Fact, Faith, And Feeling
Contents:
Lewis Faith Hebrews Mere Christianity. Got your site on a search to credit the "Fact, Faith, Feeling" Train. Do you know where it orignially came from.
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Dear Will, just found your blog while doing some work on a sermon for 1st Pres Hburg and was much appreciative of your good work here. I will look forward to reading further. Meyer wrote of just such years before in his little book The Secret of Guidance, Chapter 4 found on line at: Good to hear from you Lee!
Glad to be of help. And thanks for the note about F. Many blessings upon you and your ministry in all places. Thank you so much for sharing. Earlier today I was thinking about someone close to me who is a believer, they had confess to me that they had lied to someone and asked Jesus to forgive them.
She then asked me if He did in which I quickly thought of the verse If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Later the train came to me and upon looking for it I found your site. Thank God we have the Word to remind us of what God says… that is putting faith before our feelings when we look to His Word for the standard. A dear lady shared it with me when I came to Christ nearly 2 decades ago. The way she explained it was how fickle our feelings can be and we need to base things on God's Word not our feelings.
As we grow in the Lord our feelings follow. It's so awesome that after all these years the Holy Spirit brought this to my remembrance when talking with this lady. I never knew that C. Lewis also talked about the train. I will have to look into that book Mere Christianity. Dear Ruth, Thanks for your heartfelt comment with which I heartily agree. I'm glad you found my blog and found it helpful.
Lewis did not use the train illustration, but what he did say in Mere Christianity goes along beautifully with this illustration, I think. Popular posts from this blog C. Arthur Greeves In light of recent developments in the United States on the issue of gay marriage, I thought it would be interesting to revisit what C. Lewis thought about homosexuality. Lewis, who died in , never wrote about same-sex marriage, but he did write, occasionally, about the topic of homosexuality in general.
In the following I am quoting from my book, Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. For detailed references and footnotes, you may obtain a copy from Amazon, your local library, or by clicking on the book cover at the right In Surprised by Joy , Lewis claimed that homosexuality was a vice to which he was never tempted and that he found opaque to the imagination. For this reason he refused to say anything too strongly against the pederasty that he encountered at Malvern College, where he attended school from the age of fifteen to sixteen.
Lewis did not rate pederasty as the greatest evil of the school because he felt the cruelty displayed at Malver…. A Prayer at Ground Zero. Christmas Day Thought from Henri Nouwen. This probably is the most meaningful "crib" I have ever seen. Three small woodcarved figures made in India: The carving is simple, nearly primitive.
No eyes, no ears, no mouths, just the contours of the faces. The figures are smaller than a human hand - nearly too small to attract attention at all. That says it all. The light thrown on the smallness of Mary, Joseph, and the Child projects them as large, hopeful shadows against the walls of our life and our world. While witnessing the most human of human events, I see the majesty of God appearing on the horizon of my existence. You may not believe this, or feel the joy of it, but that does not alter the fact that it is so. After the peace was signed between the North and the South, ending the Civil War, there were soldiers hiding in the woods, starving on berries, who might have returned to their homes.
They either did not know, or did not credit, the good news, and they went on starving long after their comrades had been welcomed by their wives and children. Theirs was the loss, but their failure in knowledge or belief did not alter the fact that peace was proclaimed and that the door was wide open for their return.
A friend may have paid all my debts in my native village, from which I have fled, fearing arrest and disgrace. He may have done it so speedily that my credit has never been impaired, or my good name forfeited. There may be all the old love and honor waiting to greet me. He may have told me so; but if I still absent myself, and refuse to return, my folly in this respect cannot undo those beneficent acts, though it perpetuates my misery. It is a fact that the moment a soul trusts Christ, he is born into God's family and becomes a child.
There is no doubt about this. You may not feel good, or earnest, or anxious; you may even be conscious of a recent failure; you may be spending your days under a pall of somber depression; but if you have received Christ, and have truly trusted in Him, you have been born again, not of man, or of the will of the flesh, but of God John 1: You may be a prodigal or inconsistent child, but you are a child.
If you were wise you would take the child's place at the Father's table, and enjoy His smile. But if you still remain out in the cold, as the elder brother in the parable, you do not alter the fact that your place is ready for you to occupy when you will.
