We kicked off a short two-message series yesterday entitled, CHRISTMAS QUESTIONS. Yesterday’s message dealt with the issue of DOUBT. We contrasted the responses of Zechariah and Mary –– both of whom had angelic encounters with the angel Gabriel (Luke 1). Zechariah struggled with unbelief (vs. 20). Mary believed, but had questions about how everything would take place (vs. 34).

We talked about how there’s nothing wrong with having questions. In fact, Christianity is big enough to handle the hard questions. Anselm, the church father called it faith seeking understanding.

That was Mary’s response. She didn’t argue with God, or disagree with God, she simply wanted to know, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Zechariah wanted proof, Mary wanted to know the process.

In that regard, doubt is not the opposite of faith, unbelief is. There’s a difference between the two:

• Doubt can’t believe – Unbelief won’t believe
• Doubt is honesty – Unbelief is obstinacy
• Doubt is looking for light – Unbelief is content with darkness.

The simple fact of the matter is that practically every believer has experienced doubt (re-read Matt. 28:16-17). God never turns an honest doubter away. In fact, the greatest doubters often become the strongest believers (John 20:24-31).

I also brought up Matt Chandler in the message yesterday. He’s the lead teaching pastor of the Village Church, and one of my favorite preachers. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor about a week ago and underwent a serious seven hour surgery to remove it this past Friday. Please join me in continuing to pray for he and his family.

I mentioned a very moving blog post that he wrote right before the surgery. A video has also been posted that was taped before the surgery and shown to their church family yesterday. I’d encourage you to check out both entries:

Matt’s Blog

Updates (on Facebook) from the Village Church Elders