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-======   ... ======
+====== Faith Today ... ======
-Friday, March 1, 2019.
+Friday, March 1, 2019. How does it work with faith today? Is faith fit for modern times?
+What is it we believe in a 'post-modern' world? Let us ask these questions - with a clear
+view on the situation as it is today in the world, in Europe, in the US, in Asia.
+Of course, if you ask different people this question, you will get very different answers.
+This is a common feature which connects our world today with the world 1000 or 2000 years
+ago. Over all the time humans have given very different answers to the question of faith.
+But can we say more on this?
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-** He who has an ear, ... **
+** Why believe in Jesus ... **
+Why should you believe in Jesus? Why should you be a Christian in contrast to for example an atheist,
+or an agnostic, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist? Why? Is it just your personal history which
+shapes the world view you have? Is it just a world view? Or is it more? Is it just a life style,
+something like a hair colour? What is the role faith has for us? What influence does it have on us?
+What is it that is changing?
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+Let us clarify one important point: faith claims to be the most important component of our way to
+look at the world. That is true for all faiths. Even atheists have the belief that their way to
+look at the world is the most correct way, the best way. They think this since they are convinced that
+there is no God, and that everyone who thinks there is a God is just wrong.
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+Christians, Jews and Muslims claim that there is a God. However, the Christians and Jews have a particular
+way to describe God, and Muslims know another God than Christians and Jews. Let me make one remark here:
+I consider the God of the Jews and the Christians to be the same. To be a Jew is first of all a question
+of origin and heritage. It is, of course, linked to faith - but you can be Jew and Christian at the
+same time, as soon as you come to recognize Jesus as the son of God.
+Clearly, also people who believe in God claim that their view is correct, since God is there. But faith
+is more than just the opinion that there is a God! Let us discuss that important fact.
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-** ... let him hear ... **
+** What faith means ... **
+We call someone a "deist" who thinks that there is a God. In this sense Christians and Jews and Muslims
+are deists. But they are much more, not only deists. A deist can be completely disconnected from the
+God he thinks to exists.
+Faith as understood in the bibliclal books is not just an opinion about truth. It is a personal way
+with the truth. You become a believer by putting your trust and your faith into Jesus. You believe that
+he is not only a God, but YOUR God. He is YOUR father, YOUR saviour, the center of YOUR life.
+The New Testament tells the story of Jesus, who becomes a human child, then lives as a human, then
+preaches the gospel, then dies at the cross, then rises from the dead and is taken into heaven, then
+sends his spirit to build the church. Becoming a believer is about entering the story - not just
+listening to it. Of course, to enter you need to be convinced that it is a true and important story.
+But then, you still need to enter yourself!
+Now, is it true? That is, of course, the crucial question. It it true that Jesus is who he claimed
+to be? Is he the one which the gospel claims he is? To find out you need to read the gospels and the
+letters of the New Testament. You need to check it out yourself. Only you can make the decision,
+since it is your trust which he asks for - not the trust of anyone else. You need to see whether the
+story of faith, of salvation, of truth and love and origin as told by the Old and New Testament
+is convincing to you. To me, it was and it is - and after I started to understand the message of Jesus
+I did not have a real choice,  I had to become a Christian, a believer.
 (Roland Potthast)
 [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/topics_collection_ix|... further texts]]