Chapter 21 - Doubts

Chapter 21 referred to 7 Bible passages to address the subject of “Doubts”, as follows:

Luke 7:1-10
Hebrews 10:19-25
Matthew 14:22-36
Genesis 18:1-15
John 6:60-69
Romans 4:1-25
John 20:24-31

Prayer:

“Sometimes we all are in need of praying as the father of the demon-possessed boy (Mark 9) who said to Jesus, ‘I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.’ Do not be afraid to pray in this way if it reflects your needs.”

Hymn:
The hymn for Chapter 21 was “Oh, for a Faith That Will Not Shrink” by William H. Bathurst. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

Meditation Selections:
The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Hans Kung, Georgia Harkness, Andrew Murray, Rainer Maria Rilke, James Stewart, John Powell, Madeleine L’Engle and Ernest Boyer, Junior. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
· “Questions of faith are not like riddles or crossword puzzles: with things of this sort it may take some time to find the solution, but once it’s found, everything is clear and simple. …With faith…we have, not human truth which men can state and understand, but God’s truth, which goes far beyond any statement or understanding of man’s. The faith never becomes clear. The faith remains obscure. Not until we enter glory will it be otherwise. …Doubt is the shadow cast by faith.”
· “To deny that God acts to give us moral and spiritual help is an implicit atheism.”
· “…I began to understand that I must lay aside all my efforts, and simply trust the Lord Jesus to bestow on me His life and peace, and He did it.”
· “…be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart…. Do not now seek the answers…. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
· “Jesus never argued for the validity of prayer anymore than he argued for the existence of God. …God was simply there…. Just so, prayer was not something to be proved by argument; prayer was there…. Did any disciple – Thomas, for example – have doubts about prayer, genuine, honest doubts? Nothing was more likely to vanquish his doubts than the sight of Jesus upon his knees…. The praying Christ is the supreme argument for prayer.”
· “In the process of faith, doubts and crises must occur. …We lose sight of the fact that faith can mature only because of these crises. …One thing is certain, that passage through the darkness of doubts and crises, however painful they may be, is essential to growth in the process of faith.”
· “…the Lord…knows our heart…and how easily we are inclined to rest in prayer as a religious work without an answer.”
· “For many people faith means nothing more than a set of beliefs to which they may either agree or disagree. …God is not a belief to which you give your assent. God becomes a reality that you know intimately, meet every day, one whose strength becomes your strength, whose love, your love.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 21 not quoted) mean to you?

Please post your responses to the blog site:
(http://lhcndeeperlifeclass.blogspot.com/).

Thanks for your participation.
John