Kootenay Unchurch

Category: Reasonings

  • Reasonings Chapter Three

    The universality of Trust

    All mankind shares a trust/faith process.  The trust/faith process is autonomic and constantly operating.  This process is as vital as a heartbeat; we accomplish nothing without it.  We understand this trust/faith process as learning.  This  process begins with everything we do for the first time.   To learn something we must first try that something to initiate this process.  Trust and faith increase each time that something is repeated until more trust is no longer needed, until you believe, then all future use of that something is done with faith alone.  Repeating in order to build trust is no longer required when you have enough faith.  We don’t have to build trust each time we add 1+1 or re-prove it, we believe it is 2 and have faith in that.  We only have to learn to trust walking until we believed we could walk and did so with faith from then on.  Progressing from this trust/faith process, to belief, is automatic with repetition and time.

    Faith in the Word of God uses the same process; the one God created us with.  Everything about the trust/faith process applies to the Word of God.  In order to learn any of God’s Words we must use it for the first time to initiate the trust/faith process.  Repetitive use will increase trust and faith until you believe, after which you have faith; all that’s needed.  Using the same Word of God repetitively initiates the trust/faith process with each use, building more trust and faith in the Word and its use until you believe and have faith, with no doubt about it.

    Matthew 22:36-40 provided me infinite opportunities for building trust and faith in His Word once God showed me how to find them. I fell in love with Him and His impeccable advice that became instantly available through His Word.  I wanted more and began using Acts 20:35.  The same process initiated, my trust and faith grew in these Words  until Thursday, March 28, 2019 at about 9:30 a.m.  I had enough proof and completely believed the Word of God, and received within me the promised Holy Spirit.  In the time it took to take one step down from the porch I was born of the Spirit.  I had gained enough trust and faith using only a few of His Words to believe all of them.  Each use required consultation of my heart where God has written His Laws, along with my mind for reasoning.  The result is loving  God and His Word with my whole heart, my whole mind, and my whole soul.

    KOOTENAY UNCHURCH

  • Reasonings Chapter Two

    Reasonings

    Chapter 2

    Reasonings or ideas, go along with the Lessons and are the thoughts that went into them.  I have struggled trying to decide which one is the horse and which one the  cart.  I wanted to introduce HOW we are going to begin trusting His Word but hope people use the ‘Reasonings’ at the same time.  The ‘Reasonings’ focus around many ideas churches have that I found so confusing it just causes more doubt.   They can leave you wondering how am I supposed to believe this?

    The answer is trust.  You can only believe someone or what they say, as much as you trust them.  Christians have developed enough trust in God’s Word, they believe and accept His Word even when it is beyond their current knowledge.  Non-Christians have not learned to trust His Word and cannot believe, accept, or understand it like a Christian can.  If you’re a non-Christian searching for God at church, you may be awash in ideas you struggle to trust or believe.

    Someone has to teach others how to begin trusting His Word.  Everyone has heard of God and His Word, sadly though only those that learn to trust it will learn from it.  So, just as the Bible tells us in Proverbs 1:7 Fear (old testament word referring to reverential trust) of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

    KU tries to overcome some of the things non-Christians have heard at church but don’t trust.  I don’t mean people mistrust His Word but if it is combined with messages only Christians might be able to comprehend it can certainly muddy up the waters.

    One of the ideas impressed upon in churches is that our faith must be based on the entire Bible and it is the reason they teach the entire Bible.  I can see how a Christian upbringing may help some believe this but for most of us, it’s an  impossibility.  Not an idea to build trust on. It would compare with having to trust math based on all the math ever known.  That is just not how we learn to trust things.  For me, a non-Christian, I have learned to trust His Word the same way I have learned to trust everything else in life; from the beginning and a little bit at a time.  Compare for yourselves things you have learned to do.  Do you have to be able to ride your bike in the Tour de France before you can have faith or confidence in it?  If you ride it only to school and not to the grocery store does that mean you don’t trust the bike yet?  Do you have to know all that mathematics can do before you trust it or have confidence using it?

    To say that our faith in God must be based in the entire bible is an irrational statement.  It does not come with any proof.  To say that our faith can be based in the entire bible is a rational statement accepted by Christians everywhere who would confirm they do not know the whole Bible.  This implies that their faith is not dependent on knowledge of the entire Bible but based on what they currently know, trust, and believe.  The statement that you can have faith in the entire Bible includes everyone in life.  The statement that your faith must be based in the entire Bible excludes…everyone?  Perhaps churches could clarify just what they mean in a rational way when they say this.

