Proof Not Required

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally a song, hymn or selection of poetry to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 42-43.

Opening Thought: I like what today's devotional is saying. It is hope laid out in a new way. Nick Vujicic jumps into the idea of only God knows His plan for you, in other words you can’t see the future so don’t assume it. When we lose hope for our life, it usually means we have lost hope for what is to come. Very rarely when I have met people with honest and good dreams, goals, plans, ambitions and most specifically positive expectations of what their future could hold,  are they also extremely depressed. Doesn’t mean people who have positive expectation for the future don’t get down, and in fact the thing is that people with positive expectations, without something to support them behind that expectations (i.e., faith), can be the ones who fall into depression the worst. When you don’t have faith to fall back on when your expectations for the future don’t turn out as planned, telling you that God still has a plan, then you have put all your hope into a finite expectation. That means you look to the future, have your hopeful expectations with a foundation that God is going to take you places if you let Him. It may not always be where you thought you were going, but it is going to be a Godly experience if you allow it. Together you have a potent recipe to keep away the negativity.      

The devotional begins with: 
Hebrews 11:1-3

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of the visible.    

Second Thought: There is a lot to this passage, it is an answer that poses more questions. It aims to define faith; it compares it to the actions of the ancients (historical Israelites found in the scripture and traditions of the Hebrew Bible). It poses a connection between faith and metaphysics – and the theological framework between God and metaphysics. There is so much here to discuss and dive into, I feel like a kid in a candy store. But for sake of time I want to play with the idea of faith. This definition of faith is broken into two portions, surety in what we hope for, and certainty of what we do not see. So, what are we hoping for? Well, we hope for God! God as the ultimate target in life. How did I come to this conclusion, well through looking at sin? The origins of the word sin in Hebrew come from the idea of missing the mark. You have a goal to hit a target, and to sin is to miss that target. Well why do you aim for a target. Three primary reasons: hunting (or sustainability), protection against assailants or predators (defense): for fun (re-creation / sport). In all cases we hope for the outcome to happen because it is vital to our definitions and continuation as people. When we are hopeful in a Christian sense our target is God, we are trying to obtain the most important target. We hope for God because it is vital for our definition as people, and to disregard that target would be sinful, to miss it. So, faith, becomes an ongoing hope to connect with the target of God. This is not blind faith; it is dedicated faith to something beyond or transcendent to us. The second portion tells us to be certain in what we can’t see. This for me is a nesting into that hope for that target. When you aim for that target, you begin to feel the fruits of this faith. Sometimes it is a physical manifestation, but often it is a spiritual one. You can’t explain it, but people who have had the mutual experience can often identify it in others. Our nature as finite being can interact with abstract and transcendent ideas, we begin to see truth beyond what is empirically measured. The best part is that it is a truth we do not even fully understand, we can’t it is too large of a target, but we can feel the target, we can know that target and we can believe in the target, because even though it is unseen to the eye – it is seen by the spirit.  

Continual Work: I have really come to enjoy taking my spiritual reflective time a publishing it. My words and articulations are not perfect, but it gives me a sense of practice of aiming at the target, plus I get to show others a fun and meaningful way to approach that challenge. We all need to aim at that target of God, faith is almost an awakening to that truth, that we must continually hope and strive in faith and action to that target that is God. Within the pursuit, if we sin and miss the mark, that is okay, God will continue to encourage you to try and hit the mark. Grace will pick up where faith and work fall short.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I want to give thanks to people who challenge me in my life to continually dive into faith – aim for that Target. You folks know who you are!  

Scripture time: 613 Commandments   

There are a lot of commandments in the bible. I see these commands as markers in history where people are navigating how to hit that target. Whether God gave all those commandments directly or humans formulated them all at the time as a result of confronting what they believe to be sinful, one conclusion is the same, people make mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes I believe of our current era is the idea, which gets painted in so many different novelties, that people are perfect; just fine the way they are. I think people have horrendously skewed the principle that all people have an intrinsic value (maybe put as a sovereignty and/or divine favour), toward an idea that you are perfect the way you are, you should never have regrets, your should never feel shame. I believe that the only way we develop as people is to recognize our limitations first, to identify where we have missed the mark. If a sports player never allows a coach to train them, which inevitably involves the coach telling and showing them how the are doing one thing wrong and how another approach is better than there first attempts, players would never improve. A part of faith and aiming for that target is recognizing that - some of what you think you are must be sacrificed in order to become what that target is preparing for you. Faith in action is humility at its core.    

Prayer Time: My mind is running to fast today Lord, slow it down. Let me find rest in Your Spirit of peace. Let me look for you through the haze in myself, allowing me to find myself deeper in Your Truth. Thank You for Your patience and Your Love. Amen.  

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Artistic Close:  When I was a child, I always dream about becoming a police officer, I thought I could with some authority and power make a difference. Now that I am a minister, I find the greatest different is to help people become aware of what they believe or don’t believe and encourage them to walk humbly in their pursuit of deeper meaning in faith. I didn’t know God’s plan for me when I was a child - that I would end up here, and I still don’t know what God has planned for me next but I believe His plan is there.