All tagged faith
We don't find Jesus through an academic study of scripture nearly as much as scripture is revealed to us while walking with Him. Don’t each of us remember a time when we were mired down in our study of the Bible to the point that we couldn’t touch the living Christ there? But, once we have met Him in the gospel, doesn’t He bring the whole of scripture alive for us and set us free in it.
Salvation... We question ourselves by asking how we can achieve this and live our lives as God expects... obeying Him is just too hard and it can be difficult to believe that anyone could possibly accomplish such a thing. Satan whispers to us “You can never be saved!”, but that is a lie.
Judgement… does the uncertainty of our success in obeying or pleasing God challenge us? Does the complexity and mystery of God cause us to wonder if we will be judged worthy? Well, if we trust in His Word and the gospel of Jesus, believe in Jesus, and ask forgiveness for those things we feel we have failed at, then we can rest assured that we are indeed worthy.
And finally there is Fear… This is what we feel when we face Satan’s lie concerning our salvation, and the doubt that confronts us regarding our own worthiness. Fear causes so many of us to run away from the challenges we face in life and the greatest of these is believing and having faith in God and Jesus Christ. Until we overcome fear, as scripture tells us repeatedly to do by saying “Fear Not”, then we can never truly rest in the Lord, experience His peace, and walk eternally in His presence.
Let’s study these things.
When we follow God are we walking close enough to actually see Him? When we look ahead can we see Him there with Jesus as He leads us on? Paul spoke of how Moses endured hardship by “seeing Him who is invisible", but does our own faith allow us to see God in this way, or does He remain invisible to us in our times of fear, suffering, and temptation? Have we experienced God in such a way that He is forever real to us? When we think of God are we remembering Him by what He has been and done in our lives and as being tangible and real, or is He simply imagined and invisible to us; A God that exists in our mustard seed of faith alone?
What will we become when Jesus returns? What awaits us in faith when we rise from slumber tomorrow, or for that matter, what does the next hour have in store for us? Our faith is not something that can be calculated and God awaits around every bend with a new treasure.
We live in a culture that honors self-assuredness and strength in pursuit of fame and fortune over all else, but God, on the other hand, places meekness and humility above pride and strength. When it comes to real strength, He is looking for how it relates to our faith and spiritual character alone. If we want to have what is really valuable in life, and to live our lives abundantly, then we need to hand ourselves over to God. This is a humbling thing, but not a weak one. To yield ourselves totally to the Lord requires great strength of character and faith. It requires us to trust in Him completely and without question… it redefines meekness as men are inclined to think of it.
The result of our faith is a realignment of our lives and those within it. Are you seeing this occur, and are you willing to let it happen? Are you being transformed into a new person? At the moment when we first confess our faith in Jesus and ask Him to be the Lord of our life something incredible is released in us and our entire world begins to change. The friends who were once so dear to us begin to withdraw and the places we used to frequent suddenly lose their appeal to us. A change is beginning in us that is reshuffling our lives.
Easter morning has arrived, and the tomb of Jesus Christ stands empty; the sorrow of Good Friday, and the solemn silence of yesterday is over because Jesus Has Risen! This moment is the pinnacle of our faith on earth. Can we carry it with us always; even into our various valleys… into the valley of the shadow of death?
This morning, I am sifting through my life and identifying those things which God has asked of me that remain undone. For the most part I have done the big things, but what about those details that didn't seem too significant or relevant to the big picture... did I gloss over them and leave any of them undone?
This morning I am contemplating those things of faith to which we have become blinded by our religion or liturgical practices. I recall the words of Jesus regarding Jerusalem and ask myself if this could happen to us as well. Could our religion become a hindrance to us? Are we building liturgical or religious walls between those who are seeking redemption, salvation, and a relationship with our Lord?
On the 24th of this month I wrote of encountering Jesus in front of a jewelry store. It was an unexpected encounter that taught me a great deal about myself and my faith. Today I would like to explore those sudden and unexpected appearances of Jesus in our lives a bit further. It is true that we don't know the date and time of the return of Jesus as predicted in Revelation, but much like Saul, we do occasionally receive chance encounters with Him today during our everyday lives.
Today we are exploring our obedience to Jesus without questioning His instruction. We will be looking at how we should obey Him without the need to weigh His guidance against our own desires. Sometimes we receive a Word from God and it isn't something easy or perhaps it is something we think is dangerous or would put us in a precarious position financially or possibly even spiritually... so we question His motive or our understanding. This doubt is not a modern phenomenon but goes back to the earliest times of faith.
This morning let’s take a look at how God calls us ever forward in our faith. We aren't meant to be stagnant creatures in faith, or in life generally, no, we are meant to be travelers along a way of faith that is taking us ever forward and increasing us in spirituality as we go.
This morning I am contemplating a single phrase in the King James translation of the Bible... it is one that was written by Paul to the Galatians, and is found in Galatians 2:20. It reads like this..."by the faith of the son of God." This is opposed to several modern translations which record it as "by the faith in the Son of God." So the question boils down to one word and two different translations... Our study is whether to us the word "In" or "Of" as we talk about our faith. This might sound tedious but the implications are great.
Does God lead you in the way you should go, and if so, what awaits at the end of your journey? This is what I am pondering this morning. Do we know the Person of the one who leads us and if so, do we need to fully understand where He is leading us to before we join Him in the journey? When Jesus called His disciples to follow Him did they know where they were going? When He tells us to pick up our cross and follow Him do we really know all that awaits us?
We say that we believe in Jesus Christ. This is what I am contemplating this morning... do we simply acknowledge Him, or do we really believe in Him for who He is? This sounds like a dangerous question, but it is one that Jesus Himself asked His apostles when they told Him that they believed. Did the apostles really know who He was? Could they possibly understand what it meant to be the Son of God? How about us? Do we now believe? Listen to their words and the answer Jesus gave them... Then let’s each answer Jesus’ question ourselves.