Archive for the ‘ Faith ’ Category
And he believed the Lord , and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:6, ESV
The most important thing the Lord requires of us is faith and obedience. Without faith, we cannot be fully obedient. Without obedience, we show our lack of faith.
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31, ESV
Our God sustains us and fuels us by His Spirit.
Wait on God patiently. Trust Him in all things. He may not move on our time, but He holds us in His hands throughout.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Ephesians 6:10, ESV
The Lord is our strength. Trust in Him, not your own abilities.
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2, ESV
What is faith? Jesus is the source. Without the cross and resurrection, we have no basis for faith.
Christ’s faithfulness gives us faith.
I did not do the silly high five at the end of this video! Am I a horrible person? (Theologically speaking, technically yes … apart from Christ …)
But it is addressing that tantalizing question: What is faith?
Many people do not really understand faith.
In a recent book, “A Manual for Creating Atheists”, philosopher Peter Boghossian defined faith as belief without evidence, pretending to know things you don’t really know.
But is this right?
In a word: no.
How does the Bible explain faith?
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1, ESV
Another way of explaining faith is putting your beliefs into action. If you believe something to be true, prove it! Prove you are faithful to those beliefs by acting on them.
The most used example of what faith is is a chair. You can say you believe a chair will hold you up, but faith is proving it by sitting on the chair. Typically, you are acting on evidence. (In this case, you have been told chairs are for sitting on, and you may have seen other people sit in chairs.)
As Christians, we do not have a blind faith. The Bible is our evidence for God and Jesus.
The Bible has several prophecies about the coming Messiah who would take away our sins, and Jesus claimed He was the fulfillment of those prophecies. He made many claims to His deity, as well, and He said that He would prove it all by dying and rising again.
The Apostles and early disciples did not just write about things they heard. They claimed to have heard these things and seen the crucified and risen Jesus with their own eyes.
And the Bible is the most reliable ancient set of documents we have from antiquity, by far. Few experts contest this. (Maybe the actual events, but not that at least the New Testament is reliably from people from the First Century.)
Everyone.
It is not only Christians and the overtly religious. My evidence for this?
How about evolutionary theory: How is it claimed life began? Several chemicals somehow combined in the right amounts at the right time to create the building blocks for RNA and DNA, creating the first living cells.
How do we know it happened this way?
We don’t. No one was there to see it, and no one as recreated it in the lab to test this hypothesis. People simply believe it is true.
This is more like blind faith than Christianity!
As said before, everyone lives by some form of faith in someone or something throughout their days and lives. Faith is putting beliefs into action.
What do you think? Am I way too far off the mark? (I think most others are.)
How about we talk about, either in the comments (on this blog post or on the YouTube channel) or through the e-mail: Together@asimplemanofgod.com, or even at the Facebook page: a simple man of God.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrews 11:6, ESV
Jesus is the only way to God, and it is only by putting your faith in Him that you find that way. Apart from faith in Christ, you are wandering like a blind man and far from God.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13, ESV
Hope springs from faith.
Faith springs from love.
Love springs from dedication and choice.
Choose love. Always.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16, ESV
Do not be intimidated with sharing the gospel or that you believe.
You should be ready to explain why you believe, but it is okay (as a young Christian, at least) to admit you are not entirely sure of all of the reasons.
Just share how you came to faith.
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.
Nahum 1:7, ESV
Trust in God. When times are bad, He knows your need and holds you.
But trust Him in good times, too. Those are times to draw near in comfort and get to know Him.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV
Stop trying to earn your salvation. It is an undeserved gift given freely to those who believe in the saving work of Christ through the cross.
Just believe it.
(Then do good works out of love.)
a simple man of God 