Halloween is the time of the year when we, dress our kids up in neat little costumes; decorate our houses in spooky decor; buy a boat load if candy to pass out. Or maybe you’re the socialite of your neighborhood. So you throw a Halloween party. A night filled with innocent fun and laughter. But it's not as innocent as you think. Halloween is filled with evil practices.
Wait, before you click the X and walk off saying I am over exaggerating and overreacting. Let me explain a few things and give you a few facts.
As innocent as it may seem, Halloween is filled with evil practices like idolatry, witchcraft and satanism. All of which, God has commanded; us (The Christian); not to take part in these activities.
God say idolatry is the same as hating Him. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, Exodus 20:5
Witchcraft, sorcery, psychics, fortune-telling, etc… all of these things are detestable to God. And anyone who does them is detestable to God. When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. Deuteronomy 18:9-12
Jeremiah 10:2 This is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. God does not want us behaving like the world does. He tells us not to learn and take up the ways of the world around us.
We cannot get entangled with the practices and activates and things of this world. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 (MSG) Don't become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That's not partnership; that's war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God's holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way: "I'll live in them, move into them; I'll be their God and they'll be my people.
God doesn't want us to copy the world. We are to be the a light in darkness, not copiers of dark things. 3 John 1:11(NIV) Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
Halloween is not the innocent, American Pie, Valentine’s Day, Department store sales tactic holiday you think it is. And it is not a new concept. The retailers did not create Halloween, although they have taken advantage of it to make more money. Halloween has been around for thousands of years. During Old Testament times, the Druids of Western Europe practiced idolatry by offering prayers and sacrifices and gifts to their false god of the dead. Hoping to appease him and buy a lightened or exonerate the punishment of those who died during the currently ending year. They would offer their prayers, sacrifices and gifts on the night before their new year’s day, which happens to be; October 31 on our calendar (Halloween day). During the middle ages the Catholic Church instead acknowledging it for the evil it is; embraced it by adding its own wrinkle. Changing the name to All Saints day and renaming the practice of offering prayers, sacrifices and gifts to relieve the suffering of the dead, calling them penances. And today, all of the all of the idolatry, witchcraft and satanic practices of Halloween are still being unknowingly practiced and have been almost completely adopted into our culture. It's been publicized, mediatized and politicized into correctness and acceptability. Halloween my seem innocent enough to you on the surface, but it is against everything that Christianity stands for. But, maybe you’re thinking; "Well I don't believe in all that ghost and goblins stuffy anyways. I just want to have fun or I just want my kids to have fun." Sometime just wanting to have fun can have serious consequences. Or maybe you’re thinking, but everybody is doing it. There may even be some churches you know of, who have decided to participate by having parties. But the truth of the matter is; God says we are to stay away from and not take part in such things as: first and foremost idolatry, worshiping other false gods; secondly witchcraft and sorcery; and we are absolutely not to be associating with demonic and satanic activities. Yes, everyone maybe doing, but there is a minority and small group who remain loyal to God Romans 11:4-5. Instead of saying everyone is doing it, Get on the minority board and say everybody else is doing it.
Joshua 24:15 (NIV) But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Describing Faith III
The Facets of Faith
Today I would like to continue our exploration of faith and its many facets. But first let’s have a quick recap of the first three facets of faith. In part two of "How to describe faith" we discovered that the first three facets of faith are: 1) it stretches your imagination. It causes us to look beyond our current circumstances and mentally picture the future. 2) It taking the initiative. It causes us to move and take action. 3) Faith is taking risk. By faith we take big risks and step into what we cannot see, into the unknown.
Remember, when we talk about faith it's impossible to really describe it in just one word or sentence. So, now let’s continue to explore faith and its many facets.
Beginning with the fourth facet of faith; Faith is expecting the best. Let’s go back to the women with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25-29. The woman after hearing of Jesus followed behind the crowd of people surrounding Him as he traveled down the round. In verse 28 she thought to herself. "If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well." Mark 5:28 (MSG). The woman had an expectation. She expected to be healed when she touched Jesus' robe. And the minute she touched His robe, she was healed. Expectation is an essential part of faith. Think about this: how many times have you gotten a craving in the middle of the night; jumped out of bed; Got dressed and jumped into your car; and drove to the fast food restaurant knowing it was closed? Never, the reason you drove to the restaurant is because you expected it to be open and still serving food. What caused you to get out of bed that late and drive to that restaurant? Your craving for food caused you to think to yourself, "Hmmm, Wendy's is open" at that moment you expected Wendy's to be open and still serving food. This woman heard about Jesus and no doubt about how He healed the sick. And here Faith kicked in. Romans 10:17 say's Faith comes by hearing. The moment she heard about Jesus, she developed a faith for healing. And her faith caused her to think of the best outcome for her current situation. She thought the best thing that can happen to me if I touch Jesus' robe is, I will be healed. I have heard many people say in difficult situations “What's the worst that could happen". Stop asking that question. Start using your faith, and ask "What's the best that can happen." Faith is expecting the best.
