-
God Initiates; We Respond
3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. (2 Thessalonians)
     According to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, faith is something that grows, and faith is directly linked to our ability to love one another.  Therefore, it is important to understand the nature of faith. All too often, faith is presented as something we whip up to get God to act on our behalf.  And, all too often, when things go wrong or we "don't get what we want from God"  Children of God are told they don't have enough faith. This false teaching has caused harm in the body of Christ and has hindered our ability to do the one thing Jesus said would make the world take notice--and that is to love one another.  "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
 (John 13:33) True Biblical faith does not reverse the Truth that God is the Intiator and man responds, so true faith is a response to what God has done, what He is doing and what He says He will do. Making man the Initiator and God the Responder actually makes folks insecure in their walk with God.  Think about it. If God depended on our amount of faith, faithfulness and abilities to get the job done, we would all be in big trouble.  It puts man in control and God at the mercy of our faithfulness.  Thank God that He does not wait for us to get enough faith to act on our behalf.  There is no record of anyone in Israel praying that God would send His Son to die on the cross, and yet, God did it.  There is no record of anyone praying that Jesus would rise from the dead, and yet, God raised Him from the dead. All of the disciples ran away and deserted Jesus, and yet, Jesus finished the work God gave Him to do.  We are dependent on God; not the other way around.  As we exercise faith in God's love for us we are going to learn to love one another. John said in 1 John that "We love because He first loved us."


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Conviciton Myth

-
Image
The great news that a believer is under no condemnation is often squelched with the statement, and I have heard it often, "God does not condemen us when we sin, but He will convict us." Really? Is that what the Scriptures teach? As baby Christians, we so often buy hookline and sinker things that are said by preachers, teachers or "mature" Christians because the "BIBLE" says its true. I have found and have been guilty of the same thing, that many folks know what the "BIBLE SAYS," but they have no clue what it means. The present example of God convicting His children is one of those lies. The idea that God won't condemn, but will convict comes from Jesus statement in the upper room. Jesus was telling the disciples about the coming and work of the Holy Spirit. He told them, "Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righ
Read more

Knowing Your Enemy is Half the Battle

-
Image
20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth I don't know if it is half the battle, but I do know that not knowing your enemy in the Christian life is crippling, confusing and catastrophizing . Many Christians might say, "Yep, I know my enemy--it is that filthy devil...I rebuuuuuuuuuuuuuke you filthy devil." Yes, satan is a powerful foe to be reckoned with; however, he is not the real problem...he has been stripped of his power. All he has left is the lie. Lies, lies, lies, is all he has. He is not allowed to come near any believer unless God allows it. It always makes me angry when I see people getting all whipped up about the devil when the Scriptures simply say, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." That is it. The believer has been given "all the fullness" (col. 2) of Christ Jesus which includes headship over the principalities and powers. All we need to do is resist. The weakest of believers have this aut
Read more