How do I know He was the sinless Son of God? How do I know that God sent Him? How do I know that He actually died on that cross and took my sin? Thank God I don't have to depend on somebody's argument. The Holy Spirit of God is here to make that real in my heart. You see, God gave us the work of Christ. But to make the work of Christ—the water and the blood—real to us, He gave us the Spirit. Since we believe the witness of men. All of us believe the witness of men. One night I was in Augusta, Georgia, preaching at a missions conference. The next morning I went to the airport and flew back to Memphis.
In order to do this, I had to exercise faith in an airplane pilot I didn't know. I never saw his credentials. I never saw him fly before. But Delta Airlines put its stamp of approval on this man, so I just got on the plane and never thought too much about it. We accept the witness of men. Before I went to the airport, I had breakfast in a restaurant. How did I know the food was not poisoned? I had faith in that lady who served it. We receive the witness of men. When your doctor writes you a prescription, you look at it, and although you can't read it, pronounce it, or understand it, you give it to a pharmacist who puts pills in a bottle.
Then, without a second thought, you take them home and swallow them. In the same way, through faith we receive the witness of God through the Spirit that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead for our sanctification. There is, therefore, no excuse for not believing. The Bible promises that the Holy Spirit will help anyone to believe who wants to believe. First the Spirit witnesses to us; then He witnesses in us. Before I got saved, He witnessed to me.
He told me what Christ did is true. Now He witnesses in me. I have the witness in myself. Suppose I am enjoying myself by eating a piece of apple pie, and you come to me and say, "There is no such thing as apple pie. I don't believe in apple pie. And if there is apple pie, it is no good.
Despite your arguments, I have the witness within me. I have the witness on the inside. A Christian with a testimony is never at the mercy of an unbeliever with an argument, because he has the witness in himself. Here is the basis of our belief. Here is the reason for our certainty. We are not just gullible fools. He came by water and blood. The Holy Spirit of God says yes, that is true. It is all attested by the Word of God. To doubt the Bible is to call God a liar. Some say, "Well, I'm trying to believe.
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Either this is His Word—His inerrant, infallible Word—or it is not. And the work of Christ, the witness of the Spirit, and the Word of God all say it is. It is fact, a matter of record. Let me give you another example. Suppose I am in a courtroom, and the judge says to me, "Mr.
Rogers, are you married?
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You see, I was there in the church, and I saw Joyce coming down the aisle. My heart got all twitterpated, and I was so happy. Your honor, it's the most wonderful feeling in the world to be married. When I'm finished, the judge will say, "I'm sorry. While I am glad you feel that way, your feelings are not evidence in this courtroom. Do you have some proof? Then I go down to the courthouse.
And I get that document, notarized, signed, and sealed, and I bring it before the judge. And he accepts my marriage as proven fact. My salvation does not hinge on my emotions. I have an official record. I have the Word of God: One night while out soul-winning, I asked a man if he wanted to receive Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.
After we prayed together, I said, "Now, sir, I want to give you your spiritual birth certificate. We started to read it through again. Then I told him, "It's Jesus who is speaking. Do you believe this?
I said, "Let's read it again. Again, he answered yes to every question except the last. Again, he said, "Well, I hope so. This time, when I asked him if he had everlasting life, the light went on inside. That is the basis of your belief. That's the source of your certainty. Isn't it better to have God's Word than Adrian's or your neighbor's or your opinions, emotions, wishes, or whims?
In addition to the root of our belief, we need only look at the fruit of our behavior to know whether or not we are truly saved. What has Jesus done in me? Is this all just some intellectual exercise, or has there been a change? The Apostle John is very practical here. He shows us how our salvation ought to show up in our behavior, and he gives three tests.
I wonder if John had been in a testimony meeting where somebody was bragging about being saved—saying he was, but his walk and his talk did not get together. If you say you are saved, it is absolutely going to show up in your life. You are going to be keeping the commandments of God. You do not keep the commandments of God in order to be saved; you keep the commandments of God because you are saved. This presents a serious problem, because not one of us has always kept all of God's commandments. I haven't since I've been saved, and you haven't since you've been saved.
Yet the Bible says that we know we are in Him in that we keep His commandments. Both the problem and the solution are found in the word keep. It is actually a mariner's word. Our brain uses a few simple tricks to pick out the bits of information that are most likely going to be useful in some way. The world is very confusing, and we end up only seeing a tiny sliver of it, but we need to make some sense of it in order to survive.
