Christian faith is never simply a matter of what we think or believe, but who we believe.  The same is true of our over all world view — whether we are Christian believers or not.
No human being is born into the world knowing more than the next person.  All of us will learn just about everything we know from other people until we reach an age where we can begin to use the tools we’ve been given to try and sort some things out for ourselves.

I do not think that anyone should simply believe whatever the preacher or Bible teacher says.  What kind of faith is that?  If we simply follow the ideas, traditions and arguments of other people then we are no different than unbelievers who are trained (by the ways of this world) to swallow whatever their teachers, the media, and/or their peers have to say.  The pressure is always on to follow a crowd — either the mainstream crowd one of many offshoot “independent thinker’s” groups.

Any Christian truly unafraid to think for themselves will have little trouble believing what God is saying to us in Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit within bears faithful witness to the teachings of God.

The difficulty for most Christians usually begins when they allow themselves to be intimidated by unbelievers or so-called Christian skeptics who reject the words of God.  They fall prey to a popular idea (a heavily propagated and therefore commonly accepted idea) that no one who thinks for themselves can possibly believe what God says.

As though Christians are the only ones who live by faith.

The simple fact is, all people live by faith in some system of ideas.  Everyone believes something that they cannot prove for themselves.  We believe things about electricity, about gravity, about the universe, about health and success that others tell us.  Not one of us can possibly test or prove all these things for ourselves.  So we choose to generally accept certain ideas and groups of people as essentially trustworthy.

Much of what any human being believes is based on what we feel, what we have experienced, and what we have heard or read from other people.  None of us are totally unbiased, open-minded, or free of the influence of others.  No one is free of all prejudice.  That’s why we need help if we are to ever recognize and embrace the truth about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

I believe that the key to a simple and effective faith is to make sure we are exposing our hearts and minds to God’s own influence as much as possible.  We can become a much greater help and blessing to others by spending time alone with God, soaking up His good Presence and listening to what His Holy Spirit has to say.  The Lord Jesus will not lead us astray if we are willing to follow Him and to be taught by Him.

Jim