The Measure of Faith

God’s word compares this life to a vapor; like the steam ascending and disappearing from a boiling pot of water. James 4:14, "For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Life is ever so fleeting. After you have attained a certain age, probably for most 25 years or so, and when you stop to consider the temporal concept of time, it becomes obvious that life is fleeting. I can, for example, look back 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 years as if it were just yesterday. The sweet Psalmist of Israel said, Psalms 90:12:

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The billions who have come and gone before us are now barely a memory, and soon, if the Lord Jesus tarries, all who read this page or hear my voice will be the same. Unregenerated man will place all his dreams and hopes in this impossibly brief and disappointing life. God offers something better. This "something better" brings joy and purpose to the present, and certain hope for an eternal future. This "something better" is inherited by all those who have made a covenant with God by the surrender of their lives unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus calls it being born-again. If you want something more than this vapor, click on to "Further With Jesus," on this website for entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Romans 12:2-3:

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

MAN SAID: These born-againers are just a bunch of religious fanatics who follow a God that only exists in their minds, and reverence a Bible that was written by old, simple men.

Now THE RECORD. Fools discount the words of God, and do so at their peril. They clamor for truth, but can’t even define it. I once asked an individual who had challenged the veracity of the scriptures and said he wanted the truth, "What is truth?" He couldn’t define it, so it wasn’t likely he would recognize truth when confronted with it. It should be no surprise to the blood-bought that when the unsurrendered ask for truth and are given it, they reject it as ridiculous. It’s a matter of kinship; like mother Eve, like daughter; like father Adam, like son.

If it’s proof that carnal man seeks, he should consider this: all of man’s dreams, such as eternal youth, for example, his aspirations, such as reaching lofty levels of success, or his inventions, such as the supercomputer, are simply efforts to duplicate that which has already been created by God.

Craig Venter, founder of Celera Genomics, famous for the rough draft of the human genome (a fame he shares with his rival, the National Institutes of Health), is attempting to create new life in a laboratory. The purpose is to understand the genome more perfectly. Mr. Venter is attempting to copy his creator. Venter’s efforts remind me of the joke about a mad scientist who challenges God and tells God that he could create life as well. God said, "All right. Let’s see your stuff."

The scientist begins to lay out his plan and says, "First, I’ll take a little dirt..." God stops him and informs him that he’ll have to get his own dirt.

Be certain of this: all of man’s discoveries of truth will, without exception, be an endorsement of the ever present existence of God and his truth.

Could it be possible that science is beginning to catch a glimpse of God’s creative plan? Is it possible that God, in the original design of man, hard-wired him to function spiritually via faith or, as the word of God records, "as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith"? All believers understand, at one level or another, that faith is the only currency in the Kingdom of God. Beginning with initial salvation all the way to eternal life, faith is required. Nothing good in the Kingdom of God can be obtained without faith.

For years, academic unbelievers claimed that man created God and not the other way around. Their position was that faith in any god was a societal crutch used to answer the hard questions of what lies beyond this life, and that the IQ-challenged find the concept of God rewarding. The headline of the October 25, 2004 issue of Time magazine reads, "The God Gene," and the subhead reads, "Does our DNA compel us to seek a higher power? Believe it or not, some scientists say yes." [End of quote]

Jeffrey Kluger authored the article in Time magazine titled "Is God in Our Genes?" This is one excerpt:

"Even among people who regard spiritual life as wishful hocus-pocus, there is a growing sense that humans may not be able to survive without it."  [End of quote]

Kluger continues:

Nowhere has that idea received a more intriguing going-over than in the recently published book The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes (Doubleday; 256 pages), by molecular biologist Dean Hamer. Chief of gene structure at the National Cancer Institute, Hamer not only claims that human spirituality is an adaptive trait, but he also says he has located one of the genes responsible, a gene that just happens to also code for production of the neurotransmitters that regulate our moods. [End of quote]

Mr. Hamer does not stand alone in believing that man is hard-wired with a God gene. Kluger continues regarding research conducted by Andrew Newberg. He writes:

Other researchers have taken the science in a different direction, looking not for the genes that code for spirituality but for how that spirituality plays out in the brain. Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has used several types of imaging systems to watch the brains of subjects as they meditate or pray. By measuring blood flow, he determines which regions are responsible for the feelings the volunteers experience. The deeper that people descend into meditation or prayer, Newberg found, the more active the frontal lobe and the limbic system become. The frontal lobe is the seat of concentration and attention; the limbic system is where powerful feelings, including rapture, are processed. More revealing is the fact that at the same time these regions flash to life, another important region — the parietal lobe at the back of the brain — goes dim. It’s this lobe that orients the individual in time and space. Take it off-line, and the boundaries of the self fall away, creating the feeling of being at one with the universe. Combine that with what’s going on in the other two lobes, and you can put together a profound religious experience.

Again, Kluger writes:

Those religious believers who are comfortable with the idea that God genes are the work of God should have little trouble making the next leap: that not only are the genes there but they are central to our survival, one of the hinges upon which the very evolution of the human species turned. It’s an argument that’s not terribly hard to make.For one thing, God is a concept that appears in human cultures all over the globe, regardless of how geographically isolated they are. When tribes living in remote areas come up with a concept of God as readily as nations living shoulder to shoulder, it’s a fairly strong indication that the idea is preloaded in the genome rather than picked up on the fly. If that’s the case, it’s an equally strong indication that there are very good reasons it’s there.  [End of quote]

Michael Persinger, professor of behavioral neuroscience at Laurentain University in Sudbury, Ontario, had this to say on the subject: "Anticipation of our own demise is the price we pay for a highly developed frontal lobe. In many ways (a God experience is) a brilliant adaptation. It’s a built-in pacifier." [End of quote]

God created man with the ability to communicate and function in the realm of faith. It’s man’s choice whether he’ll participate. Thousands of years before man begins to understand the reasons why, God declares it in His word. This is proof that God is. Seek Him while He may be found.

GOD SAID, Romans 12:3:

3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

MAN SAID: These born-againers are just a bunch of religious fanatics who follow a God that only exists in their minds, and reverence a Bible that was written by old, simple men.

Now you have THE RECORD.




References:

King James Bible

Kluger, J., "Is God in Our Genes?" Time magazine, 10/25/04, pp62-72

 

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