Monday, June 16, 2008
Prayer Request
I just want to ask everyone to please say a prayer to God for my neighbor Wayne. He is in desperate need of the love of God. Just pray that I would be open to allow the love of Christ to minister to him. I'm really afraid of showing affection and things. Just pray that I would be filled with the love of Christ for Wayne's sake and that I would pray for him often as I ought to. He needs hope.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Faith Produces Good Works? No...
I hear a lot of guys say "True faith produces good works."
I have to disagree. Faith isn't a work. It's a rest, a trust, a reliance upon what Jesus did for us.
And I want to quit using the phrase "true faith." Faith is faith. Don't confuse the situation for people. I believe faith in the Good News of Jesus Christ brings salvation. I don't mean getting out of hell in order to go to heaven, though that is obviously involved. I mean our faith in the Gospel is the way God saves us. By save I mean He makes us into men and women again. He makes us alive again! We were dead and now we are alive! We were sinners but now we're saints! He put His Law on our hearts and minds and gave us new spirits and new hearts and even put His own Spirit within us! THAT is salvation! The reason we go to heaven is because heaven is where God dwells and we go to be with Him.
So...We're new creations in Christ Jesus. New creations who are no longer sinners. Therefore we no longer want to live in sin. That is, our true selves. Our body is constantly seeking to draw us away from God and the things we want to do. But we ourselves are saved. We are made alive with Christ forever. We have God's Life. Eternal Life!
So then...Faith doesn't produce good works. Faith receives salvation and God, in us, produces His good works. Jesus Himself said "The Father who dwells in Me does His works." "Work out your own salvation (not going to heaven) with fear and trembling. For it is GOD who WORKS in YOU to WILL and to DO according to His good pleasure."
We work it out with fear and trembling knowing that it's not us doing it! It's God who works in us!
So we're zealous for good works because of who we are! A good tree will bear good fruit. A sinner will sin and a saint will glorify God.
I have to disagree. Faith isn't a work. It's a rest, a trust, a reliance upon what Jesus did for us.
And I want to quit using the phrase "true faith." Faith is faith. Don't confuse the situation for people. I believe faith in the Good News of Jesus Christ brings salvation. I don't mean getting out of hell in order to go to heaven, though that is obviously involved. I mean our faith in the Gospel is the way God saves us. By save I mean He makes us into men and women again. He makes us alive again! We were dead and now we are alive! We were sinners but now we're saints! He put His Law on our hearts and minds and gave us new spirits and new hearts and even put His own Spirit within us! THAT is salvation! The reason we go to heaven is because heaven is where God dwells and we go to be with Him.
So...We're new creations in Christ Jesus. New creations who are no longer sinners. Therefore we no longer want to live in sin. That is, our true selves. Our body is constantly seeking to draw us away from God and the things we want to do. But we ourselves are saved. We are made alive with Christ forever. We have God's Life. Eternal Life!
So then...Faith doesn't produce good works. Faith receives salvation and God, in us, produces His good works. Jesus Himself said "The Father who dwells in Me does His works." "Work out your own salvation (not going to heaven) with fear and trembling. For it is GOD who WORKS in YOU to WILL and to DO according to His good pleasure."
We work it out with fear and trembling knowing that it's not us doing it! It's God who works in us!
So we're zealous for good works because of who we are! A good tree will bear good fruit. A sinner will sin and a saint will glorify God.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Believing the Invisible
You know...I get a lot of accusations and doubts thrown at me regarding who I really am in Christ.
One big step for Christian growth is learning to let Jesus be our foundation and not our senses or our feelings. Some days I act completely contrary to who I really am in Jesus Christ. And then the question comes of how I can really have the Spirit of God in me when I do such things or feel such things or think such things? Why would God give His Spirit to me? I don't do anything special or important.
The biggest step of faith is completely ignoring these feelings and doubts and acting as if we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus not because we feel it, sense it or act like it all the time. No...Faith is the assurance of things not seen. Faith counts it to be so not because it has evidence, but simply because God has promised and God is no man that He should lie. We walk by faith, not by sight. I take this to mean that we also do not walk by feelings, experiences or whatever senses our bodies may have. Let us mix this Gospel with faith! The Lord said blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!
Faith is, like Malcolm Smith has mentioned, not closing our eyes tightly saying "I believe, I believe, I believe." Faith is a rest and trust in God by keeping your eyes on Him. Faith isn't concerned with itself, but it's object. Those who were commended as having great faith in the Gospels were not conscious of their faith. They were conscious only of Jesus.
So let us fix our eyes on Him and not on ourselves. He will lead us and guide us and teach us. And this process will not be organized. It will be messy.
One big step for Christian growth is learning to let Jesus be our foundation and not our senses or our feelings. Some days I act completely contrary to who I really am in Jesus Christ. And then the question comes of how I can really have the Spirit of God in me when I do such things or feel such things or think such things? Why would God give His Spirit to me? I don't do anything special or important.
The biggest step of faith is completely ignoring these feelings and doubts and acting as if we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus not because we feel it, sense it or act like it all the time. No...Faith is the assurance of things not seen. Faith counts it to be so not because it has evidence, but simply because God has promised and God is no man that He should lie. We walk by faith, not by sight. I take this to mean that we also do not walk by feelings, experiences or whatever senses our bodies may have. Let us mix this Gospel with faith! The Lord said blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!
Faith is, like Malcolm Smith has mentioned, not closing our eyes tightly saying "I believe, I believe, I believe." Faith is a rest and trust in God by keeping your eyes on Him. Faith isn't concerned with itself, but it's object. Those who were commended as having great faith in the Gospels were not conscious of their faith. They were conscious only of Jesus.
So let us fix our eyes on Him and not on ourselves. He will lead us and guide us and teach us. And this process will not be organized. It will be messy.
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