The fifth facet of faith is: Faith is following instruction. Hebrews 11:8-9 Abraham by faith left his family and home and traveled to a placed that he didn't even know how to get to. Genesis 12:1-4 God spoke to Abraham (then named Abram) and told him to get his family and things and leave. But to where? God simply told Abraham, "To a place I will show you how to get to." So, God has told Abraham to go to a place and doesn't tell him where the place is. What the name of the place is. Or even give him the coordinates to punch into to his GPS. But yet in Genesis 12:4 Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. By faith, Abraham followed Gods instruction. Faith is going without knowing, where you are going. You’re just following Gods instruction. Another key aspect to following God instructions is to make sure your faith is strong enough for the level you are seeking Gods instructions for. It's impossible to follow Gods instructions for a Mercedes with Ford level faith. When you listen to God, you will experience decrease before you experience the increase. Judges 7:1-18. In the book of the Judges, God spoke to Gideon and told him that he was to gather the men of his tribe and take them into battle against the Midianite army who had come in to take their land. And in chapter 7 God begins to do something a little different than what would be considered normal for an army going into battle. Gideon had assembled all the troops’ together 30 thousand men ready to go and fight against the Midian army. Then God tells Gideon to send 20 thousand of the men home; Two thirds of the army. Then God tells Gideon, you still have too many men, send more home. I will tell you which ones. He then tells Gideon to send another nine thousand seven hundred soldiers home; leaving them with only three hundred to fight the Midianite army. Why was God sending soldiers back home, instead of adding more to the assembly? God was building Gideon’s faith. It took a tremendous amount of trust and faith to follow the directions God was giving him. Going against all of the normal procedures of war; go into battle with only three hundred men; against over fifteen thousand men. That’s kind of like saying something crazy like, ohh I don’t know; Love you enemy; repay evil with good; bless them that curse you. That’s just not normal stuff to do...unless you have faith in God; who told you to do it. The fifth facet of faith is, follow Gods instructions.
The sixth facet of faith: Faith is being persistent. People of faith don't know how to quit. They keep on keeping on. Things will always come up when God calls you to do something. There will always be something for you to use as an excuse. Genesis 6:14-17 God commanded Noah to build and ark. Then in Genesis 7:4 God tells Noah He is going to cause it to rain and flood the whole earth. So, here is Noah’s first chance to give an excuse. God says "Noah build an ark; I am going to make it rain for forty days and forty nights." Noah’s response is, "Ok God, but what’s an ark. And what in the world is rain." See, up to this point it had never rained on the earth. The water currently on the earth was coming up from the ground. Genesis 2:5-6 so if Noah wanted an excuse; being told to build an unknown object called an ark to float on this unknown rain stuff was a good one. How do you do something that has not yet been defined? No doubt Noah was talked about and ridiculed for this ridiculous ark thing he was building. And then when friends questioned him about why he was building it. And he explained the water in the sky was going to fall to earth. They must have thought he was nuts. But Noah remained persistent. After God gives you something to do, you have to endure being accused and ridiculed. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 (NIV) how do you stay strong. You keep on praying and keep on believing. Faith is being persistent.
The seventh facet: faith is rebuilding and rebounding from failure. Everybody fails and most of our hurts come from our attempts to succeed at something and fail at it. But the thing about failure is not the failure it's rebounding from the failure. This is the hard part, because being a person of faith means being persistent. So that means getting up, dusting yourself off and getting back up on that bull. This is when the ridicule and persecution happens. People don't really talk about you when you fail. But when you keep on moving; Keep on persisting. When you jump back up on that same bull for another attempt; that’s when they talk about you. Why would you operate by faith, fail and still have faith; because faith is rebuilding and rebounding from failure. Faith sees productivity where there was bareness. Success where there was failure. Fulfillment where there has been frustration. Faith sees a useless life; turned into a successful life. Faith says, “I will not dwell on the past, but what I can become.” Faith is rebuilding and rebounding from failure.
As you can see from this lesson faith is multi-faceted. It has some many valuable aspects to it. But one thing that can be summed up in one word, Is the focal point of our faith. God is the focus of our faith. He is the object of our faith. What God does in and through our lives by faith is for His and only His glory. Adam was created to glorify God, Jesus gloried his father. From the first man, to the only begotten son, faith glorifies God. The seven facets given in this lesson, build us up in faith so that we can bring our heavenly father glory.
13 "Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.14 "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.15 If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand.16 Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. Matthew 5:13-16 (MSG)
Today I would like to continue our exploration of faith and its many facets. But first let’s have a quick recap of the first three facets of faith. In part two of "How to describe faith" we discovered that the first three facets of faith are: 1) it stretches your imagination. It causes us to look beyond our current circumstances and mentally picture the future. 2) It taking the initiative. It causes us to move and take action. 3) Faith is taking risk. By faith we take big risks and step into what we cannot see, into the unknown.
Remember, when we talk about faith it's impossible to really describe it in just one word or sentence. So, now let’s continue to explore faith and its many facets.
