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Faith is simple trust The Bible defines faith as a belief in something that you put your whole trust in, this faith is only as good as the one we trust in, it can only be directed toward God. Faith according to the Bible means to rest your whole weight on something. Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith (Gr. Pistis) means persuasion, i.e. a moral conviction (of religious truth), which includes a reliance upon. Substance (Gr. Hupostasis ) is a compound of two Greek words hupo and histemi; it means what is placed under (as support), i.e. confidence, substance. “Faith is the substance,” means what you “stand upon.” Our foundation of faith is based on God and His Word. When we learn to understand the basics of the Word of God a foundation is built under us. It is a knowing, trusting what God’s Word has to say is true in everything it speaks on. Even those things we do not understand. Our faith is both Objective or subjective. Gnosticism is subjective. The Gnostics believed that God communicated revelation directly to the spirit, bypassing the mind and not having to use doctrine, what is found in the Word which is the guide for, and is the truth. This is what the New Age Movement, mysticism and the occult have been teaching for years, that experience is a greater teacher than God’s word, which Jesus taught and called the truth. Yet Jesus pointed to his word for understanding the things of God. So we have need to know what we can apply, what is for us and what is not. Some People think if you become a Christian you forfeit your mind, thinking, that we are to be spiritual and not intellectual. Actually it is just the opposite, You are to become smarter, not dumber - the Holy Spirit teaches us the deep things of God and gives us wisdom of what takes place in the world. It is only in the cults that people stop thinking and forfeit their minds, which is used as a control mechanism to believe without thinking things through for questioning if what is said is accurate. Some examples of faith There was a crowd watching a man cross Niagara fall’s on a tightrope. When he got to the other side he got a wheel barrel and asked the people if they believed he can cross back with it. He spoke to the crowd and asked again if they believe he can cross back again with the wheel barrel. They all answered yes. He then asked “do you really believe I can push this wheel barrel across on to the other side on this tight rope. Again the crowd yelled even louder ‘yes’ than the first time. The man fixed his eyes on one of the people that said yes and said to him, “you get in the wheel barrel.” That is what faith really is. It is personal with God. We get in the wheel barrel and let him carry you across, by our trust and dependence on him. There’s another story about a man who was making his way through a snowstorm in a strange country. He had to make it to a certain town by nightfall. He was stopped when he came to an ice covered river. How wondered how thick the ice is, could he trust it to hold him? So he began his precarious and unpredictable journey across laying on his stomach, inch by inch, tapping it with his fingers before he moved ahead. Filled with fear, sweat was pouring off his forehead wondering that at any moment he could plunge into the icy waters and drown because no one was there to save him. About a half an hour later he looked back and saw that he had only progressed 50 ft. All of a sudden to his amazement he hears singing, he turns his head to see a horse with a cart filled with people. They were all singing as they drove across the ice. The difference between him and the people in the cart? The driver of the cart knew that the lake was solid ice and his faith gave him the confidence to cross it, he did not fear that he would not reach the other side. The man that had been crawling realized he had been filled with fear and doubt and worry because of his lack of knowledge. If he had known the ice was trustworthy he could have confidently walked across to his destination. It is the same for our view of God. The God you believe in is not leaving it up to you to make it on your own? He who began a good work will complete it. As a believer in the gospel, He is with you, in you. The God of the Bible says to trust in him, lean not on your own understanding. You can be confident to lean all your weight on His Word because its solid, its reliable, its truth and it is eternal. The difference between Christ/ Christianity and all other religions. Each one of us makes a personal decision to follow Christ, not to join a religion or a church –our baptism, mass or any other religious rite does not make us right with God. Religion has always been about man trying to please God by obedience of rules. The gospel is God reaching man by the Sons work that pleased God the Father. Those who believe the Gospel receive the Spirit to be able to do God’s will. Religion puts people in spiritual and psychological bondage. The gospel sets one free. Unfortunately many people in cults and religions do not have this assurance and are on a treadmill of performance. They are always unsure. Non - religious and the religious people alike say I hope I’m good enough to get to heaven. The problem is none of us are good enough. There is one who is and He is the one who will get you to heaven by what He did. The issue of salvation Some say to trust your heart Jer. 17:9 "the heart is deceitfully wicked, (incurably sick). God the creator is the only one capable of fixing what is broken in man. Jesus said he did not come to save the righteous. They are blinded to their condition. The self sufficient and righteous don’t see their need for spiritual help outside themselves. Only Jesus has the cure for our disease of sin. Jesus said it is not those who are healthy who need a physician but those who are sick. So the first requirement to receiving a cure would be? It is our faith that brings to us into salvation. God the Son has done all the work needed, He has become our solution. Faith means trust, its object is always God, not human works. If faith is put in any other object no matter how sacred it will fail. Salvation is not a reward for good behavior Jn.10:28 "I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost." There are approximately 240 passages in the New Testament which attest to salvation by grace and that eternal life is imparted as a free gift to all those who believe the message of the gospel, who exercise faith in Christ. So what is the gospel we need to trust in? That God (the creator of all things) became a man to pay for sins by his death, suffering for sin by crucifixion, he died and was raised back to life on the third day. The resurrection is the single factor that separates the hope that is eternal, that cannot be found in any other religion. |
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