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I was watching a rerun of an old television series recently and laughed when I heard the familiar tune: “School Days” written by Will Cobb and Gus Edwards. The chorus goes like this:
“School days, school days
Dear old golden rule days
Readin’ and ‘ritin’ and rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hickory stick
I know them as the three R’s. They were and still are the basics of a good education. To read is to begin to understand. To write is vital to communication. To figure out sums causes us to ponder and think things through. Without the three R’s life would be difficult.
When it comes to our spiritual education there are also three basics, which I know as the three F’s: Fact, Faith, Feelings. (author Bill Bright)
As a child walking to school I used to gaze at the sky and wonder who made everything and where they lived. I instinctively knew that there must be someone or thing bigger than myself. As an adult I know that these wonderings were from God, for as Ecclesiastes 3:11 states, God "has also set eternity in the human heart" (NIV). This means that within each person there is the sense that there is more than what we can see in this world.
Sometime later I attended Sunday School for the first time and heard the Scriptural facts concerning God’s love and salvation for mankind through Jesus. Upon hearing these facts, I immediately knew that they were true and were also the answer to my wondering. There was a God, someone bigger than me, who knew and loved me. Thus, these facts birthed my faith.
My life of faith only began to really mature however, as it was bolstered by fact. Faith cannot stand alone. Fact, the Word of God, the Scriptures, reveal who God is, what he has done and does, how to come to know him, through salvation in Christ, alone, and how to live a life which pleases him. The more facts we know about God and put them into practice in our lives, the greater our faith becomes as these facts prove the depth and trustworthiness of their truth.
The third F is for feelings. Facts and faith in God, produce feelings such as comfort, peace, love and joy. These feelings, can in turn, bolster our faith even more. Emotions however can be fickle, so we must always be careful to think and ponder the root of them, to be sure that our feelings line up with the facts and truth of God’s word, lest we be carried astray into ungodly thoughts and actions.
Fact, faith and feelings. The three F’s for a good spiritual foundation, something to put into practice today and every day.
Prayer: Thank you, Father, that you have set eternity in the human heart. May many heed this instinctive knowledge and begin to seek facts through your word, which leads to faith. In Christ’s name. Amen.
Lynne Phipps
Tawatinaw, Alberta, Canada
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