Living as an Overcomer

 Last Sunday Pastor Mike told us his sermon was going to be about “How do you have victorious faith in troubled times?” Then he asked us to read with him Genesis Chapter 1. My initial thought was, “How is he going to use this text to show that?” He then proceeded to show that this account of creation lays the foundation for developing victorious faith, and I realized that is true, even for an overcomer of atheism like me, because I now know the One who rested on the 7^th day. Knowing my Creator results in me having faith for the difficult time in life I am going through now, and also for facing these troubling times in the life of the Church in America that we are all going through. Thank you Pastor Mike.  

Genesis 1 is poetry that establishes powerfully the “what and why” of faith. The book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 3 summarizes the Christian’s response to Genesis 1, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. This establishes faith in a spiritual realm of things we cannot see.” In the Genesis account we learn that the Creator, who we can’t see because He is spiritual, reigns over all he has created, and that includes any other spiritual (heavenly) things as well as all physical things, which we do see.

Mike speaks of certain inaccurate ideas concerning the physical and spiritual realms. For example in Biblical times, certain Greek philosophies had trumped Biblical thinking by believing that anything physical is evil. For example, sexuality is necessary for reproduction but it’s still evil because it belongs to the physical realm. That cannot be the Biblical view because God created the physical realms and said they are good.

The opposite error concerning the physical and the spiritual came as a result of the scientific revolution. Naturalism said there is no spiritual realm at all, everything that might appear to be spiritual will eventually be explained by natural science. This view was popularized by a kid’s TV program in the 70’s. Rob Reimer calls it the Scooby Doo theory, and it claimed there is always a natural explanation for every happening that appears to be supernatural. This was a form of the secular humanist philosophy that held me captive for many years. It is not Biblical either because it plays into the lie that “Now that we have science we don’t need God.” According to the theory, scientific method is all we need, even to help us know what is good or bad and right or wrong in our everyday lives. The creation becomes our god instead of the Creator.

God never gave up his position of kingly authority, we did. He gave mankind the ability to do science, to think.  All science is doing is discovering more things about the world God created. When scientific experiments don’t go the way expected a good scientist tries something new, he takes a risk. God wants ordinary people to be thinkers also. That's what troubled times are for, but he wants your risks to be motivated by the love of God. The apostle Paul prayed that “…your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."

I hold up the record of Christ, not my own record but His. Amen.