if I want to keep editing it in Premiere." That seemed to work, except now part of one of the songs would cut out at some random point and I would hear nothing until the start of the next song. HOW FRUSTRATING!!! No problem if the sound is natively part of the video, but playback of music brought in separately was majorly flakey. I fussed and mussed with it, until I finally produced a DVD-R. We sat down together around 7:00PM to watch it. The sound was fine, but to our horror, the bulk of the video was nauseatingly stuttery! It seemed like every frame was the result of two overlapped consecutive frames. It was nowhere near the quality of the older movie, which was filmed under similar light conditions and with the same camera! Oddly enough, the few parts in the movie that I left running forward looked just fine. There was something about the footage that was reversed and saved to AVI that Premiere could not handle. 7:00PM the night before Farrah's class, and I did not have a video I could present. Do I cut my losses and just have her show the old one, or do I resurrect our old computer that had Pinnacle on it and try doing the reversing on that? Never mind that (1) I already had to set up and tear down that computer once that day, for a different reason, and (2) I had had to re-install Pinnacle a few months ago, and the version on the disk had some major bugs that I no longer had the patches for. I decided, instead, to try a different approach using Premiere. Big mistake. Here's the burn... It was midnight by the time that I could see the fruits of my labors. Not only did I not fix the stutter, but the sound cut out about a minute into the video. AAAAAAUUUURRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!! Farrah ended up showing the kids the original video, with the only new content being a couple cool logos I made months ago, and I ended up feeling like I just wasted several days of my life. There is nothing salvageable from the new video, as nearly all my work was done on the suspect reverse footage, that did not exhibit stutter until it was saved to AVI or burned onto DVD. All I can do now is vent and hope that I've learned something valuable from the experience. Yes, yes I did: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:19-21).
But seriously, I got to ask you, dear reader, do you know of a decent video editing software for Windows that won't make me rip my hair out???