In our cynical culture, doubting everything has become a default mode. For Christians who believe that being made right with God happens through trusting Jesus, these doubts can precipitate an existential crisis. Some Christians feel guilty for having doubts, but faith doesn’t negate the existence of doubts. In fact, the rhythm of trust and doubt is a regular part of any relationship, trust being the foundation of any good relationship, and doubts being the fuel for going back to the relationship to build up the trust in new and fresh ways. The same pattern holds for a human being’s relationship with God as well. No one - even the most devout religious person - completely believes in Jesus. Our prayer will always be, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” And just as in the case with any human relationship, these doubts in God should drive us back to God’s presence in his word and sacraments to learn in new and fresh ways all different kinds of levels of trust in him.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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We humans feel like we have the ability to make any choice, but the reality is that we can only make any choice we want to. In other words, humans are bound to their own wills - it’s not possible to choose to do something you ultimately do not want to do. Every choice to do something you don’t want to do is made because there is something you ultimately want more. We choose to go to the dentist–something we don’t want to do–because our desire to avoid the long-term pain of dental decay is greater than our desire to avoid the short-term pain of dental pain. A better way to talk about the way we make choices is to say we have freedom of agency: we can choose to do anything within the realm of our desires. For example, I am free to choose between wearing the green socks or the yellow socks, but I am not free to cut my feet off–it simply isn’t within the realm of my desires to do so.

The Bible insists that this is also true when it comes to one’s relationship with God. Our fallen human hearts do not desire God, or at least we do not desire God as he really is. And so we choose to reject him because it is our will to reject him, and we do not choose to accept him because our wills are opposed to him–and it is impossible to do something ultimately against your will. And so, if we are going to accept God, he must change our will so that we desire him. This work of the Holy Spirit, called prevenient grace, happens when God mercifully and lovingly draws us to himself, and changes our heart from the inside out so that we believe in him and long for a relationship with him.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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Different branches of the American church have different ideas about miracles - the more rationalistic branches of Christianity don’t place a high value on miracles, while more charismatic churches consider miracles to be a vital part of their Christian life. But all Christians believe that miracles are a part of scripture, and scripturally speaking, miracles happen all the time, as long as we understand that the line between “natural” and “supernatural” is a modern invention. Every part of creation is God’s, and he is intimately and sovereignly involved in every one of those parts. In other words, what we often think of as “natural” events are really miraculous, just so ordinary that we don’t notice their supernatural character.

In the Bible, miracles are a demonstration of God’s power. Jesus’ miracles are a demonstration that God’s power is upon him, and they lend credence to his prophetic claims. They do not prove he is God, anymore than Elijah’s miracles prove that he is God, but they are signs that God is at work in Jesus’ ministry, and his personal claims to be the one through whom the creator God is rescuing his world.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

Subscribe to the show at https://cacg.saintjamesglencarbon.org.

To comment on this episode, visit https://saintjamesglencarbon.org/cacg-ep122.