Tag Archives: belief

Walking in faith

Col 1:21-23

This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

  1. We were separated from God by our evil thoughts and actions.
  2. He, God, has reconciled you to Himself through Christ’s death.
  3. You have been brought into His presence
  4. You are holy and blameless before God- totally faultless
  5. But. This is important.
  • Continue to believe this
  • Stand firm in this belief (faith)
  • Don’t drift from assurance

This is the key to walking out this faith in Christ. It is reliant on our believing we are God’s, standing firm in it even in those times we don’t feel like it.

Grace and peace

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

Leave a reply

So what is the gospel of Jesus Christ? The simple meaning of “gospel” is good news. So the gospel of Jesus Christ can be called the good news of Jesus Christ. So what is this good news? The good news or the gospel is that because we as mankind is not good enough to be acceptable to God and only deserving of His punishment, Jesus made a way for us to be adopted as sons and daughters of God, not just accepted, but adopted!

Unacceptable

We, mankind are all unacceptable to god because we are imperfect. The moral law that God gave us simply proves our imperfection. when we compare ourselves against the law of God, or the ten commandments we see quickly that we fail on multiple or all points of the law. For myself I don’t make it past the very first commandment, Love the Lord your God with all your heart. My heart and mind are constantly drawn to other things or people casting God aside, failing to keep his law, condemned as guilty. I fail on all points of the law if it is interpreted in the fashion that Jesus says it should be applied. For He said in the sermon on the mount that to even think contrary to the law is to break or violate the law, thus failing to keep it. It is logical to conclude then that no person except God is capable of keeping the law.  we are all Unacceptable and therefore condemned as sinners. Deserving only the judgement of God.

Judgement

So we are all judged guilty. We are all rebelling against God and this is proved by the law given us by Him. We all also know this to be true instinctively. That is why we feel guilt when we do or think anything that is immoral, or sin.

God’s judgement for those who have sinned is death, and separation from Him for eternity. Hell is the place for which we are bound. We judge ourselves, we know our own guilt. There is no defense.

Substitution

From the beginning God has allowed for a substitute to die for the sins of another. For Adam and Eve He, God sacrificed lambs and as a symbol covered them with the skins of the animals. The animals bore the sin of Adam and Eve, the blood of the lambs was shed in substitution for the blood of Adan and Eve.

In the same way God has provided a substitutionary sacrifice in Jesus for all the world. He was judged guilty for our sin, and died as our substitute so that we can live, both now and forever with God.

One Requirement

There is only one requirement left to have the substitutionary death of Christ applied to anyone! Believe.

Yes that is the good news of Jesus Christ. Believe that He is the son of God who died as your substitute to with His blood purchase your forgiveness for all the sin you have done and will do.

Jn 3:16 Perhaps the most known scripture verse there is. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. That is the only requirement that God has for total forgiveness.

He doesn’t require that we change our lives to be saved from death. He doesn’t require us to give up any vises, bad habits to be saved. There is no ceremony to be done, no isles to walk, no service to do. Simply believe!

He will change our lives as we live believing Him, live by faith.

Belief in God

Leave a reply

Belief in God

What is meant by the phrase believe in God? What is belief at all? We live in a time when we find it hard to “believe” what anyone has to say and this affects the entirety of our lives. What about Abraham, it is said about him in Genesis 15:6that he (Abraham) believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. What does this mean?

belief: a feeling of being sure that someone or something exists or that something is true

So let’s put this definition to work with God. Belief in God is a feeling of being sure that God exists, and that God is true. This characterised the life of Abraham. God told him to leave his country to go to a place that He(God) would show him once he arrived. Abraham did that, he picked up his entire family along with all his possessions and left. God told Abraham that he would have so many descendants that they would number like the grains of sand. Being Old, Abraham still believed God. Sure he made errors, really Abraham and Sarah tried to “help” God out, mistakes were made, and Abraham still believed God. Sure there were times of doubt, but he believed God. It’s hard for us to accept that God will do what He says He’ll do, but we can believe Him.

We have a term “system of belief” which refers to the core beliefs a person holds concerning life and all there is. Each of us has a system of belief, there is no exception to this truth. Some would try to remove themselves from having a system of belief because at it’s core this screams religion. The Atheist too has a system of belief, he/she believes there is no god, no divine influence on life as we know it. Therefore he/she tries to live life as if there is no God, no right or wrong, no definite truths. After all there is no God to which we are accountable. This kind of thinking is in direct contrast to the christian way of thought.

Each person holds his/her system of tightly, and we jealously guard against all those around us who would challenge this system. We all feel uncomfortable when our system is challenged, but it will be challenged. This is when our “belief” holds our world perspective together. We also have the tendency to be sure that our system is the only correct, logical system and we defend it as such. We tend to gather with people who share our beliefs and we strengthen each others beliefs, whatever they are. Christians call this fellowship or church.

