Faith – Page 3 – Mark of Faith

Recently I was talking with a friend about a presentation that he sat through at his work. The presentation was from a secular organisation about how their workplace could be more environmentally aware. The two presenters showed a number of ways that my friend could recycle, reduce or reuse in the workplace. My friend raised the topic not because of the great presentation but because he said it was obvious that one of the presenters was an atheist and he commented “how could you care for the environment and not believe in God?”

I have sat with that question for a whole week now, “how can you care for the environment and not believe in God?”. If a person doesn’t believe in any spiritual being why care? I am sure that there are many reasons that atheists care about the environment but the environment shows so many signs of the wonder of God it is hard for that not to rub off on a person. But it also highlights that our beliefs system should determine our actions or else people will judge our belief system by our actions.

Before he was a federal politician I heard a talk by Peter Garrett, the front man of the Aussie rock band Midnight Oil. When asked which can first his care for the environment or his love of God, he replied that it was his belief in God that compelled him to care for the environment. For this environmentalist his faith lead him to care for the environment, it seem natural to him that one lead to the other.

For any person with the mark of faith on their life, it should be obvious from their actions what their belief system is. Whether you care for the environment or not, do your actions match your beliefs? Or like the atheist environmentalist do your actions seem confusing to others when they find out you are a Christian?

Sometimes we fall short in acting out what we believe, but if we never reflect on this then others will always judge our belief system by our actions.

Please leave a comment.

We often hear that we are living in “uncertain times”. Perhaps people use this term to refer to the economic uncertainty that started two years ago when the economic bubble burst. Since this time many economies have slumped, retails sales have dropped, property prices have flattened out and many companies have down sized. The landscape of many industries has changed forever after the record growth rates of the previous decade came to an end.

It is important to realise that only a week before the economic downturn, we were living in “certain” times. The economists were confident in their predictions, property investors were certain of growth and many industries were expanding their workforce. With the advantage of hindsight it seems that there was nothing certain about those times except that we didn’t feel uncertain.

This got me thinking, for people of faith are uncertain times really uncertain? Are these times any less certain than if things were stable? Perhaps we’re are living in a new paradigm rather than uncertain times. The economy functions a little differently, property prices may not rise and retailers can’t expect record sales to continue but could things keep growing forever?

In certain and uncertain times in our economy we can be certain that God is looking after us. Our faith gives us the ability to face all conditions because of Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). A person who has the mark of faith will be able to follow God no matter what the conditions or circumstances they face in life. The person marked by faith does not seek a life without difficulties because they seek a life with God.

Nehemiah – when he began his mission to rebuild the city wall, he faced difficult and uncertain times but he stayed doing the work of God.
Paul – when he began preaching in some towns they made him so unwelcome they ran him out of town, yet he persisted to run the race and fight the good fight.

So the next time someone calls these “uncertain” times, remind yourself that we are always certain that God loves us. As a person with the mark of faith, how are you being a light of hope in a world that feels uncertain? Feel free to leave a comment below.