In this short monologue, Dave (the host of "Dave on the Edge") reflects on the evolution of personal faith from teenage certainty to mature, examined belief. He shares an anecdote about a teenager who simply echoed his church’s doctrine, illustrating how many people conflate personal belief with institutional teaching. Dave cites Paul’s definition of faith as certainty in the unseen, challenges the notion that belief requires full explanation, and emphasizes that understanding grows over time. He encourages listeners to move beyond merely repeating church positions, to articulate what they truly believe, and to consider concrete steps of commitment—such as baptism, mission work, or deeper church involvement—when they reach a “faith‑choice moment.” The talk ends with a direct invitation to the listener, Tofik, to assess where they stand in their own faith journey.
Chapters
Tofik. This is Dave on the Edge. It's been said that when you know everything, you're a teenager. At least that's the way it was when I was a teenager. I was sure I knew everything. And now as I've gotten older, I've realized there's a lot of stuff I don't know. I heard of a teenager once who was asked, "Hey, what do you believe?" And he thought for a minute and he said, "I believe what my church believes." And they said, "Ah, I see. So what does your church believe?" "Well, my church believes what I believe." Okay, well, what do you and your church both believe? Oh, that's easy, we believe the same thing. And you know, often in our lives it's like that. We go through a journey of faith and of development where we build on what we've known before, and we have to start asking questions. Okay, yes, I believe what my church believes, but what does my church teach? How do I believe it? Who am I? How am I going to apply that in my life? You know, Paul says in the Bible, he says that Faith is being certain of what we cannot see. I can remember saying, and I don't say this anymore, at least I'm going to say it now but I don't mean it in the way I used to, "If you can't explain it, you don't believe it." It's not true. There's many things that we take on faith, being certain of what we can't see. But as time goes by, our understanding builds and our knowledge builds and our ability to explain it builds as well. So depending on where you are on that journey, "I believe what my church believes, my church believes what I believe," or maybe you're to a point where you say, I know what I believe in this area and I can explain it to you. And I know what I believe in this area. And what I would do is to challenge you to think it through and to be able to say, "Here's what I believe, and this is where it's going. This is what I used to believe, this is where I'm up to now, and this is where I'm headed." Because we all know where we're headed if we place our faith in Jesus Christ. And so we may be at a faith choice moment where we're ready to make a choice for baptism, or we're ready to make a choice to do some mission work or to get involved in some way in our church. When that moment comes, be ready to take the plunge. Be ready to get involved and to take your faith to the next level. This has been Dave on the Edge. Where do you stand?
