Mark 5:17—“And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.”
Very good Saturday morning, February 22, 2022 -- I want us to continue thoughts stemming from MARK FIVE. I 'assigned' you to write about faith, based on your reading particularly of the demonic man. So, I wanted to add to the STUDY COURSE with a little talk on faith.
I have on my desk – it stays there – a book called "A Case For Faith,' by Lee Stroebel. It's one of my favorite books, so I keep it close-by. One chapter of the book is called "Objective #8: I can't doubt and be a Christian," the book organized by people's many objections to true faith. In this chapter, Stroebel, the thorough journalist, interviews Mr. Lynn Anderson, a Canadian preacher and scholar, about faith. Anderson had written on faith and doubt in a book some years before the interview, so Stroebel knows that he will be a good source to consult in his attempt to answer the question, 'Can I doubt and be a Christian.' You know, some of you reading this may have the same question.
For us, we likely know very clearly that doubts are a part of our faith. We know because, one, we see the many examples in the Bible of people who are some of the greatest men and women of faith who still doubt on a pretty regular basis; and, two, because we have seen doubts in our own lives.
In fact, as I skim through the names of people who most often share in our discussions, I get the feel that most of the names are of the readers who have had plenty of struggles with faith and confidence. You, I am sure, are a person who has had to stand toe to toe with doubt and worry, fear and indecision, and dig down to find as much faith as you possible could find many, many times in your life. I do not feel that people who 'have it all figured out' will benefit as much from these discussions. Now, that’s just my observations, but I feel pretty strongly about it.
You see, just in scrolling through the book of Mark, we see immediately a group of people who have it all figured out – so they think – and we see people who are in the 'wilderness' of doubt and fear: the demonic man, Jairus whose daughter lies near death, and the woman with the longtime blood disease. But it will be the latter group who readily come to Jesus, and they come because they have the greatest need.
—Faith a decison
In Stroebel's interview with Mr. Anderson, he hits on one key point that I think will help us in our own journey. He talks about faith being a decision. That may sound simplistic, but it is not as easy as it may sound. All through the gospels, at least two types of men appear: those who accept the Lord's invitation and those who reject it. Again, that sounds simple, until we stop to realize something:
In every case both groups have the same opportunity, the same evidence. The Lord does not give more evidence to the one who will believe than the one who will not believe; it’s just that the believer is quick, in most cases, to accept the evidence. Note, too, that the evidence is always sufficient.
—The cost too great
But men make their decisions, as they have all through the Bible. Remember Joshua, who said: “Choose you this day …” So, we pose the question, along with Mr. Stoebel: Why do people choose not to believe. Mr. Anderson’s answer is sobering: The cost is too great in most cases, he says.
Look over at John’s gospel: John describes a group of people who ‘believed not’ on Jesus, even though Jesus has performed many miracles among them, 12:37. But read on a couple more verses to verse 39 of the twelfth chapter, “Therefore,” writes John, “they could not believe …”
John moves from ‘did not’ to ‘could not.’ What a lesson: If men deny the evidence long enough, they, too, will take that short journey from ‘did not’ to ‘cannot.’ Remember how Mark records that thought in chapter 4: “For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath” – Did you get that? “ … taken even that which he hath.” Either the Lord is giving to us or He is taking away from us.
But why is it that people just reject what they hear and what they read when it is really easy to understand: Mr. Anderson says this of that group of disbelievers in John 12:
“In other words,” he says, “they made a decision of the will to deny the message of the miracles – the evidence that Jesus is God – because they wouldn’t pay the price, which would be their whole religious system being blown out of the water … And they had made this decision not to believe for so long that they had dismantled their capacity to believe. Consequently,” he adds, “at its core, faith is a decision of the will that we keep on making, but we’re given the option by God’s grace. We’re empowered to keep making it by his Spirit.”
You noted there, I’m sure, that faith ‘blow their whole religious system … out of the water.’ Ah, just too much to give up.
We have just touched the ‘hem of the garment’ here: But this view of faith really helps me understand why the demonic man of Mark 5 begs to go with the Lord wherever he goes, while the men of Gadara beg the Lord to depart out of their coasts – Mark 5:17.
I hope we have many more opportunities to pause as we have this Saturday morning, and just ‘talk about faith.’ God bless!
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