What is your faith?

I know and work with a lot of law enforcement at many different levels. Cops see so much... Many struggle silently with PTSD. It is a tough, tough job. There's one cop for whom I have a lot of respect. He's a tough guy... Chicago cop. He's also an unapologetic Christian. He boldly and proudly stands behind and owns his beliefs. Like many Christians on ATS, he catches all kinds of hell (pun intended) from non-believers. Here is his response.... I thought it was rather beautiful.

Very few things in life cause me to tremble in amazement, anymore.
No longer does the sting of a punch surprise or shock me. Nor does the sight of death or the miracle of life.
I rarely feel fear, even less do I feel excitement.
Truth be told, most of the time I live my days in a state of expectancy, where in if you told me I was either going to win the lotto tomorrow or get hit by a bus, my response would most likely be, "thanks...good to know."
That is why my Faith is more sacred to me than any concept of life that I practice.
When you inbox me, comment on a video, de-friend me because I talk about a man in the sky who doesn't exist to you, nothing will come of it on your end.
Nothing makes me feel the exhilaration of KNOWING my Faith is real.
There is no mystery in my Faith, no guess work, no surprises and no confusion. Unlike almost everything else in my life, Faith is the one true FACT that offers me chills on every single moment I am in it.
I can't "see" God. I cannot prove to you He is there or that there are reasons behind His ways, nor am I supposed to. I can only tell you that I know something to be true based on my experience and that it will never be your experience...and for that, I am sorry, yet hopeful.
See, my experience will never be yours and yours will never be mine. And when you spend your time trying to convince me that men have traveled the globe and debated other Christians and shamed them, my answer will always be the same...I don't follow men.
I am hopeful that you understand that God speaks to each of us in our own language. And although silly to you that He speaks to me in mine, you are too busy shouting at me that you cannot hear Him calling you in yours.
I am a man. I am at times a mess, a sinner, a hypocrite, a liar, a fraud, a coward... I am all those things that you'd expect from someone who turns to a God to solve his problems...and that promise of solution and absolution offers me more excitement and sensation of being alive, than any thrill this world could ever offer.
You're more than welcome to keep trying to debate, challenge, accuse, call out, point out, etc how flawed my Faith is.
The miracle of Faith is that the more you test it, the more it grows...and if you should ever chose, the more I can share with you.

The basic flaw in your OP is that you mention his belief system as a 'faith'. I believe that God and spirituality associated with IT is an active, experiential path that leaves little room for doubt or the necessity of 'faith'.

The more I tested my faith, the more it shrank, so I guess it really comes down to whether you were testing it in the right way. Ignoring contradictions and making excuses for atrocities is not testing your faith in those things, it is ignoring other possibilities out of fear of punishment in my opinion.

This is not to say his faith is a bad thing, whatever floats your boat I'm fine with it, as long as it doesn't interfere with anyone else's life I'm all good.

Though a person's faith often times does interfere with their children's lives by cutting them off at the knees before they have a chance to truly seek for themselves and come up with their own answers. This is a thing I have a problem with, religion doesn't allow people to think for themselves, instead they shove a certain perspective down a child's throat with hell being the main motivator behind believing it. That's not fair to the child in my opinion.

Either way, I can relate his words to my own faith (which is different than his), so I enjoyed the read. S&F

a reply to: CIAGypsy

I can tell that his answer comes straight from his faith. When he reaches the end of their journey, he will certainly pass on in peace and grace. He is blessed.

a reply to: CIAGypsy

The Holy Spirit is within you. Which is the message found in nearly all religious texts.

To believe Devine Perfection lives in you and to pursue the Perfection of Love and Reason will take you past faith into wisdom.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

I don't think YOU test your own faith. You either have it or you don't. Life can test your faith.... But you can't test it yourself.

originally posted by: Isurrender73
a reply to: CIAGypsy

The Holy Spirit is within you. Which is the message found in nearly all religious texts.

To believe Devine Perfection lives in you and to pursue the Perfection of Love and Reason will take you past faith into wisdom.

I agree and know the deeper meaning of those words....

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

In my experience, if your faith shrinks when you test it, there's a problem. My faith has grown tremendously when I have tested it, and even more when God tests it for me.

Faith is meant to be tested, just like a mind is meant to think.

a reply to: CIAGypsy

I was addressing what the guy you quoted said.

