Moses, Noah, Abraham and others are examples of faith

Yesterday I talked about part of Romans 4:16 today I want to quote the entire verse today. “Therefore ye are justified of faith and works, through grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to them only who are of the law, but to them also who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.”

Just a quick reminder here that the Jews were direct descendants of Abraham to whom the covenant and the law were given, and that now the Gentiles were adopted into that covenant and law and in that sense he is the Father of us all. Paul is using him here as an example of faith.

When I was a child my family did not go to church but my grandmother saw to it that we children went to Vacation Bible School each summer. There I heard the stories of the Bible. It was actually the story of Moses parting the sea that was a faith builder for me. I don’t recall any direction or example of prayer in our home, but Grandmother would also invite us for a sleepover at her house during Christmas vacation. In her house they read the scriptures and had prayer each night and so I learned to pray.

 In my prayers when I asked for something I would always remember the story of how the Lord parted the Red Sea – because there was a need. As I prayed I would always remember this great thing the Lord had done for those who believed in him. If he could do it for them, perhaps he could also answer my prayer. He did answer many of my prayers and my faith became knowledge that God could hear me and would answer my prayers.

We have many, many examples in the scriptures like Noah who walked and talked with God and like Abraham, who knew God so well that he knew his voice. 

Are your fears realistic?

“Therefore ye are justified of faith and works through grace to the end.” (Romans 4:16) We are vindicated, pardoned of our sins because of our faith, which begins with a hope, a belief of something greater than ourselves. When hope, belief and faith grow and are strengthened into works; or in other words when we change our behavior, our lives to reflect what we believe that faith or theory if you will, either becomes confusion or knowledge. Once it becomes knowledge we have no more need of faith.

Example: I hope our team will win the tournament. So I look at the possibilities. Well we are strong in this area, but not so strong with this. Maybe if we change this and that our team might have a chance. Hey, that worked. Now I believe we are in the running. We do the work. We practice, eat right, get ourselves individual and as a team in shape. Now I have faith we will win the tournament. We work hard and it comes down to the tournament it’s self. Are there doubts? Look deep. Not what we hope will happen, not what we wish will happen, but what does our heart, our gut, our insides tell us? That is how the Holy Spirit speaks to us. Sometimes, we have random thoughts. Learn to discern is that the Holy Spirit speaking to us or is it the other guy? Do we have doubts and fears? Are those doubts realistic?

I am claustrophobic and one day a water pipe sprung a leak under the house. My husband crawled under the house and fixed the pipe. The next day he called me from work and said would you crawl under the house and see if that pipe is still leaking? Claustrophobic fear came over me. “No,” I answered.

 “Why not?” he asked.

 “Because the house might fall on me.” Even as I answered I knew that was not a realistic fear. If it was really, really important I can and have crawled into small spaces but I’m not comfortable doing so. Is your fear realistic?

Are you afraid the other team might win the tournament because they are great players? Then they might actually win. That doesn’t mean that if you push aside that doubt and pretend it doesn’t exist that you will win. Neither is it absolutely certain that if you have faith to the very end that you will win. When you win then you have knowledge that you did win that game and you no longer need faith – for that game. But there will be other games. We have these small victories in our lives that teaches that yes, prayers are answered, and yes, miracles do happen. By these things we gain knowledge that God lives, Jesus is the Christ, the Holy Spirit can guide us, the Scriptures are true, and much, much more.      

Can we get to Heaven just by being good?

In Paul’s writing to the Galatians he says that “a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith of Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 2:16)  In other words if we do good works, help the needy, bind up the wounded, go to church, say rote prayers and  have not faith in Christ we are not justified, made clean, vindicated, or pardoned.

He’s actually talking here about being a Jew. The Jews had the law, the prophets, and the scriptures as opposed to being Gentiles to whom Christ did not come to start with. He was a Jew, born into the law then after he left Peter, who he called to be the prophet and administer over the church had a vision that opened the door of salvation to all – to the Gentiles.

I remember an individual Edward and I talked to who was a Jew, (we knew him well enough that he invited us to his Jewish wedding.) We gave him materials to read about Christ and his ministry and about our church. So he said, “Hey, I have this video I want you to watch. It’s about one of our great Rabbis.”

 We were glad to do so. What a disappointment. Indeed this Rabbi did a great work among the people, but there was not one word about Christ. Not one word that Christ had provided food, or jobs or blessings of any sort. No examples of conversions, belief, faith or testimony to the atonement of Christ. It was indeed dry bones with no substance to feed the soul.

Faith, and Knowledge - use them or lose them

 (James 2: 17 – 18)  Faith has been compared to a mustard seed. Like faith the mustard seed must be nurtured to grow. Remember the parable of the seeds? Some seeds fell by the wayside and the fowls came and devoured them. Some fell on the stony places and died because they had no depth. Some fell among the thorns and were choked out, but some fell on good ground and brought forth fruit some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold.  (Matthew 13:3-8)

“For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath” (Matthew 13:12) I think this must also be part of the law of faith I spoke of yesterday. If you forget to water and care for a plant it will die and it is amazing how quickly that happens. It is the same with faith. Neglected faith shrivels and dies and we don’t even notice. Knowledge being the result of faith can also be forgotten and it seems the weightier matters slip away faster. I set up my web site five years ago and I just now decided to get it going again. I have to relearn the entire thing all over again. Part of that is because of those constant updates to the system, but a lot of it is because I haven’t been using the knowledge I had.  “Faith , if it hath not works is dead, being alone… Shew me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works.”          

What is the Law of Faith.

Paul writes about faith in Romans 3:27 “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay But by the law of faith.” 

We are told that we receive blessing predicated upon the law by which they are given. It is such a comfort to know that that God is so organized, and that His church is also organized. There is nothing haphazard about the gospel. They say it is so simple that even a child can understand it and yet we swallow a mountain and cough at an ant. Some say that things just happened without rhyme or reason, but reason tells us that things came about by laws. I don’t know all the laws but I keep finding them as I read the scriptures.

So I don’t know exactly how the earth was formed but maybe it happened like this. Maybe there was an asteroid floating through space and because it is cold in space the asteroid was covered in ice. Maybe it accidently got caught in the pull of a sun, or maybe it was moved there by a being that knew the laws of the universe and knew how to move floating rocks around – Someone who understood the law of gravity and had the power.  When the rock came close to the sun the ice melted. Well, we can read the book of Genesis to find out what happened.  Nature is full of laws. Does water flow uphill?  No. the law says water seeks its own level.

 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidences of things not seen.”  (Hebrews 11:1) But what is the law of faith?  How does it work and what does it do. What good is it? Maybe we will learn as we study more about this overworked word. James 2: 17 - 18 says “faith , if it hath not works is dead, being alone… Shew me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works.”   So faith is an action verb and results in some activity. If you have the faith of a mustard seed the Lord said, you can do miracles. Perhaps that is the law of faith. If you plant it, and nurture it, it will grow. And what does it grow into? Knowledge. You start with believing that Jesus is the Christ and if you nurture that belief and don’t let it die it can grow in to knowledge that Jesus Is the Christ. I know without a shadow of a doubt, totally and absolutely that God lives.