Trust
Dear folks,
I will be in Taiwan 14May-25May with our friend Wright Doyle, Director of China Institute. It will be my first trip to the China area, and I hope to speak with people concerning the hope we have in Christ.
Hope, trust, confidence and assurance are closely related, and I know you will all agree are necessary for genuine life. If you did not have hope you would not be able to live. Hope in God’s Word is a constant refrain of Scripture. This Sunday I will preach on Psalm 62 which calls on us to trust in God alone. Quickly, in your head, define “trust.” Did you think of the feeling resulting from trust or the actual definition: Assured anticipation; dependence upon something future or contingent, as if present or actual; hope; belief. “Such trust have we through Christ.” –2 Cor. iii. 4.
Actually the concept of trust is used in economics, law, as well as personal relationships. It is quite complex especially in finance, where there are listed many different kinds of trusts. A trust is only as solid as the one trusted, it is not the feeling that makes it sure, but who is being trusted.
Read over Luke 24 and see the demand for historical fact and evidence rather than experience and religious feeling as the basis of belief in the resurrection of Christ. Note what the two Emmaus disciples said to verify their belief in the resurrection. It is more objective proof than their heart felt conviction. Yet it was not until Jesus actually came and talked and ate with them did the disciples believe. Our faith is not just a rational exercise, but it is bound up in historical facts so that our faith has substance and not just hoping in hope.
I would like for you to repeat Psalm 62 frequently to yourself this week. Make it a part of your daily thought and consider who or what you put your hope and trust in. As Christians we must not trust primarily our feelings about Jesus, but Scripture . As the Apostle Peter reminds us: For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
See you Sunday,
Lee