Beginning with the fourth facet of faith; Faith is expecting the best. Let’s go back to the women with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25-29. The woman after hearing of Jesus followed behind the crowd of people surrounding Him as he traveled down the round. In verse 28 she thought to herself. "If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well." Mark 5:28 (MSG). The woman had an expectation. She expected to be healed when she touched Jesus' robe. And the minute she touched His robe, she was healed. Expectation is an essential part of faith. Think about this: how many times have you gotten a craving in the middle of the night; jumped out of bed; Got dressed and jumped into your car; and drove to the fast food restaurant knowing it was closed? Never, the reason you drove to the restaurant is because you expected it to be open and still serving food. What caused you to get out of bed that late and drive to that restaurant? Your craving for food caused you to think to yourself, "Hmmm, Wendy's is open" at that moment you expected Wendy's to be open and still serving food. This woman heard about Jesus and no doubt about how He healed the sick. And here Faith kicked in. Romans 10:17 say's Faith comes by hearing. The moment she heard about Jesus, she developed a faith for healing. And her faith caused her to think of the best outcome for her current situation. She thought the best thing that can happen to me if I touch Jesus' robe is, I will be healed. I have heard many people say in difficult situations “What's the worst that could happen". Stop asking that question. Start using your faith, and ask "What's the best that can happen." Faith is expecting the best.
The fifth facet of faith is: Faith is following instruction. Hebrews 11:8-9 Abraham by faith left his family and home and traveled to a placed that he didn't even know how to get to. Genesis 12:1-4 God spoke to Abraham (then named Abram) and told him to get his family and things and leave. But to where? God simply told Abraham, "To a place I will show you how to get to." So, God has told Abraham to go to a place and doesn't tell him where the place is. What the name of the place is. Or even give him the coordinates to punch into to his GPS. But yet in Genesis 12:4 Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. By faith, Abraham followed Gods instruction. Faith is going without knowing, where you are going. You’re just following Gods instruction. Another key aspect to following God instructions is to make sure your faith is strong enough for the level you are seeking Gods instructions for. It's impossible to follow Gods instructions for a Mercedes with Ford level faith. When you listen to God, you will experience decrease before you experience the increase. Judges 7:1-18. In the book of the Judges, God spoke to Gideon and told him that he was to gather the men of his tribe and take them into battle against the Midianite army who had come in to take their land. And in chapter 7 God begins to do something a little different than what would be considered normal for an army going into battle. Gideon had assembled all the troops’ together 30 thousand men ready to go and fight against the Midian army. Then God tells Gideon to send 20 thousand of the men home; Two thirds of the army. Then God tells Gideon, you still have too many men, send more home. I will tell you which ones. He then tells Gideon to send another nine thousand seven hundred soldiers home; leaving them with only three hundred to fight the Midianite army. Why was God sending soldiers back home, instead of adding more to the assembly? God was building Gideon’s faith. It took a tremendous amount of trust and faith to follow the directions God was giving him. Going against all of the normal procedures of war; go into battle with only three hundred men; against over fifteen thousand men. That’s kind of like saying something crazy like, ohh I don’t know; Love you enemy; repay evil with good; bless them that curse you. That’s just not normal stuff to do...unless you have faith in God; who told you to do it. The fifth facet of faith is, follow Gods instructions.
The sixth facet of faith: Faith is being persistent. People of faith don't know how to quit. They keep on keeping on. Things will always come up when God calls you to do something. There will always be something for you to use as an excuse. Genesis 6:14-17 God commanded Noah to build and ark. Then in Genesis 7:4 God tells Noah He is going to cause it to rain and flood the whole earth. So, here is Noah’s first chance to give an excuse. God says "Noah build an ark; I am going to make it rain for forty days and forty nights." Noah’s response is, "Ok God, but what’s an ark. And what in the world is rain." See, up to this point it had never rained on the earth. The water currently on the earth was coming up from the ground. Genesis 2:5-6 so if Noah wanted an excuse; being told to build an unknown object called an ark to float on this unknown rain stuff was a good one. How do you do something that has not yet been defined? No doubt Noah was talked about and ridiculed for this ridiculous ark thing he was building. And then when friends questioned him about why he was building it. And he explained the water in the sky was going to fall to earth. They must have thought he was nuts. But Noah remained persistent. After God gives you something to do, you have to endure being accused and ridiculed. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 (NIV) how do you stay strong. You keep on praying and keep on believing. Faith is being persistent.
The seventh facet: faith is rebuilding and rebounding from failure. Everybody fails and most of our hurts come from our attempts to succeed at something and fail at it. But the thing about failure is not the failure it's rebounding from the failure. This is the hard part, because being a person of faith means being persistent. So that means getting up, dusting yourself off and getting back up on that bull. This is when the ridicule and persecution happens. People don't really talk about you when you fail. But when you keep on moving; Keep on persisting. When you jump back up on that same bull for another attempt; that’s when they talk about you. Why would you operate by faith, fail and still have faith; because faith is rebuilding and rebounding from failure. Faith sees productivity where there was bareness. Success where there was failure. Fulfillment where there has been frustration. Faith sees a useless life; turned into a successful life. Faith says, “I will not dwell on the past, but what I can become.” Faith is rebuilding and rebounding from failure.
As you can see from this lesson faith is multi-faceted. It has some many valuable aspects to it. But one thing that can be summed up in one word, Is the focal point of our faith. God is the focus of our faith. He is the object of our faith. What God does in and through our lives by faith is for His and only His glory. Adam was created to glorify God, Jesus gloried his father. From the first man, to the only begotten son, faith glorifies God. The seven facets given in this lesson, build us up in faith so that we can bring our heavenly father glory.
