Making the Leap of Faith

Monday, April 14, 2014    Making the Leap of Faith

1 John 1: 1-4

There is a phrase, “leap of faith,” that is attributed to Søren Kierkegaard, a philosopher who lived in the early to middle 1800’s.  Kierkegaard felt a leap of faith described the faith necessary to accept Christianity. I recall reading that this leap of faith is like walking down a sidewalk and you see a piece of paper on the ground. You pick it up and all it says is ‘God loves you.’ That’s all you have to go on to make a decision to believe God loves you. John begins this letter by inviting his readers to take just such a leap of faith.

When you consider the enormity of the infinite universe, I do not believe the idea of a Creator is that much of a leap of faith. However, for that Creator to desire a personal relationship with humankind, for that Creator to become a living human being, for that human being to suffer and die on a cross, for that dead and buried human being to be resurrected from the dead and live again, and for that resurrected human being to be God, . . . well the enormity of it all can be overwhelming. But wait, there’s more! This resurrected God gives an invitation to all human beings to come unto Him, and to live in unity with Him for all eternity. Now, the enormity of it all is truly overwhelming!

At the time John was writing this letter, there was a faction in the church who could not accept that in Jesus, God, had really become a human being. John opens this letter with his assurance that Jesus was most certainly fully human. John says that he saw Jesus, he heard Jesus, he touched Jesus and that he had, and is continuing to enjoy, fellowship with God the Father and His Son, Jesus.  He tells us that he wrote his Epistle “so that you may fully share our joy” in fellowship with God the Father and His Son, Jesus (1 John 1:4).

John’s ambition for us is bodacious, and yes, the enormity of it all is overwhelming. That just makes it more wonderful when you make the leap of faith into the life in Christ, and fellowship with God the Father and His Son, Jesus.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

• Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.