John 14:6

On Friday night, one of my girls asked a question along these lines:

So you all put your faith in this stuff but it just comes from a book. And it's good for you, but wouldn't it be the same--would it be okay if I put my faith in, like, good luck, or myself, for example? Wouldn't that still be as good for me?

And the answer she received dissatisfied me. It was something along these lines:

I don't think God is concerned with the little things. Lots of people do--I have friends who insist that when they're driving and need a parking spot, they pray, and oh hey! there's a parking spot. I'm not convinced. I think where prayer makes a different is in big life decisions. Like one of the biggest miracles in life is from people who don't know God, turning into people who do believe in God.

Youth: But has it actually changed your life?

Answerer: Well, no, not me. You see I was raised as a Christian.

Youth: Has it changed any of your lives? *looking around the room*

Answerer: No, I can deal with your questions. I have known a guy who by following God did fix his life. It fixed his family life. He was having problems, but when he became a Christian that got better. Look, I'm going to have to end this conversation here, and let some other people ask questions.

End recount.

I'm not omitting anything, I promise you. If anything, I fear that I have actually added some flow that was not there in the first place.

It seemed to me that the answerer did not deal with these questions. So, I decided to take it upon myself, here. (I do already talk to this youth regularly about her questions, so please don't think that I'm just sitting in the back seat.) I don't really want to deal with the just a book thing though. I did a lot of reading and researching such things about half way through the year and I am convinced that the bible is *not* just a book (sorry, Queensland stoner lawyer) and that it (its contents, at least) is worthy of faith.

Jesus says in John 14:6:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Pretty big claim. If this is true, if there is no other way to the Father, then faith in good luck/yourself is pretty fruitless. Only faith in Jesus counts. He doesn't call himself "a" way--but "the" way.

But what if you don't care to be with the Father?

Well, there's a parable about this. Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
"Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'
"But they paid no attention and went off--one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man who was not wearing wedding clothes. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.
Then the king told his attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
"For many are invited, but few are chosen."

There are some absolutely encouraging things in here--for example, that all are invited to the banquet, good and bad. The king invites even the scum into his banquet, just as God the Father made a way into heaven for sinners, through Jesus. But there are scary things in here too.

The first is that those who outright reject God the father, who want nothing of his salvation, will be destroyed. There's not really anything more to it.

The second is that those who try to get into heaven through the wrong avenues don't make it, but are thrown out into suffering. The wrong avenues here are any avenues other than Jesus--so I guess that includes having faith in good luck or having faith in yourself, all that kind of thing. Jesus says that he is the only way.

These are pretty big claims the bible is making. Pretty big and pretty exclusive. If it's true, it's worth taking heed.

So then, the question of what you put your faith in is *not* a question of what you think works for you--but what you believe is true. I don't intend on this sounding Pascally wagery, so please forgive me for the brief slip.

If Jesus was a real person, and he was telling the truth when he said he was the only way, the consequences of choosing against him--choosing good luck or yourself, for example--are disastrous. If it's not true, it doesn't really matter.

But I just want to beg that when you choose what to believe, what to put your faith in, that it is not so arbitrary as what appeals to you/what you personally like. Please, search for truth. Even if you search through other religions--I am okay with that. But it's a big decision--so try and make it right.