13 "Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.14 "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.15 If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand.16 Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. Matthew 5:13-16 (MSG)
Describing Faith II
The Facets of Faith
In part one of How to describe your faith; we talk about the benefits of faith. Knowing what the benefits of your faith are important. But now it’s time for us to move into describing what faith is. As I said in part one, faith is not something you can sum up in one word or even one sentence. It just has to much depth; to many facets to it. We could try to say it’s trusting in God, but then that leave us trying to describe trust. The point is we cannot just deal with surface level descriptions of faith; unless you just don’t want to continue maturing in your faith. So let’s begin looking at and describing faith.
The first aspect of faith is it stretches your imagination. Ephesians 3:20 God is able to do exceeding more than we can think or imagine. Faith always begins with a mental picture, a dream or an idea. God starts by stretching our imagination. In Genesis 15:1-4, When God wanted to use Abraham, named Abram at the time. He began by placing an image in his mind. God was going to use Abraham to bring forth the nation of Israel. But before He could do so, God had to get Abraham to look beyond his current circumstances. God needed to stretch his imagination. Faith is visualizing the future in the present. It is impossible for us to imagine all the possibilities that God can do through our faith. Whatever you can imagine God says, “I can do more than that!” If your imagination is not out of this world, it’s not faith, because faith stretches your imagination.
Secondly, faith is taking the initiative. Mark 5:25-28 A woman had an issue of blood for twelve years. But she took the initiative; a risk, because she believed if she could just touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloths, she would be healed. To understand just how much of a leap of faith this woman took, you have to understand the time she lived in and what the risk involved in what she did was. In Jesus’ time one of the biblical laws was that when a woman had an issue of blood, what we call today the menstrual cycle. When they would have their cycle, they would be considered ceremonially unclean. Anyone deemed ceremonially unclean could not enter the temple. This was a big deal during that period. The temple was where the presence of God was. So to them it wasn’t as simple as not being able to go to church. Hear a few praise and worship songs and the preacher hoop it up. For them it was being shut-off, from God. Another aspect of the law was anyone who touched a woman experiencing a flow of blood or even sitting on the same seat or bed as the woman, was also considered unclean. So to prevent this from happening, a woman during the time of her cycle would have to go to a building that was designated for women to stay at during their cycle. And they had to stay there all the way up to seven days after their cycle ended. (Leviticus 15:25-29) This was to insure that no one would accidentally touch a menstruating woman and become unclean. Now this woman had been having her issue or cycle abnormally for twelve years. So, hearing of Jesus and that he was in her town. She knowing the risk associated with it, decided, not only to leave the designated area. But set out to intentionally touch Jesus. She said to herself “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” and then took the initiative. Faith is taking the initiative.
The third facet, faith is risking failure. Acts 3:1-7 Peter, takes a big risk in this chapter. On their way into the temple for afternoon prayer, Peter steps out on faith, during what we could call, rush hour for the temple. It is three o’clock in the afternoon at the temple. The much of the town would be also making their way to the temple as well. So, what Peter was about to do was not something that would occur in the shadows. Not only that but the man whom we are looking at would have been very well know at least in the sense that he was brought to the temple everyday and sat at the entrance. So most of the towns people would have known that he was crippled. What Peter, was about to do was risky. If Peter told this man to get up and walk, and he didn’t everyone would see it. But, because he had faith, Peter takes the risk and speaks healing into this man’s life. There is no such thing as faith without risk. There is always a risk when you step out on faith. Faith is stepping out into the unknown. It’s looking at all things from God point of view. You take a risk standing up for righteousness. You take a risk speak up for what you believe in. You take a risk when you share the gospel with the lost. But, you do it because faith is risking failure.
So the first three aspects of faith are: It stretches your imaginations. When it comes to faith, your imagination should be out of this world. Faith is also taking the initiative. It’s leaving the designated area of complacency and moving intentionally toward what is hoped for. And faith is risking failure. It is sticking your neck out to do what seems impossible for you, but what God can do with you. These are just the first three facets. We will continue our look at faith in part 3 of how to describing faith. Until then Enjoy God’s Blessing!
In part one of How to describe your faith; we talk about the benefits of faith. Knowing what the benefits of your faith are important. But now it’s time for us to move into describing what faith is. As I said in part one, faith is not something you can sum up in one word or even one sentence. It just has to much depth; to many facets to it. We could try to say it’s trusting in God, but then that leave us trying to describe trust. The point is we cannot just deal with surface level descriptions of faith; unless you just don’t want to continue maturing in your faith. So let’s begin looking at and describing faith.
The first aspect of faith is it stretches your imagination. Ephesians 3:20 God is able to do exceeding more than we can think or imagine. Faith always begins with a mental picture, a dream or an idea. God starts by stretching our imagination. In Genesis 15:1-4, When God wanted to use Abraham, named Abram at the time. He began by placing an image in his mind. God was going to use Abraham to bring forth the nation of Israel. But before He could do so, God had to get Abraham to look beyond his current circumstances. God needed to stretch his imagination. Faith is visualizing the future in the present. It is impossible for us to imagine all the possibilities that God can do through our faith. Whatever you can imagine God says, “I can do more than that!” If your imagination is not out of this world, it’s not faith, because faith stretches your imagination.