    It’s easy to see how confusing this statement can be if not clearly defined and how discouraged newcomers to God’s Word might feel.  Church sermons would mean more to people if they were rational, providing clearly defined proof.  The things to build trust in.

    Discovering how we Trust Anything

    KU encourages all readers to spend as much time as possible proving to themselves that their faith and confidence in anything, does not depend upon all the available knowledge there is  about a subject.  Proving this to yourself will also prove your trust in God’s Word does not have to be based on the entire Bible anymore than anything else we learn to trust in life.  In fact it will open the door to realizing your trust in His Word begins the moment you use it for the first time, just like your first bike ride.

    So, if you are searching for God at a church and hear about having to base your faith on the entire Bible please disregard this information.  Christians may understand this differently and prosper from the idea but, for anyone trying to learn to trust His Word and begin having faith, it simply does not apply.

    KOOTENAY UNCHURCH

  • Reasonings Chapter one

    In my blog I will be trying to wean myself off of spell checkers and grammar correctors.  God completely influences me and my writing so, if you see a spelling or a grammar mistake it will not actually be a mistake but one of those beautiful little features of God’s influence.  God’s Word is the gold standard.  So, there will be no mistakes, only features.  This may seem unusual but so is the KOOTENAY UNCHURCH (KU).

    I have found it so difficult to try organizing 73 years of life data on how I came to faith in His Word.  I, being of sound yet stubourn mind took 66 years just to get to where I began trusting it and even then, it was one step at a time.  I was used to darkness, the light was shocking, overwhelming,…tantalizing.  My first glimse was the very first time I trusted His Word.  That day is the second most incredible day of my life.  The most incredible day came about 18 months later, the moment I fully believed the Word of God.  At that moment I received the promised Holy Spirit within myself. It took less time than it took me to take one step down off my porch but it changed my life for ever.  The event left me with a mental image of a war zone littered with piles of smoking debrie and ruin.  I knew this represented all of my failed attempts at finding God.  In the middle of this scene was a row of trees that had fallen in toward the ruins.  The trees separated  the other side of this scene which was about as distinct as a snow storm in a fog bank.  It looked completely blank.  It took a lot of thinking over time for me to finally realize it was blank because I was brand new, no history yet, I had just been born!  Just had the best day of my life!

    This would have been a great place to ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after but, that was not God’s plan, it was mine.  His was quite different.  After about six weeks of being awash in God’s love I began recognizing old characteristics popping up from time time.  They were disturbing at first, but things worsened in a hurry.  My old self seemed to be comming back into my life.  I dug my heels in and refused to acknowledge it but hopelessly desended from the most high of my life to what would soon be the absolute lowest, the bottom.  I was alone once more; just me, without God.

    Why had I lost Him?  I loathed myself, and with unbearable pain, Him too.  After about six months on the pitty pot my anger had beaten the stink right out of me.  I was weak and left only with the longing to be back with Him, to fall in love with Him once again.

    In my longing I reminisced about my skyrocketing ascent to Him, a whirlwind of love and passion like never before, how could I get back?  I set my mind to figure out how I did it before and to get back there, in love with my God.  It became all I could think of.

    The KU will present my epic journey to faith in God and His Word.  Covering 66 years of life that built a mountain of doubt and how faith the size of a mustard seed grew in me, moving  that mountain from between God and me to behind me until the day I believed, when I was born a child of God.  From this most high place I fell flat on my spiritual face, wollowed in pity for six months, emmerged weak but hopeful I could get back once again.

    The journey is more than just the travels along the way.  KU hopes to present a path of familiar travel all will recognize as their own, but show the spiritual view opposed to the secular one we all plod along with.   This view is locked inside of all of us, written by God on the tablets of our heart.  KU teaches how to send your mind searching through these tablets for God’s viewpoint.  Since His viewpoint comes from within, you know you can trust it.  It’s the beginning of trust in the Word of God.  From trust springs knowledge, understanding, and faith in His Word.

    I mentioned early on about how difficult it is to organize 73 years of data and present it in an orderly fashion.  It was too difficult, so I have given the reins to God.  All presentations will be in perfect chronological order, written in plain English, designed to be the most trustworthy and faith building, and all arranged by the Word of God.  I will be doing the writing only.