Faith

How do I know? Anything for that matter. It involves a certain amount of trust. I believe the grass is green in May because I trust my eyes that saw it, my memory that remembers it, the lessons on chlorophyll that explain it to me, the poem books that rave about it, and countless human beings who have made reference to it.  Granted, in South America grass may be green in November, so I may have to qualify my assumption, but most of the time I don't bother. I just accept it. Healthy grass should be green during the growing season. That's the nature of grass. I don't have to live in a state of constant doubt and verification attempts. I just believe it.

Everything we know is the same. There is no one way of knowledge. We build. We rest  on past assumptions that held water. There is no need to blow up everything and begin anew, and if we try to go that route, we end up bleeding, confused, and no nearer the answer than we were.

Is there a God. Yes. What language did He speak? Well, DNA, for one. It's a complex living program more intricate than the finest code our programers have seen, and they, more than anyone should realize that code can't randomly make itself and function. Messed up code brings the program to a halt. Do we see glitches? Sure. We see where things went wrong and were replicated that way, but we also see the "how they should be" sitting right there above it...to the extent that we can repair some of it and are learning every day how to fix the rest.

There is a God.
So how do I know?
I am drawn to find Him. There is something within me that wants to know Him, and feels secure that I have found Him. That's intuition.
How do I know?
I am pushed to find Him. There is a world without that defies explanation in the absence of Him. That's reasoning.
How do I know?
I trust my memory--a thousand times He nudged me to an answer and reassured me in times of fear and frustration. That's experience.
How do I know? I trust the witness of thousands who have embraced Him and lived; I've listened, read their testimonies, and seen the difference in the lives of those who tried to follow Him closely compared with those who didn't. That's culture.
How do I know? I've seen miracles. And I've heard of amazing incidents in the lives of my grandparents and parents. Was I there? No. But I know these people. They never lied to me. Why should they lie about their faith, to which they held fast until we buried them in hope of resurrection day. That's testimony.
How do I know?
I trust the scriptures...internal evidence, external evidence, the historicity and veracity of narrative and prophecy. I'm not going into all that this morning. But I will say that I never study the scriptures without a sense of the value they impart to me.  I watch the impact of their presence in lives and civilizations. I believe they bring revelation. What men do with that is their own choice.

Simple. Sure. I agree. If you want complicated theses on the subject, there are countless very good books. Your mind will follow whatever you keep reading and you have a choice to feed the doubt or feed the faith. I choose faith. And I feel very confident about that choice.