Secondly, faith is taking the initiative. Mark 5:25-28 A woman had an issue of blood for twelve years. But she took the initiative; a risk, because she believed if she could just touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloths, she would be healed. To understand just how much of a leap of faith this woman took, you have to understand the time she lived in and what the risk involved in what she did was. In Jesus’ time one of the biblical laws was that when a woman had an issue of blood, what we call today the menstrual cycle. When they would have their cycle, they would be considered ceremonially unclean. Anyone deemed ceremonially unclean could not enter the temple. This was a big deal during that period. The temple was where the presence of God was. So to them it wasn’t as simple as not being able to go to church. Hear a few praise and worship songs and the preacher hoop it up. For them it was being shut-off, from God. Another aspect of the law was anyone who touched a woman experiencing a flow of blood or even sitting on the same seat or bed as the woman, was also considered unclean. So to prevent this from happening, a woman during the time of her cycle would have to go to a building that was designated for women to stay at during their cycle. And they had to stay there all the way up to seven days after their cycle ended. (Leviticus 15:25-29) This was to insure that no one would accidentally touch a menstruating woman and become unclean. Now this woman had been having her issue or cycle abnormally for twelve years. So, hearing of Jesus and that he was in her town. She knowing the risk associated with it, decided, not only to leave the designated area. But set out to intentionally touch Jesus. She said to herself “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” and then took the initiative. Faith is taking the initiative.
The third facet, faith is risking failure. Acts 3:1-7 Peter, takes a big risk in this chapter. On their way into the temple for afternoon prayer, Peter steps out on faith, during what we could call, rush hour for the temple. It is three o’clock in the afternoon at the temple. The much of the town would be also making their way to the temple as well. So, what Peter was about to do was not something that would occur in the shadows. Not only that but the man whom we are looking at would have been very well know at least in the sense that he was brought to the temple everyday and sat at the entrance. So most of the towns people would have known that he was crippled. What Peter, was about to do was risky. If Peter told this man to get up and walk, and he didn’t everyone would see it. But, because he had faith, Peter takes the risk and speaks healing into this man’s life. There is no such thing as faith without risk. There is always a risk when you step out on faith. Faith is stepping out into the unknown. It’s looking at all things from God point of view. You take a risk standing up for righteousness. You take a risk speak up for what you believe in. You take a risk when you share the gospel with the lost. But, you do it because faith is risking failure.
So the first three aspects of faith are: It stretches your imaginations. When it comes to faith, your imagination should be out of this world. Faith is also taking the initiative. It’s leaving the designated area of complacency and moving intentionally toward what is hoped for. And faith is risking failure. It is sticking your neck out to do what seems impossible for you, but what God can do with you. These are just the first three facets. We will continue our look at faith in part 3 of how to describing faith. Until then Enjoy God’s Blessing!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
How to describe faith I
The Benefits of Faith
It's impossible to please God apart from faith. Heb 11:6 (MSG)
Hebrews chapter eleven is commonly referred to as the Hall of Faith. It’s called that because it talks about those in the bible who set great examples of faith. People such as Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham to name a few: who displayed great faith in God in what appeared to be impossible circumstances. The book begins by telling us that faith is the substance of what we hope for. In other words faith is essential to the Christian believer. When we talk about our faith to others it is sometimes difficult for them to understand not only why we believe but also what we call Faith. That may have a lot to do with our own inability to describe what Faith is. Not what your faith is, but what faith in itself is. Someone may ask so what is faith? And the most consistent answer will tend to be; Faith is trusting in God. But that leads to the next question about what faith is. How do I trust in God? Well you just believe! How and Believe what? All of these are good surface answer to the question what is faith. But they still leave us without a thorough answer to what faith is. The truth of the matter is faith cannot be summed up in one word or one sentence.
When we attempt to describe things to people we go into great detail to give them an overall picture of what we are describing. Let’s take a car for example. If someone asks you to describe your car, you could simply say well it’s a Chevrolet Impala. Well that is a description, but it is a description of a Chevrolet car it’s not a description of your Chevrolet car. If asked this question, you would most likely go into describing the color, the number of doors, if it’s an automatic or stick shift. You would describe the interior of the car. Whether you have leather seats or pleather…I mean cloth covered seats. We go into many details of our personal car, giving a complete explanation of our car. We have to exam faith in the same way. We have to exam every side of faith the way we would exam a diamond. Just like a diamond has many facets or sides to it, faith has many facets to it. Each facet of faith needs to be examined and described in detail for us to really understand and explain faith to others. So I want to take some time to take an examination of our faith and describe the many facets of it. But before we go into our examination of faith lets first talk about the benefits of faith. It’s important to know what you will gain from your faith just as much as it is to know how to describe it. This will give us a complete picture of faith.
The number does not indicate that one is more important than the other. They are all equally important.
The benefits of faith:
1) It determines what God can do in your life. We have the power to determine how God can use us. Faith is our direct link to the power of God in our life. The bible contains over seven thousand promises from God. And our faith is the key to each of those promises. Faith determines what God can do in your life.
