Friday, December 14, 2007

striking the match of faith

Our natural state is not to know or to follow Jesus.  Our natural state is to follow ourselves and every urge we conjur...most bent on self satisfaction.  When we sing the story of Jesus at Christmas in front of hundreds, we can be relatively certain that a number of listeners have not experienced the birth of faith.  I was reminded that people have a "default" setting, something like the "default" settings in a computer program.  Many computer programs assume the most common answer or choice as the "default" and require you to key in information only when something is different or unique.  Something special...something wonderful...something running against the grain of human nature must occur for one to be born anew.  Faith is like a heavenly match that can lie for years in a matchbox, unused, until one comes along who knows the technique that will strike the match into flame.  The people all around us are like those matches.  They have potential for fire but are found cold and stacked among many other matches until the fire-giver comes along.  Perhaps we can become enthralled with the concept that the potential for eternal life lies within everyone and we can be used to strike the matches into the spark of life.
 

Exodus 4:31 So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.

blessings,

Rob Smith

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