My Belief in Jesus

I believe that Jesus Christ is God’s son, sent to die a sacrificial death to pay the debt of sin we all hold John 3:16. Jesus being God himself was able to die as our substitute because he was perfect and suitable to make payment for my great sin debt. God alone, Jesus Christ alone, was sufficiently good to pay the debt, anyone else, anything else is dirty before God (mares by sin) and therefore unacceptable as payment (sacrifice). I believe that simple faith in this sacrificial death is sufficient to make me acceptable to God, and able to approach Him as an adopted son, seen by him as perfect based on the payment that Christ has made on my part through his death. I believe that He desires all mankind to believe Him, believe Christ, because that is Gods way for us to be made pure (sinless) before God. I believe that those who believe Him will in-fact spend the rest of eternity with Him after death takes us from this world.

Proofs for my beliefs

So what is it that makes me sure of my beliefs? Lets look at a few of the simple truths that make me absolutely sure of my system of belief.

I know with out a doubt that I sin Romans 3:23. I know for a fact that when I do sin I feel shame even if no one sees me sin.

I am always impressed that each time I write the date, or take notice of the date, that I am in fact taking notice to and agreeing with the fact that Jesus Died a bad death just over 2015 years ago, that is what A.D. means, (After Death).

God’s spirit is ready to comfort me at all times John 14:26. This comfort comes most easily in extremely intense, impossible times. The comfort of God for example in the face of imminent death is not explainable except for Gods power in our lives. There are men women and children all over this world, but especially in the middle east at this time who, in the face of horrific death lay down their lives refusing to deny the existence of Jesus Christ. (This is not my situation) I live in a place where beliefs are challenged in other ways that are less extreme, but also true and I’m afraid more damaging.

Life for us is too plastic, we don’t face starvation, stoning, beheading. In fact we don’t even see death of our loved ones in the realty that is death! Everything is made pretty, hardships are removed from us in a way that insulates us from them. We complain about the difficulties we face, the lack of things usually, while in other parts of our country and world people face the growling of their children’s bellies, or the treat of death for following Jesus. I wanted once to take a photo of a person I know, and through the translator he said “don’t take a photo of me being so hungry.” He didn’t want the memory of him being hungry to be remembered. In that part of the world they rely on God each day to give them the things they need. I will tell you that when they have food they are grateful because they understand that it comes from the hand of God!

Where are the Atheists

I have never met an Atheist in places where life is a battle. I have only met atheists in 1st world countries where everything is easy to come by. The ironic thing is these are the countries that have benefited from a long history of Christian influence, and the prosperity that results from that influence. The communists have tried to rid their countries of faith, to make their countries atheist, but in every instance they have failed. I know one gentleman who spent his whole life up to one event convinced that he was atheist, trying to convince others that there was no God. One day he found himself floating in the Gulf Stream between the USA and the Bahamas after his boat went down under him, leaving him alone, drifting and afraid. It wasn’t long until his cry went out to the God who he had spent his life trying to deny. Great adversity strips away the arrogance that allows us to think we can deny God. Being alone in immanent danger has a sobering effect. That gentleman has walked with God ever since that event, because he found God when all his comforts were taken from him. He knows without a doubt that God is real, and that God cares for us.

Abraham’s Belief

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. He simply had confidence that God would do exactly what He said He’d do. Abraham was so sure that God would do the things He said He’d do that Abraham acted on whatever God told him. Our actions come out of our system of belief, therefore our actions are a manifestation of that system of belief. Do you believe God? Do you believe Him enough to act on those beliefs?

True faith is not a complicated thing. It is not a hard thing to accomplish or attain to. It is the simple belief that God is God and He will do exactly what He says He will do!

A really interesting problem, for those who deny God is He is still there, and He is still God. The Bible teaches that one day every knee will bow to Him recognising Him as God. To not believe Him in this life will leave a person in a real pickle, there will be no do-overs.

Abraham

Leave a reply

God introduces us to Abram in the final verses of the 11th chapter to Genesis. No great pomp or circumstance just an introduction, who he is, who his family is, and where they were.

The first verse of chapter 12 finds God telling Abraham to leave his country and family and go, to a place that was not defined, but God would show him when he gets there. Not exactly circumstances that would excite the majority of us, but Abram does what God had asked him to do. God also told Abram that He(God) was going to make Abram a great nation that would be a blessing to the whole world. Through the lineage of Abram the whole earth would be blessed, but there were again no specifics given to Abram. He and Sarai, his wife were without children, but Abram was not bothered by these details. I would like to say that this is faith, faith in a God that Abram knew would do exactly what He said He would do. Lots of us believe that there is a God, but not so many of us are willing to act on that belief. We want a plan from beginning to end, with quantifiable goals along the way so that we can be sure the plan is working. That is not the way that God wants to interact with us. Faith is only real when we are able to act on a belief regardless of possible outcomes. Abram had no idea of where he is going, or how he will be perceived by others.

Abram and his household continued on until God appeared to Abram again, letting him know where to stop.

There is a saying “put your money where your mouth is.” That can be put as, you have faith, act on it! When we know what it is that God want’s of us we must act on that knowledge. to not act is to not really believe.

Abram was not a perfect man, but he was a man that believed strongly enough on God to do what he knew God wanted of him. We will take a look into his life to see his errors and then his faith. Each error is a moment that faith failed, failure of faith causes our focus to go to something other than God, some problem we have that at that moment obscures our faith. We will see that these errors are overlooked by God, and Abram picks up where he left off, believing God.