Posts Tagged ‘ Faith ’
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
Job 19:25, ESV
God is not dead.
Jesus was killed, yet He lives.
He is coming back to this world one day in judgment.
Follow Christ, and stand with Him!
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6, ESV
Faith in Jesus is the only way to get to heaven.
Believing in His death and resurrection is the only way to inherit eternal life.
Knowing and sharing this truth is the only way for a Christian to live.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:18, ESV
Denying Christ leaves you under God’s wrath. Only through faith in Christ, the Son of the living God who took on the Father’s wrath in our place, are we freed from that condemnation.
Now and always.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18, ESV
Life can be hard, disheartening, oppressive, scary, depressing, and all-around cruddy.
God is closest during these times. Take hold of His hand.
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.
It is time to look at that super-non-controversial word “religion”!
Some claim religion is for unthinking idiots or contrary to a relationship with God.
Some Christians claim “It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.”
Atheists and other irreligious folks claim that religion is an opioid for the masses (Marx) or for those who don’t like to think.
Many scholars agree that our word for religion comes from the Latin:
religare: to bind, to connect
And therefore …
religio: obligation, bond, reverence
We therefore can understand religion as binding oneself to a set of obligations. Is this helpful?
Both Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries have several definitions (look them up!), but I will focus on just a few:
Merriam-Webster uses:
With some definitions of religious being:
Oxford defines religion with:
Personally, I would also clarify with a religion being:
This all should quell the religious fervor with which Christians deny that Christianity is a religion. We still set boundaries for any relationship which we faithfully follow, so this particular relationship is a religion. (But I get their meaning, so I will not harp too much on them for it … unless it gets in the way of or directly refutes firm doctrine.)
Conversely, this all implies that even atheism is a religion. Why?
The argument some atheists offer, that it is a lack of belief, is, frankly, stupid. It is a belief. It is incredibly difficult to prove scientifically that something supernatural (Beyond the natural) exists, so a lack of evidence in something beyond our understanding of space-time can only lead to one believing something … without evidence.
And before anyone argues atheism is not a blind faith, how did the universe or life on Earth begin? No experiment or evidence has yet to reveal these from a naturalistic origin. To claim we know how either of these began (apart from God) is being intellectually dishonest and anti-science. You must believe on faith that we may someday find these answers, even with little to no evidence supporting any of the myriad of claims for each beginning.
How is atheism (and along with it evolution and the climate change movement) not a religious belief, especially with the cultish celebrity-worship, demand for strict adherence to the teachings, and excommunication of people who disagree (or raise challenging questions, even from a sincere perspective)?
No matter the religion, Christian Scripture tells us what our religion should look like:
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James 1:27
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
Matthew 23: Basically, Jesus tells us that hypocrisy is setting rules and demands on others while not holding yourself to them. Do not make it more difficult for people to follow, make yourself look good, and take care of your own needs, yet neglect mercy, justice, and true faithfulness without really changing yourself.
Religion is not relationship denying nor for unthinking idiots.
Wise people have religion, for it sets the boundaries to live by to protect relationships and truth. To remove those rules and guidelines is to allow for any “truth”, and this leads to cultish behavior and/or anarchy. Just look at the state of the Western Church and pop-atheism and the global climate change scare.
Madness.
