I Believe

Monday February 16, 2015

Being a Chinese woman raised in a polytheistic environment, I used to think that Christianity was a Western religion or the "white-man´s religion". My thought was, We Asians have our own gods. Later, as a young believer in Jesus, I still wondered from time to time if I had forsaken my own roots and believed in a foreign god.

Over the years, however, I´ve had the opportunity to visit churches in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and America. I´ve joined with believers across the whole world to sing familiar hymns and new songs of praise. And though worship styles may differ, I´ve seen that ultimately we worship the "only one God, the Father, who created everything" (1 Corinthians 8:6).

These experiences have helped me confidently testify that "I believe in GOd, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth" (taken from the Apostles' Creed). 

The Hebrew word for "Almighty" is El Shaddai. It means "the God who is over everything, the One who overpowers". He´s the maker of heaven and earth. In other words, His sphere of authority includes the entire universe.

I was once a polytheist - a person who believes that each race has separate gods with separate job descriptions for separate tasks. Then I became a henotheist - a person who believes that each god has certain sovereignty over a certain geography or ethnic sphere. But now, as a monotheist, I believe that there´s only one God before whom all tongues and nations must bow their knees, confessing that He is Lord (Philippians 2:9-10).

I know who I´ve believed in - the one true God. And I´m so thankful that He found me. I´m a member of His family with brothers and sisters in Christ around the world! - Poh Fang Chia

Read
1 Corinthians 8:4-8
So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols : We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defile. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

Acts 17:24-31
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not serve by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring'.
Therefore since we are God´s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone - an image made by man´s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

Question to Ponder
Are you certain of what you believe?
What will it take for you to have an even more confident faith in Jesus?

**Article taken from ODJ (Our Daily Journey with God) Dec 2014 - Feb 2015 issue