It is a fact that God takes what we give, and as soon as we give it. There is no long interval. When we let go, He receives. When we place ourselves on His altar, we are immediately sealed as His. When we consecrate ourselves, He accepts. The divine act is instantaneous.
You may not be aware of this, and continue giving yourself day after day. If you do, you burden yourself with needless anxiety; you continue offering what is not now yours to give, and you lose the blessedness of realizing what it is to be the absolute property, chattel and slave of the blessed Master; but your mistake cannot alter the fact that God took you at your word when first you made yourself over to Him in a solemn act of dedication.
Shall our want of faith make of no effect the faithfulness of God? It is a fact that in Jesus Christ we are seated in heavenly places. We cannot alter this. We may not believe it, or avail ourselves of all the privileges which it implies, or enjoy the blessedness of nearness to Jesus; but such is, nevertheless, our rightful position in the divine order. If we are united with Jesus by the slenderest strand of faith, we are as much one with Him as the loftiest saints; and where the Head is, there is also the Body.
In Him we died on the cross, and so met the righteous demands of the holylaw. In Him we lay in the grave, and so passed out of the region ruled by the Prince of the Power of the air. In Him we rose and ascended far above all might and dominion, principality and power. Is Satan under Christ's feet? In God's purpose he is under ours also. Are death and the grave for ever behind Christ? So, in God's purpose, we have passed to the Easter side of them both, and are to the windward of the storm.
As far as their sting or terror is concerned they are like the Egyptians dead on the sea shore. Has the great High Priest passed through the heavens within the veil? So, in the purpose of God, we too have passed from the outer court into the Holy Place, where we offer gifts, sacrifices, supplications, and intercessions for all men. All this may appear unreal and impossible, as the idea of being the bride of a prince to a poor Cinderella, but is nevertheless our true position.
These are the facts of the eternal world, whether you avail yourself of them or not. There are not a few cases on record of slaves starving in bondage because they would not avail themselves of freedom; and of noblemen living a hard and difficult life because they would not claim their rights! It is a fact that there is a share in the gift of Pentecost waiting for each member of Christ. He received gifts even for the rebellious. To each grace has been given. The promise of the Holy Ghost is to as many as the Lord our God shall call. Without doubt you have a share in that infilling, that divine unction, that marvelous power in service, which transformed the apostles from being timid sheep to lions in fight.
You may never have put in your claim, but there is no grace that others have which you may not obtain. All things are yours. God has made over to you the unsearchable riches of Christ. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, all the stores of grace and love and power which are yours in Christ, accumulating for you in the Divine Deposit Bank. It seems a thousand pities that you should live a beggar's life when such wealth and power are yours; but if you persist in doing so, your folly and blindness do not alter the fact that the fullness of God is yours in Christ.
These are some of those facts, made known to us in the Word of God, which will conduct us over the brook of turbid emotion to firm standing ground. Let us give up worrying about our faith, or feeling the pulse of emotion, and come to rest on them, assured that they are more stable than heaven or earth. If you want a true faith, do not think about it, but look away to the facts of which we have been speaking. We find no difficulty in trusting our friends, because we open our hearts, like south windows, to their love. We recall all their interpositions in our behalf.
I would like to venture a corrective explanation to the slogan "Fact! Faith! Feeling! " It's an old and common evangelical slogan. F. B. Meyer, A. T. Facts, Faith, Feelings - lesson 1 in Practical Christian Living, a series of life- changing free online lessons from David and Jonathan.
We remember all they have promised and performed. Where would be our difficulty about faith if we ceased worrying about it, and were occupied with the object of faith--Jesus Christ our Lord? Faith is more than Creed.
Lesson 1: Facts, Faith, Feelings
In a creed we believe about a person or circumstance; but in faith we repose our trust upon a person. We must not believe about Christ only, but in Him, as Livingstone did,when on one occasion he was opposed at nightfall by an army of infuriated savages, and was tempted to steal away in the dark; but his eye lit on the promise, "I will be with you all the days," and he wrote, "I went to sleep because I knew it was the word of a perfect gentleman.
