The Core of Faith ...

Monday, August 1, 2011. What is Christian faith about? What is the core of faith? We might be looking for a general understanding of faith at all … but when we have understood a little bit about it (or think that we have!), we still need to continue our quest and look for further clarification of our understanding. What is the core of faith?

What Faith can mean …

Faith has a broad range of topics, which are taken up by the biblical texts. It ranges from basic ethics to the consolation in suffering. It ranges from texts about the beginning of the world to its end. It is concerned with life and death. It is concerned with illnesses and with the challenges of daily life. It talks about marriage, about man and woman. Faith has a lot to say.

Jesus has talked about wealth and about poverty. He has talked about the goals and tasks we have to carry out day by day, but also about our dreams, about hopes and wishes and desires. He talked about a complete human life, about finding life at all.

Jesus talks about war and peace. He talks about the conflicts of human society, but also about the peace of our own soul. He talks about fullfillment, about finding the core of life, finding God. But more than that, he talks about trust and faith in God, about living with the eternal source of life, about being daily filled by him with new hope and new joy!

Go ahead! …

To find out about God, to explore the core of faith, we need to go ahead. We need to move forward in faith. We need to trust him. Without trust in God, there is no life with God. Without trust there is no life at all, just pain!

Trusting God is easy on the one hand, but difficult on the other. Just come to Jesus, that is always possible. It is always possible to pray. It is good to trust him as children trust their parents and usually confidently take, what they give them. Trusting God can be so easy, you can start it right now, where ever you are. You can always speak to him and tell him, that you want him to be in your life.

But trusting God is difficult as well. The New Testament is full of texts which all deal with this trust from one or the other side. Living a responsible life, searching more knowledge and understanding of all the bits and pieces of faith, all that can be difficult as well. To continue to learn from him, we need to seek him. We need to talk to other Christians, we need to read the New Testament and learn from others, who are gifted and filled by the holy spirit. ... more texts