2) It can solve impossible problems (Matthew 17:20). The bible tells us that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. The little faith you have is enough to produce the miraculous. It just depends on how big you see your God. If you put your little faith in a big GOD, you see the impossible happen. But if you see your God as a little bitty god who is limited in what he is able to do, well you will see little of miracles in your life. Faith can solve the impossible.
3) It is the key to answered prayers (Mark 11:24), Faith that God hears and answers our prayers. The bible tells us that we can have confidence that God not only hears our prayers, but that he will answer them. Faith says when I pray I already have it. Faith is the key to answered prayers.
4) It is the secret to achievement (Mark 9:23). With faith we are able to live the successful life. We are able to reach out and grasp our dreams. Faith turns our dreams into a reality. Faith is the secret to achievement.
5) It is the basis for miracles (John 14:12). When you find a lack in your life, put your faith on it. With faith we are not only able to do miracles, we are able to do great miracles. The bible tells us that with faith we will cast out demons, lay hands on sick and they shall recover. The works that Jesus worked, we will by faith do those works, and even greater works. His greatest work was when He died on the cross to bridge the gap between ourselves and God. Ask yours self “Am I doing greater workers in my life than Jesus. How many have you led to the bridge? Faith is the basis for miracles.
6) It is the key to partnership with God (Romans 14:21). When we have faith in God we become partners with him. Abraham believed God and was declared fit, because he was linked up with God. When you partner up with God; When God wins you when. Even when you don’t know what to do, your partner (God) knows. You win just because of who you’re connected to. Faith is the key to partnership with God.
7) It is the way to please God (Romans 11:6). There are many things that we look at and know that we can’t accomplish them ourselves. But God wants us to trust Him with things we know we cannot do by ourselves. It pleases God when we step out the boat trusting that even if I fall I know that I have a safety net. I know that God will catch me. Faith is the way to please God.
8) It Produces success in life (1 John 5:4). Faith is knowing who is with you. We have confidence when we know that Jesus is with us. Confidence is not the same as arrogance. Arrogance says I don’t need anybody else’s help. Confidence says I know I can’t do it without other peoples help. So faith gives us confidence. Confidence over fear; our faith neutralizes fear. God has blocked so many things that we don’t even realize, because of our faith. Fear sees your faith not you; Faith Produces success in life.
These are some of the benefits faith. But again faith is so vast that we could spend a lifetime giving the benefits of faith. But, faith is significant in our Christian belief system and it cannot be summed up in one word.
Now that we have the benefits of faith, we can turn to describing faith. But I will leave that for part two. But remember faith is essential to living this Christian life. Until next time Enjoy Gods Blessing!!!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Why am I suffering?
We live in a world where suffering, affliction and pain; natural disasters, sickness and disease are being seen on a global scale and at an alarming rate. leading some to ask the question, “If God is so good, why is there so much suffering?” Why is there so much pain? Where is God in this suffering world? The answer is; God is with you. But we live in a fallen world. God created the world and he created a perfect world. But something happen that changed it. When sin entered the world it became a groaning world. Our separation from the creator brought groaning into the world. (Romans 8:22-23) Like a woman in labor the whole creation groans and labors in wait for God. When a woman is really in labor she groans. And this world is groaning in labor. Waiting for God to come back and make things the way they are supposed to be. The world groans and man groans. We grumble and groan about our struggles. All of creation groans with anticipation, of the coming of God. So let’s address the question “Where does suffering come from?”
I would like to tell you about four reasons we experience suffering. The first reason we experience suffering is because of our situation. Our situation is this; we live in a fallen world. Creation is upset. This world was perfect when God created it but sin brought suffering into it. When man choose to turn away from God, suffering happened. (Genesis 3:17-19) Just because we live in the world we are going to experience suffering. Where ever you go problems will be there. Trying to avoid problems is impossible. One of the root causes of mental illness is trying to avoid problems. Ignoring your problems will drive you crazy. So the first reason we experience suffering is because of our situation.
The second reason we experience suffering is sin. Sin can be explained like this; sin is Self Inflected Non-sense. Through one man (Adam) sin entered this world. And it brought death and decay with it. God wanted to have a relationship with man (Adam). He wanted Adam to talk to him. He wanted Adam to talk to the woman (Eve). But when the serpent talked to Eve, Eve talked to Adam, but, Adam didn’t talk to God. That’s the self inflected non-sense. Generational inheritance is the passing down of characteristics from the parents to the children. The trans-generational effects of sin have been passed down from Adam and Eve to us. We were born sinners, but if we decided to continue living that way we suffer the consequences. Bad behavior and ideals that have been passed down from the parents put a pattern of failure in our lives. Children are not taught to go to church and they don’t know who God is, and they suffer the consequences. We have to put things in a different perspective. We suffer because of many of the decisions we make. We have to begin to take responsibility for the choices we make. “I am the reason why I am suffering”. The second reason we experience suffering is sin.
