04/09/2026
A word from our Minister
RevMark Maney.
How Can I Have Faith?
In Alpha we recently discussed the question, “How can I have faith?” Many people assume faith is a blind leap. You close your eyes, grit your teeth, and jump into the dark, hoping something catches you. But that is not what Christians have ever meant by the word. Faith is a reasonable step of trust based on good evidence. Think about the last time you collected a prescription. You swallowed a tablet you could not analyse, made by people you will never meet, because you had good reason to trust the pharmacist and the label. Every friendship, every marriage, every flight you have ever taken rests on trust that goes beyond what you can personally verify. Christian faith works the same way, except that the one being trusted is Jesus himself.
So how does a person come to trust Jesus? Consider how a husband knows he is married. He can point to a document, his marriage certificate. He can point to an event, the day he stood up and made his vows. And he can point to experience, years of shared life that have shaped who he is. A Christian's confidence rests on the same three kinds of evidence.
There is a document: the Bible, which is full of promises God has made and kept. Paul writes, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:17).
There is an event in history: the death and resurrection of Jesus, which stands or falls as a public fact and not as a private feeling.
And there is experience: the Holy Spirit, through whom Jesus himself comes to live in those who trust him and slowly changes them from within.
Notice what is missing from that list: anything about being good enough.This is important, because two kinds of people tend to keep their distance from faith. The first looks at their own life and says, 'I could never be a Christian. There is too much I would have to sort out first.'
The second looks at their own life and says, 'I am already fine. I am a decent person, I try to do right by people, and I have never seen what I would need saving from.' That second voice can come from someone who was raised in church and from someone who has never set foot in one.
The gospel, the good news about Jesus, and his life, death, and resurrection, challenges both of those ways of thinking. To the first it says: you come exactly as you are, because everything rests on what Jesus did on the cross and nothing rests on your record.
To the second it says: growing up in a Christian country, home, church, or just being a kind and decent person, does not make you a Christian, any more than being born inside a McDonald's would make you a hamburger. Where you started out does not decide what you are. A Christian is someone in a living relationship with God through faith in Jesus, and that relationship is received as a gift. It is free for us, but it was never cheap. It cost Jesus his life. On the cross Jesus took the judgment our wrongdoing deserved, so that forgiveness could be handed to us as a gift rather than earned as a wage.
One of the most loved pictures of this comes from the book of Revelation. Jesus says,
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Revelation 3:20).
It is worth knowing who first heard those words. Jesus was speaking to a church in the wealthy city of Laodicea, a congregation of religious people who had grown comfortable and self-sufficient and had, in effect, shut Jesus out of their own church. So the first people to hear this verse were not outsiders but insiders, respectable churchgoers who no longer felt any need of him. But it is also a promise, and it has always spoken to seekers as well. Jesus is not an anxious salesman waiting on the doorstep. He is the risen Lord, and the knock is his idea, not ours. He comes looking for us long before we think of looking for him. What he offers is a meal together, which in that culture was the mark of real friendship.
The Victorian painter Holman Hunt captured the scene in 'The Light of the World: Jesus with a lantern at a door choked with ivy'. When someone pointed out he had forgotten the handle, Hunt replied that the handle was on the inside. There is truth in that. Jesus is outside because we refuse to turn the handle and let him in. But the Bible is also honest that we never manage to open it on our own. When a woman named Lydia heard Paul preach, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message” (Acts 16:14). The knock is grace, and so is the hand that reaches for the handle. And what is received? John writes, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Not employees or members, but children. Think of a two-year-old lifting both arms to his father and being scooped up and held. Paul says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children” (Romans 8:16).
These are the types of topics, discussions, and content we are exploring together at Alpha right now, and you are welcome to join us this week (Why and How Should I read the Bible?). You do not need to have been to any previous session. Maybe you did Alpha years ago and something is stirring again, or maybe you can only manage one session. Come anyway, and bring the friend who has been asking questions. No one will pressure you, and no question is off-limits. It would be great to have you.
Mark Maney
Parish Minister