The miracle of Faith is that the more you test it, the more it grows...

A true test is when you take the initiative and start questioning your own faith on your own terms. Life can nudge you in a certain direction, but ultimately it is up to you to make the leap.

originally posted by: Metallicus
The basic flaw in your OP is that you mention his belief system as a 'faith'. I believe that God and spirituality associated with IT is an active, experiential path that leaves little room for doubt or the necessity of 'faith'.

Which underscores the true meaning of faith... Everything you just said is exactly his point. He has no doubt about the existence of God because of his experience of God in his life. This is why his FAITH is undeniable. It is as much a part of himself as his brain or personality.

a reply to: CIAGypsy

You can test yourself by facing and investigating areas that you dont understand, like the biblical flood or so-called biblical contradictions. Sorting those things out are a test of faith. Sometimes people are afraid to know the answers and what they imply.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Faith by your definition would mean that "true" faith is in believing that you are never wrong, even if it is only on one aspect of your faith.

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

In my experience, if your faith shrinks when you test it, there's a problem. My faith has grown tremendously when I have tested it, and even more when God tests it for me.

Faith is meant to be tested, just like a mind is meant to think.

I subtly disagree. I think the purpose of life is to grow spiritually and achieve ascension. In the process of that growth, you are faced with natural challenges of recognition and learning to overcome. Faith is tested as an ancillary part of that process...

I don't think God throws obstacles in your way to test your faith. I think God allows obstacles in your way so that you may grow from the experience of overcoming them. Faith is what gets you through.... Or doesn't. But it is your choice and free will. Not the motive.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: CIAGypsy

I was addressing what the guy you quoted said.

The miracle of Faith is that the more you test it, the more it grows...

A true test is when you take the initiative and start questioning your own faith on your own terms. Life can nudge you in a certain direction, but ultimately it is up to you to make the leap.

I agree that you can test your own beliefs. That process is different from testing faith. Or so I believe... Lol

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: CIAGypsy

You can test yourself by facing and investigating areas that you dont understand, like the biblical flood or so-called biblical contradictions. Sorting those things out are a test of faith. Sometimes people are afraid to know the answers and what they imply.

Again, I subtly disagree based upon my experience. Like many of you, I grew up believing in God, reading the Bible, Apocrypha, and other religious texts. We even debated a surface level interpretation of the Bible, as you mentioned. But my teachers simply indicated that one must look beyond the surface. What forest is hidden in the trees. So the focus was never a debate on whether God exists, but that God speaks to us all in different ways. Don't judge the experience of another because you don't have a view of the whole picture. It made you question and try to understand that which may look inconceivable. But your faith in existence never wavered.... Just your understanding

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Faith by your definition would mean that "true" faith is in believing that you are never wrong, even if it is only on one aspect of your faith.

No, that would require faith in myself, of which I have little. I constantly second guess myself and over think situations. Faith is simply what you believe based on observation, including and especially spiritual observations.

a reply to: CIAGypsy

Like you, I believe we are here for our spiritual maturity, but testing must comes two fold.

You must test your gnosis (knowledge) to metabolize it into epignosis (wisdom). This can come from life experience or by questioning what you know. Seeking the answer is an experience in itself. Once you have a level of wisdom accumulated, you are prepared to apply them to bigger obstacles that come unexpectedly. That is where the big growth comes from.

I believe God mixes it up. Sometimes He'll let things happen, sometimes He'll throw in a can of worms....or sometimes He'll even let you suffer the consequences of your own decisions.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Faith is not belief in what you can observe, it is belief in what you do not observe. At least according to common Christian theology.

Hebrews 11
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

If you have faith in what you believe, you believe that you are never wrong about what you believe. If faith grows bigger, confidence in your own beliefs never dwindles. You believe you are never wrong in that respect.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
Forget traditional theology and think instead. Why are Christians told to spread the Gospel? So that others can know by observing the Gospel, and based on what they know, they can choose to believe or reject the Gospel.

If you base your faith on what you do not know, then it will fail at some point of testing. Thats why we are told to learn the Bible, so that we may know it and be tested on it.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Heb 11:1"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. "

There is more than one way to observe. Spiritual perception is a form of observation the does not require any of the 5 senses.