The third reason we experience suffering is Satan. God did not cause the suffering, Satan did. We have to acknowledge that we are in a fight. (1 Peter 5:8) We are in a fight with spiritually wicked enemies. (Ephesians 6:12) Satan is on the prowl and he wants to devour whoever he can. He will go to great efforts to do any and everything he can to try and alarm and overpower us. (Job 1:9-22, Job 2:7) He walks around roar like a lion, but he is just a mouse with a microphone. The third reason we experience suffering is Satan causes it.
The fourth reason we experience suffering is because we accepted Jesus. There is a situation that goes along with being a Christian. It’s called suffering. But don’t think it’s something strange and that you are the only one going through. (1 Peter 4:12) If you suffer as a Christian be glad that you bear the name and suffer for it. This world hates grace. And it is upset that you receive grace. When you decided to live saved, that mad Satan very mad. And he has had a hit out on you ever since then. The devil is going to fight you every day and for everything. He is going to do everything to make you question your salvation. You may ask the question, “Have I really changed”. The answer is yes! The fourth reason we experience suffering is because we are Christians.
We experience suffering because we live in a fallen world, because we sin and experience the consequences, because we are in a fight with Satan who is seeking to devour whoever he can and because we accepted Jesus as our lord and savior. There is something strange about suffering that is hard to put a finger on. But if you just look behind you, you will see it. That grace and mercy is following close behind you. There is nothing that you are going through or that you will go through that is not worth the coming glory. (Romans 8:18) Suffering is just temporary, what’s to come is eternal!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Maintaining A Balanced Life Part 2: Social Balance
In part one; we discussed having mental balance, physical balance and emotional balance. And we need balance in those areas of our lives, but we also need social balance. You can have everything right in your life, but if your relationships with people are not balanced, your life will still seem like it stinks. A lot of people don’t want to be Christians because we don’t balance our social life. Social balance does not mean balancing going to church with going to the club. That’s not what this is about. It means being open minded enough to allow others to experience the Christ in us. We have to be open enough to allow people to have and share their beliefs with us, even if they are different, while maintaining our Christian beliefs. One of Jesus’ main characteristics was His ability to socialize with everyone. In fact one of the Pharisees major criticisms of Jesus was that He hung out with sinners. (Mark 2:16).
Social balance is being in harmony with each other. God wants us to be in harmony with each other. (Romans 12:16-18) People that are high achievers are people who help and work with all types of people. And one of the benefits of having social balance is you will develop meaningful relationships with all types of people. With the right attitude and motivation; long lasting relationships will be developed. Your attitude alone can be your testimony to the people you come in contact with. When people experience you, they will want to know where your light comes from. We are not the light. We are just following the light. Jesus is the light. (John 8:12)
Having social balance is necessity if we are going to win souls to Gods kingdom. We do that by being open to the lost, keeping a righteous attitude and being motivated to build meaningful relationships with people. That’s a balanced social life.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Maintaining a balanced life
As Christians we need to maintain balance in our lives. We cannot be so Christ centered within ourselves that we forget to do the work God sent us to do, win souls to Christ. We need to have balance when it comes to winning souls to Christ. We have to balance sin & grace. We cannot just talk about the sin and leave out Gods grace for the sinner. On the other hand we cannot just talk about the grace of God without telling them why they need Gods grace. "Because we have all sinned and fallen short of Gods glory." We also need to maintain personal balance in our lives as well.
In closing we need to maintain mental, physical and emotional balance in our lives. In order to have mental balance, we have to renew our minds every day. And we have to screen and filter what comes into our minds. We need to maintain physical balance as well. Take care of our bodies. God gets glory when we take care of our bodies. And we are able to better carry the Word of God to others. Finally we need to maintain emotional balance in our lives. Satan wants to defect us emotionally so we insult God publically. But if we meditate on the Word of God we will stay emotionally balanced. If you don’t already have one. You need to find a church home where you can receive the word of God; sow seeds (give tithes & offering). The bible says give and you will receive. That’s balance.
When you’re out of balance in your personal live you don’t really understand what is going on around you. Two things happen when we get out of balance. 1) You get frustrated. You’re doing a lot of things for people, making sure everyone else is taken care of. Making sure everyone else is happy. But you realize that there is no one making sure you are alright and happy. You pour out, pour out and pour out, but there is nothing coming back into you. No one is restocking you, encouragement and strengthening you. And now you’re out of balance. If you get past the frustration and your still out of balance, you then get fatigued. You get fatigued because you’re trying to get the attention you think you need. You start doing drastic things (conforming) to get the attention.
So how can we maintain balance in our lives? Here are some areas to examine and keep in balance.
The first area is mental balance. You maintain mental balance by stretching your mind, by screening your input. You have to watch what enters into your mind. Romans 12:2 tell us to renew our minds. Once you get your mind renewed, you have to keep going back and doing it again and again. Renewing your mind must happen on a continual basis. I would say daily, but many times it’s hourly. This may not be the best example to use, but it will help. Most people take a shower or wash daily. Why because you get dirty daily. And sometimes more, so you shower again. When you get dirty again you shower again. Dirt gets on, and you wash it off. Renewing your mind is the same way. Unless you live in an isolated world avoiding all forms of communication, you will have things that enter your mind on a daily basis; through television, radio, work and many more ways. And you need to renew your mind every time. We cannot let the world conform and mold us. We came from the world, but at some point we have to stop acting so much like the world. People who don’t renew their minds are like open receptacles for trash, and everyone has access to them. Anyone can throw an idea out at them and they’re gone with it. You have to screen what you allow to come in and out. It’s our responsibility to renew our own mind not anyone else’s.
