How Christians Warp #Faith into Something It's NOT (innocently, like @CopelandNetwork with #Psalm23-etc.)

I think of the word "Faith" and I immediately think

several things:
• The old Scripture-quote (trope?) "Faith is the substance of things hoped-for, the evidence of things not seen."
• The 'meaning' (vernacular) that springs therefrom: that 'having faith' means "believing without seeing proof & trusting despite contrary evidence,"
• even though Brother Copeland tells us that Lord Jesus–when He told His disciples to "Have Faith in God"–actually meant something more like 'keep the faith the same way God keeps the faith' (know that the worldly things will bend to your Godly will, and take action with that knowledge!... or something ...)
• (although Brother Copeland goes on to declare that Faith is 'some great universal power—like gravity')
• Lord Jesus tells Simon Peter that his faith is "the rock on which His church is built" (actually giving him the name 'Peter' (Petra, Pyotr) when He told him that).
• Lord Jesus told all His disciples that they could accomplish anything with 'faith the size of a mustard-seed.'

"... for you are with me...."

But that's not what Faith really is! You learn what it really is when you think of "faithful" 'real things (an OS that faithfully operates to your convenience, a hat-hook that is faithfully there to hang your hat-on when you get home at the end of the day and to hold it through the night until you need it again in the morning and take it without an ounce of gratitude, an automobile that faithfully carries your family through the rainy roads to the warm-&-dry dinner-table).

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The word |Faith| carries the scent of “to Trust, Confide, Persuade.” #Faithfully #HaveFaithInGod #FaithInScience #FaithInReason #GodKindOfFaith

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People 'have faith' in God like they 'have faith' that the ground is solid beneath their feet. That kind of 'faith' is merely a mirror-reflection of the past into the future—in the past–for as long as you've witnessed–'the ground beneath your feet' has been solid, and so you suppose that 'the ground beneath your feet' will be solid for as long as you're able to witness.

I think of this because I've been unfaithful here. Not the "cheating"-meaning of that word, but rather more-like 'inconsistent'—were I consistent, I'd have started with the above etymology, researched & published & hyperlinked the etymologies of the words in the above etymology, and continued with the etymologies of words in those etymologies until ... until I feel like another word or word-list (like Oklahoma Gazette's fascinating fascinations ... Marijuana terminology, LGBT+ words, politics, history, etc.) seems more crucial to people's thinking.

That's where I'm reminded of Lord Jesus Christ's Parable of the Sower (although it might more-precisely be called 'the parable of the random scatterer'—reminding me that the etymology of "speech" is something-like 'a scattering of words,' which is what Christians call 'the seed they sow'). 

Anyway, some of 'the seed the sower scatters' falls onto shallow ground and takes root, but is soon uprooted by wind-&-weather as weeds-&-wild-plants take over. That's 'the ground' I've been for a while now—starting research on 'the latest word-that-looks-interesting-to-me,' but barely even letting it take root as I go on to the next 'interesting word.'

Oh, I trust that all the words will eventually link together (so 'researching random words randomly' is eventually the same as 'researching crucial words faithfully'); but we won't "see" that I'm being 'faithful' to that truth until I finish (and so you wouldn't believe me unless I work faithfully rather than randomly).