Increasingly in our Western society we are being challenged by the question “You believe in God, but are living as if He doesn’t exist?” its an intriguing and challenging question for us in our comfortable wealthy Australian society. A majority of Australians would profess to believe in ‘God’ or some sort of higher power, yet they ( and us!) can often live as if He doesn’t exist. That is, there is no difference in the way we live than the way those that don’t know God, lives
Our Connect Group has been studying a program called ‘Practical Atheism’ that addresses this very problem within the Western Church.
The bottom line of this challenge is that when you really know God and know what He has done for you, then you are in awe of His majesty, power and sovereignty, what is called “Fear of God” you then cannot do anything else other than to live knowing He exists. That style of living is living a changed life, one in reverence and awe of the One who has saved you. However He is not just your Saviour, He is also your Lord.
I spoke about this a couple of weeks ago and with apologies to our Connect Group will continue on this challenging topic in the coming weeks. I firmly believe it is not just something to work on, it is something that comes from a personal encounter with the living God. We saw the Apostle Paul have an encounter with Jesus on the Road to Damascus, he then knew the reality of a living God and his life from that moment onwards changed dramatically. There was no way that he could believe and then live as if He didn’t exist.
As we rediscover what it means to really know God it is my prayer that each of us will have an encounter with God, personally. It may well be a reencounter, or it may be for the first time.
When that happens Practical Atheism is not an option, it is not even a thought.
God Bless
Blair
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