Keith shares his thought from the week; living a practical faith.
I have a brand new pair of walking shoes. They look pretty good, unspoiled, brand new, and lovely. The problem is, I didn’t get them today and I didn’t even get them yesterday. In fact, I got them over three months ago. See, where we live, there are lots of nice walks. People have commented to me as we’ve met folks in the village where we are, how beautiful the walks are around here, how stunning the bluebell woods are, and how there’s a secret little cafe down one of the tracks. All of those kinds of things whet my appetite. And I thought, you know what, I’m gonna go on one of those walks!
So having returned from Africa and not having anything suitable for hiking down muddy country paths, I ordered these shoes for the job, proper shoes for what I was going to do. And these have proudly sat in the bottom of my wardrobe, condemning me every time I noticed them. I became the king of excuses; “it’s raining”, “in half an hour”, “I need to go out”, “there’s a TV program that I really want to watch” or “I need to record my thought for the week”. So today, I thought I would christen them!
So here I am, I’m out and about. I’m on the path and it is muddy and the point is this – the Christian faith is a powerful and practical faith. It’s a faith that is made to be used. It’s a faith for the outdoors, not just indoors, for out there in our community, not just inside.
Jesus told us in John 8:32
you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
John 8:32
What does that mean? He’s not just telling us that we’ll know something in our head. He’s telling us what they would have understood in the culture of the time. He’s saying something is only known when it is done. So you could learn something all your life, in a classroom environment, in a college environment, in a workplace, all those kinds of things where we’re nailed down in front of screens, but actually, until you’re out doing it, you have no proof that you know it.
Jesus is inviting us to know Him on a practical level in our daily lives. He’s inviting us to fellowship with Him. It’s the same invitation that’s given in the Psalms. In Psalm 34:8, we’re told and invited,
taste and see that the Lord is good.
Psalm 34:8
You know there’s a world of difference between describing the flavour of an orange to somebody and that person actually enjoying their first sample, the explosion of the flavour of an orange. There’s something different about being a theorist and being a practitioner. Paul in Galatians 5:25 says,
Since we walk by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit.
Galatians 5:25
What we’re being told is that we are to be people who are living our faith on a daily basis, experiencing that, knowing it beyond the classroom. And so we begin to discover that actually there is something more to the Christian faith than just being in church on a Sunday, worshipping with our brothers and sisters, fellowshipping with them, enjoying all of that. There’s more to being on Zoom calls in our home groups and in our homes with home groups there. There’s more to it than being at IKEA with the guys and at social events and the ladies’ events and the men’s events and all these things. There’s more to it because the Christian faith is not designed for the bottom of a wardrobe to just be taken out on a Sunday or like my shoes to be taken out on an occasional walk. It’s to be lived daily. It’s to be shown and demonstrated that those around us can taste and see that the Lord is good.
I pray this week you’ll find practical ways that you can apply your Christian faith in daily life so that you would know Him and that you would be set free in that knowledge. God bless you.
Every week one of our members shares a short thought aiming to inspire you for the week. You can watch previous Thought For The Week videos by clicking here.