Recently I enjoyed the privilege of meeting with Christian Medical Association members for a
media training session and discussed how people of faith can engage in public
policy—including on highly controversial issues such as abortion, assisted
suicide, sex, embryonic stem cell research, marriage and more.
My presentation to the doctors drew from the principles
outlined in my book and study guide on this topic, Faith
Steps.
The key principle of Faith
Steps is this: Receiving and
responding to God's revelation–by taking moral steps aligned with God's
principles–keeps our minds open to His enlightenment and our
hearts softened toward Him.
We all hold to a worldview--a
set of internal values and responses to questions about what's right, what's
wrong, and if there even is a right and a wrong.
The Christian worldview is based on the fact that God reveals
Himself and His principles to us:
a.
through His natural
creation and our consciences;
b.
through His written
Word, the Scriptures;
c.
through the incarnate
Word, Jesus Christ.
The Scriptures teach
that rejecting this revelation darkens our minds (as we reject the
truth about ourselves and our world) and hardens
our hearts (as we reject the living God who reaches out to us).
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| Rejecting God's revelation results in futile thinking and a hard heart |
The bad news
Romans 1:19-21:
…what may be known
about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his
eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made,
so that people are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as
God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking
became futile and their foolish hearts
were darkened.
Romans 2:14-15
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not
have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for
themselves, even though they do not have the law.
They show that the requirements of the law are written on their
hearts, their consciences also
bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)
Rejecting God’s
revealed principles leads to alienation
from God and others:
1.
Choosing adultery
instead of faithfulness shatters relationships
and families.
2.
Choosing to defy
rather than honor parents
removes the protective relationship that children and teens need.
3.
Choosing to be
selfish instead of helping others leaves
us unfulfilled and lonely.
 |
| Receiving God's revelation keeps our minds open and our hearts softened toward Him |
The good news
Romans 1 and 2 focus on those who reject God's revelation, the
result of which is wrong thinking and
hardened hearts.
The converse of this
principle, for those who receive God's revelation, is this:
Receiving and
responding to God's revelation–by taking moral steps aligned with God's
principles–keeps our minds open to
His enlightenment and our hearts
softened toward Him.
Receiving God’s
revelation can lead to a relationship with God and others. Examples:
·
Staying
faithful to your spouse builds love and protects children.
·
Children who honor parents benefit from strong family relationships.
·
Helping
others makes you the kind of person everyone wants as a friend.
Ultimately these steps in
God's direction, this spiritual preparation of our minds and our hearts
through the decisions we make, can lead
us toward a real relationship with
God by His grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, as we counsel friends toward God's principles and pursue justice and God's principles in law and public
policy, we are laying the circuitry for spiritual life.
Philosopher and theologian Francis
Schaeffer explains a principle that parallels Faith Steps in his classic, The God Who is There:
"The truth that we let in first is not a dogmatic
statement of the truth of the Scriptures but the truth of the external world
and the truth of what man himself is. This is what shows him his need. The
Scriptures then show him the nature of his lostness and the answer to it. This,
I am convinced, is the true order for our apologetics…."
 |
As we counsel friends toward God's principles
and pursue justice and God's principles in law and public policy,
we are laying the circuitry for spiritual life.
|
To read more about how Faith
Steps work and how we can winsomely and effectively engage our
coworkers and our culture on controversial issues, visit Freedom2Care.
