What this is all about.

It wasn’t too long ago that I answered His call and decided to follow God instead of myself. It was the best decision I ever made.

As I learned and grew in my new faith I came to a disturbing realization; I wasn’t very prepared to answer questions people asked me about God or Jesus or my faith. In fact I was quite scared of talking about it because I really wasn’t sure what to say.

Now it’s not that I didn’t or don’t have strong convictions and beliefs, but trying to put things into words on the spot is extremely difficult for me. I’m not much of a conversationalist to begin with (I’m quite anti-social in fact), so combine that with attempting to talk about a fairly sensitive and often misunderstood, often misperceived and very complex, broad subject, and you have a recipe for disaster.

I didn’t and don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to share my faith with someone, or ‘turn them off’ to God because they think I am just a drone who doesn’t know what they believe in. So I began to write down the ‘common’ questions and arguments I knew of that people asked Christians and starting forming my responses, trying to be as clear and concise and theologically transparent as possible.

If I have only one shot to talk to someone about God, I want them to get the most accurate and thorough explanation or answer I can possibly give. They should come away from the conversation not only understanding my response to their question (no, ‘I’m not really sure what he meant’), but also with a realization that I obviously know where I stand in relation to their question (no, ‘He seemed really uncertain about what he said’).

Keeping those things in mind, I began detailing my responses and carefully examining my beliefs and putting it all into writing. One of the great but unexpected results of this, was a new found clarity and solidity in my faith. It’s not that my faith or beliefs or knowledge really changed; I still believe the same things as I’ve written out, but in forming it all into structured words I found firmness and grounding in my faith.

As I continued coming up with more questions and researching them and detailing replies, I began to think that it would be nice to have these organized and accessible, to get feedback and responses and even some way for others to ask me questions they think of.

The solution of course was a blog on the internet! And here we are…

Full disclosure, I’m human, I make mistakes. I may misunderstand something and have incorrect theological views or beliefs. I’m not claiming to have all the answers or the absolute truths. I am only giving my views and beliefs as I currently understand them.

I’m open to correction and being challenged.

 


 

Looking for somewhere to start? Take a look at: What do you believe? Why do you believe? and What does it mean to believe?