Pastor's Corner

MISPLACED FAITH (Faith can destroy you!) – Part 1

I have lived in the suburbs of Chicago all my life. I remember the Tylenol tampering episode that happened in Chicago in 1982. You might remember that someone who was bent on random murder put cyanide in a few capsules. The poison did very well. One lady who bought her Tylenol from a drugstore in Chicago died within minutes after taking a single capsule. There were a total of seven unsuspecting people who died within a couple of days. Many lessons emerged from this tragedy.

First, faith does not have in itself any special merit; it does not have the power to change the nature of a drug from harmful to helpful. These seven people firmly believed they were taking medicine, not poison—but their faith did not save them. In fact, their faith killed them. Remember, faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed. Or we can put it this way: what we believe is more important than the fervency of our belief. That old cliché, “It does not matter what you believe as long as you are sincere,” is simply not true, as the victims of the Tylenol episode proved.

Preachers in the past have said, “Better to believe the truth with trembling hands than to believe error with steady confidence.”

What you believe really matters.

 
Pastor John R. Reed

(Jeremiah 17:5)