What to Do With Your Doubt
Read: Mark 9:14-27 I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief! (v. 24 NIV) I’ve been trying to give you a clear look at doubt. Now I want to help you to do something about it. What will you do with your doubt? You can accept it or reject it, treasure it in the spirit […]
The Body Is Weak
Read: Mark 14:32-42 The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (v. 38 NIV) Some doubt rises in our minds because of our human nature. I mean that in two senses—because we are sinners and because we are finite. Yesterday’s reading from Genesis 3 reminds us that the devil’s temptation was followed by the […]
The Devil Made Me Do It?
Read: Genesis 3:1-6 Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”? (v. 1 NIV) Does doubt come from the devil? Does he take our experiences of God’s mystery and turn them into doubt? Some Christians are sure of that, but in fact the Bible never says that the devil […]
Encountering the Mystery
Read: Job 23:1-10 If I go to the east, he is not there . . . I do not find him. . . . I do not see him. (vv. 8-9 NIV) Some doubt rises from our encounter with the mystery that is God. In Luke 24, the disciples’ doubt was a reaction to the […]
The Causes of Doubt
Read: Luke 24:36-45 Why do doubts rise in your minds? (v. 38 NIV) We are revisiting this story because it contains a question that must be answered if we are to deal honestly and helpfully with doubt: “Why do doubts rise in your minds?” I think it is a disappointed question. For centuries the people […]
Choosing Doubt
Read: John 11:45-53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life. (v. 53 NIV) Perhaps the most stubborn kind of doubt is volitional doubt, doubt that is rooted in our will. That kind of doubt hears Jesus say, “Go into all the world,” and replies, “No!” Volitional doubt is at bottom an […]
Species of Doubt
Read: Luke 24:36-49 Jesus himself stood among them . . . . [and] they were startled and frightened. (vv. 36-37 NIV) Yesterday we looked at how doubt can be the result of having a divided mind but can also be due to fear or uncertainty. So what kind of doubt do the disciples have after […]
What Is Doubt?
Read: Matthew 26:36-46 My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. (v. 39 NIV) The root idea of doubt is being divided. To doubt is to have a divided mind, a mind that is torn between belief and unbelief. Thomas was […]
But Some Doubted
Read: Matthew 28:16-20 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. (v. 17 NIV) Whenever I’ve preached on the Great Commission, I’ve skipped over those three words in verse 17, because I haven’t known what to do with them. Jesus is about to ascend back to heaven, so he gathers his disciples for […]