Faith concerns itself with a person. We are saved and blessed by the faith that passes through the facts of our Saviour's life to Himself. We rest not on the atonement, but on Him who made it; not on the death, but on Him who died; not on the resurrection, but on Him who rose, ascended, and ever liveth to make intercession; not in statements about Him, but in Him of whom they are made. Many a time the question is asked by the inquirer, "Have I the right kind of faith? There is one simple reply, "All faith that turns towards Jesus is the right faith. It may be as weak as the woman's touch on His garment's hem.
It may be small and insignificant as a grain of mustard seed.
It may be despairful as Peter's cry, "Lord, save, or I perish! True Faith reckons on God's Faith. In earlier life I used to seek after greater faith by considering how great God was, how rich, how strong; why should He not give me money for His work, since He was so rich? Why not carry the entire burden of my responsibilities, since He was so mighty? These considerations helped me less, however, than my now certain conviction that He is absolutely faithful; faithful to His covenant engagements in Christ, faithful to His promises, and faithful to the soul that at His clear call has stepped out into any enterprise for Him.
We may lose heart and hope, our head may turn dizzy and our heart faint, lover and friend may stand at a distance, the mocking voices of our foes suggest that God has forgotten or forsaken; but He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself, He cannot disown the helpless child whom He has begotten, because it ails. He cannot throw aside responsibilities He has assumed. He has made, and He must bear.
Oftentimes I have gone to God in dire need, aggravated by nervous depression and heart-sickness, and said, "My faith is flickering out. Its hand seems paralyzed, its eye blinded, its old glad song silenced forever. But Thou art faithful, and I am reckoning on Thee! Do not trouble about your Faith; reckon on God's Faithfulness.
If He bids you step out on the water, He knows that He can bring you safely back to the boat.
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- One Mans Junk.
When an Alpine guide takes you over a ragged piece of ice, he considers whether, in the event of your utter collapse, he is not able to carry you through by the strength of his iron grasp and sinewy frame. What iron is to the blood, that the thought of God's faithfulness is to faith. It cannot help it, because it links the soul with Christ, so that the energy of His life pours into it through the artery of faith, and, as it comes in, so it must make a way for itself out.
Testing a Common Slogan
Fruit is so to speak forced from the believing soul. Why does the lark sing? It cannot help it, because the spirit of spring has been poured into its heart. Why does the branch bear fruit? It cannot help it, because the life-forces are ever pouring up from the root. Why does a child run to meet its mother? It cannot help it, because its heart has imbibed her nature.
So the believer, united to Christ, receives grace upon grace from His heart, and from the abundance of His indwelling his life speaks. It is not difficult to obtain faith like this. Put your will on the side of Christ--not a passing wish, but the whole desire and choice of your being. Be willing to believe; or be willing to be made willing to believe. Lift your eyes toward Christ. If you cannot see Him, look toward the place where you think He is.
Remind Him that He is the Author of faith, and that it is His gift. Claim it from Him, and reckon that in answer to your appeal He does confer this priceless boon. You may not feel faith, but you will find yourself unconsciously thinking of Christ, counting on Christ, going out toward Christ; and that engagement of the soul with Christ is faith. Be careful of the tender plant which has thus been planted within you. Give it plenty of sunshine. Live outside yourself in the consideration of what Christ is.
Facts Faith Feelings
Feed faith on her native food of promise, and let her breathe her native air on the hills of communion. Treat all suggestions of doubt as you would questions as to the fidelity of your dearest friend. Avoid the cold blast that sets in from skeptical books and talk. Be sure to live up to your highest conceptions of duty toward God and man.
We find no difficulty in trusting our friends, because we open our hearts, like south windows, to their love. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: The principle is this: After the peace was signed between the North and the South, ending the Civil War, there were soldiers hiding in the woods, starving on berries, who might have returned to their homes. It is absurd to consult feeling, or look for faith, while still at a distance from the brookside, or if you persist in going above or below that primitive bridge of stones.
Your faith will be in exact proportion to your obedience. Inability to trust almost always denotes some failure to obey. If faith is faltering, ask yourself whether you have not dropped the thread of obedience, and go back to the place where you lost it. Christian from Pilgrim's progress could not face the lions till he had sorrowfully retraced his steps to the arbor where he slept and had recovered his roll.