The next area is physical balance.1 Cor 6:19-20 We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are not ours, but Gods. He lives within us! It’s not your body; you’ve been given a body to glorify God. It is the vehicle that God gave us to spread His Word. And we need to take care of them. But, what satan likes to do is try to get to someone early in their life to make them mar and deface Gods body before they know they are the Lords workmanship. What satan did to a lot of Gods children was he got to them early and deceptively talked them into marking up Gods body, before they knew better. Now, this is not said to be a condemning statement. If you’re in Christ now you are saved. If you got a tattoo in the past, that is not going to cause you to lose your salvation. So if you did that in the past, do not feel bad or guilty. But, this is said for someone who may be thinking of getting one. That is not Gods desire for the body He gave you (read Leviticus 19:28). Remember the body you have is not yours. Its Gods body, He bought you out of the world with a price. So take care of yourself. Get physical check-ups and examinations. Keep yourself physically balanced.
The third area is emotional balance. There are some things that God placed inside of us that work involuntary, without us even thinking about them. Physically our heart beats without us thinking about. Our stomachs digest food without us having to sit and concentrate on it. Our lungs work without us thinking inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale again…and exhale. God placed all of these organs inside of us and we cannot actually see them. But we know that they are functioning. Why? Because, we are alive; because we are breathing; because we eat food through our mouths and later... Well, my point is God placed stuff inside of us physically.
God also placed spiritual things in us when we accepted Christ. Galatians 5:22 gives us a clear picture of an emotionally balanced person. the fruit of the Spirit paints a picture of who Jesus is. It gives us a picture of the anointing of Jesus in us. The anointing on your lives is what people see. And it’s an insult to God for us to say that we are His and don’t have the fruit of the Spirit functioning in us (emotional balance). That your love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control are not functioning. To say you don’t have that is to say that God made you incomplete. God put the fruit of the spirit in us. He didn’t tell us to go get it. HE put it there. What the devil tries to do is to defect us emotionally, so we insult God publicly. We’ll say we are Christians, but only be kind when people are kind to us. There may have been a time when you got upset when people talked about you, but know that you’re mature. The Holy Spirit and self-control says “be quiet, smile and let it go. Let them see the Christ in you”.
As you mature your fruit matures. And now you’re able to love easier, rejoice more and suffer longer. You’re a peace keeper now. In more control of yourself and have faith greater than a mustard seed. Just like you cannot see your heart or lungs, you cannot see the Holy Spirit. You see the result of the Holy Spirit. You don’t see love, you see someone who is loving. You don’t see joy, you see someone re-joy-cing. You see the fruit of the Spirit.
So, how do you stay emotionally balanced? Through the word of God. As long as you are getting the Word of God you stay emotionally balanced. You have to meditate of the Word of God. You cannot just simply go to church set there not take notes, waive your hands, say amen and wonder why nothing changed. The Word may have got on you, but, it’s not getting in. Because you’re not meditating on it. That’s like the doctor putting someone on high blood pressure medication, but they don’t take it. They sit it in the cabinet, but they won’t take it. That’s not going to help their condition at all. You need to get the Word and reflect on it daily. That’s how you maintain an emotionally balanced life.
In closing we need to maintain mental, physical and emotional balance in our lives. In order to have mental balance, we have to renew our minds every day. And we have to screen and filter what comes into our minds. We need to maintain physical balance as well. Take care of our bodies. God gets glory when we take care of our bodies. And we are able to better carry the Word of God to others. Finally we need to maintain emotional balance in our lives. Satan wants to defect us emotionally so we insult God publically. But if we meditate on the Word of God we will stay emotionally balanced. If you don’t already have one. You need to find a church home where you can receive the word of God; sow seeds (give tithes & offering). The bible says give and you will receive. That’s balance.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Personal Evangelism
Real evangelism begins when we surrender ourselves to Christ. He is to be our life and our consuming passion. He is the one who is in control. And since he is in control, we must trust him to tell us when, where and how to share the gospel. When we surrender ourselves, God will make us so interesting to non-believers that they'll want to know about our lives. They will notice something about us and they will begin to ask questions.
When they ask questions it is important for us to be ourselves and be real. God works through our personalities. So it’s important for us to remain gentle and courteous when sharing the gospel. We must be polite, pleasant and approachable. Seventy percent of evangelism is being approachable. Patience is also important because change takes time. It could take years for an unbeliever to begin to change and want to be saved. But it’s not up to us to change them. God is the one who will make the change. All he wants us to do is plant the seed. Our actions and attitude are also important; Our Character, Conduct and Conversation; because non-believers have a high standard for Christians. They don’t expect us to act and react in certain situations the way they would.
We will have bad experiences while witnessing to non-believers. They may push back against the gospel we are sharing with them. But we cannot give up because of bad experiences. The process is painful, but when lives are changed we will forget about the bad experiences.
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