Once the reduced stream of information comes in, we connect the dots, fill in the gaps with stuff we already think we know, and update our mental models of the world. Without the ability to act fast in the face of uncertainty, we surely would have perished as a species long ago. With every piece of new information, we need to do our best to assess our ability to affect the situation, apply it to decisions, simulate the future to predict what might happen next, and otherwise act on our new insight.
We can only afford to keep around the bits that are most likely to prove useful in the future.
We need to make constant bets and trade-offs around what we try to remember and what we forget. For example, we prefer generalizations over specifics because they take up less space. When there are lots of irreducible details, we pick out a few standout items to save and discard the rest.
In order to avoid drowning in information overload , our brains need to skim and filter insane amounts of information and quickly, almost effortlessly, decide which few things in that firehose are actually important and call those out. In order to construct meaning out of the bits and pieces of information that come to our attention, we need to fill in the gaps, and map it all to our existing mental models.
In the meantime we also need to make sure that it all stays relatively stable and as accurate as possible. In order to act fast , our brains need to make split-second decisions that could impact our chances for survival, security, or success, and feel confident that we can make things happen. And in order to keep doing all of this as efficiently as possible, our brains need to remember the most important and useful bits of new information and inform the other systems so they can adapt and improve over time, but no more than that.
In addition to the four problems, it would be useful to remember these four truths about how our solutions to these problems have problems of their own:. Cognitive biases are just tools, useful in the right contexts, harmful in others. We might as well get familiar with them and even appreciate that we at least have some ability to process the universe with our mysterious brains.
If you feel so inclined, you can buy a poster-version of the above image here. If you want to play around with the data in JSON format, you can do that here. To get notifications about future posts and cognitive bias-related news, sign up here. Sign in Get started. Information overload, lack of meaning, the need to act fast, and how to know what needs to be remembered for later. We notice things that are already primed in memory or repeated often.
Our brains tend to boost the importance of things that are unusual or surprising. Alternatively, we tend to skip over information that we think is ordinary or expected. Bizarreness effect, Humor effect , Von Restorff effect , Picture superiority effect , Self-relevance effect , Negativity bias We notice when something has changed. Try to get involved in your local church's mission trips, whether they are around the world, national, or local. If your church does not have these types of trips, you could bring the idea to the congregation.
Inviting your friends to church or youth group are great ideas too. Dedicate yourself to God, and show this by always staying happy and cheerful and giving what you can to the group. You could go on a mission trip to a local college or high school and help out staff with some church friends and talk about Jesus to anyone willing to listen. Be open about your faith and principles.
At times, this might be very difficult. You might feel like the only Christian youth around who is open about faith. Actively develop your relationship with Christ. Get out and interact with people and develop relationships. In order to change people's hearts, you first need to interact with them.
Be as outward as possible about your faith. You could wear shirts that spark conversations. Stand up for and voice your moral beliefs. You can do this in a way that sounds positive, not negative. Be willing to stand up for what you believe in. Be a witness to what God has done for you as a Christian. A lot of young people have some, little, or absolutely no faith in God whatsoever.
Barack Obama's farewell speech in full: annotated
By being walking proof about what the word has to offer, you are making a difference somewhere. Give back by volunteering your time. You could help the homeless, take care of an elderly or disabled person, or work at an animal shelter. Help at your church, school, and in your home too.
You can also give back in smaller ways by simply being a positive force in your environment. Help classmates with schoolwork out of class, for example. You can organize park cleanups or volunteer for blood drives. Basically just volunteer to help your church. It could be something as simple as holding the door for people visiting your church. You could offer to clean up after the services. Share your faith if you think it will help others. The important thing to remember is that simply letting people know you are a Christian can sometimes be enough as long as you are happy and friendly and don't force anything down anyone's throat.
However, understand that being a Christian is not about beating out other religions. Christianity is a peaceful and loving religion. Learn to love the people around you for who they are and that you cannot change them by shoving a Bible down their throat. If you want to show how Christianity has made you a better person, be kind to those around you regardless of their beliefs. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Already answered Not a question Bad question Other. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube.
Tips Do not ever be discouraged about what others say. Be firm in your beliefs. Try listening to Christian music and reading Christian books. To make a difference in other peoples' lives, first change yours. If you aren't centered in God and if you don't understand your own faith, it will be harder to make a difference. If you aren't sure how to pray, just try talking to God about what is troubling you. If you ever feel distant from God, try to spend time praying or contemplating God in a quiet room with no distractions. Did you try these steps? Upload a picture for other readers to see.
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