What is faith? How would you describe it?
Here are a few things that I have gleaned from Scripture...
Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" and I Corinthians 21:9 "To another faith by the same Spirit..."
Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him".
Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen."
Faith is a gift, without it we cannot please God, and it provides substance to our hope and conviction regarding things that are not seen.
One might ask, "if faith is a gift from God, how then can God judge those who have little or no faith? Isn't the amount of faith someone has God's fault?" Well, that is a good question. And since I am not God, maybe this should be the end of this blog, but I also do not give up that easy...
May I suggest the following. God gives everyone the gift of faith. It is our responsibility to exercise the gift that God has given us. For example, God revealed Himself to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ. Did everyone accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour? No.... the conclusions that people came to varied from a servant of Satan to the Son of God. In a similar way, we can guess how people may deal with the gift of faith. Some will toss it aside (no faith), others may marvel at the packaging but never delve in to see the contents (little faith), and others will use the gift to varying degrees.
How might an individual know where he stands with regard to his faith? Or, how would you like to put your faith to the test, or grow in it? Where would you start? A good place to start would be in the beginning. "Really?" But of course...
In Hebrews 11 what is the first example of faith given?
Hebrews 11:3 "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
What do you believe about the origin of life? What the Bible says or something else? I could not write, "or what science says," because there is a body of science that supports what the Bible plainly says. I write "plainly says, " because there are those who would add to what is in the text to match what they think they see. The Bible plainly states that the heaven, and earth, and the seas and everything in them were created in six days with the seventh day being the day that God rested from the work that He had done. The six days of work and one day of rest was cited later as an example to the nation of Israel for observing the Sabbath. Exodus 20:11
"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." There is plenty of evidence, both in scripture and in science, for a young earth. If you are interested in further study see.
www.icr.org
www.answersingenesis.org
Romans 1:20 indicates why it is important to understand and acknowledge God's hand in creation...
"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"
Can you think of any examples that would support Romans 1:20? Something about the nature of God that can be understood by the things that are made? How about the Trinity? Or God being three in one? You may have heard the Trinity compared to an egg. The shell, the yolk, and the white. Or maybe even water. Ice, liquid, and steam. Does the Bible ever say, "God is an egg?" or "God is water?" How about this..."God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all" 1 John 1:5. What did God say on day 1? "Let there be light"
What do we know about light?
Well if you are sitting in front of a computer at the moment, you are seeing light. That is if the computer is on and the monitor is not in a sleep mode. If there is a white patch and you have a very good magnifying glass you will see that the white is not white, but a combination of red, blue, and green. In fact, if you have a paint program, those three colors can be combined in different quantities to produce all the colors that can be seen. All three are required for white light, the absence of all three is darkness. Each one of the three is light. The sky is blue, the grass is green, and sunsets that cause us to gaze in awe are different shades of red. Our Father is in heaven (blue), the Spirit enables us to grow (green), and we are saved by the precious blood of Christ (red).
Here are a few things that I have gleaned from Scripture...
Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" and I Corinthians 21:9 "To another faith by the same Spirit..."
Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him".
Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen."
Faith is a gift, without it we cannot please God, and it provides substance to our hope and conviction regarding things that are not seen.
One might ask, "if faith is a gift from God, how then can God judge those who have little or no faith? Isn't the amount of faith someone has God's fault?" Well, that is a good question. And since I am not God, maybe this should be the end of this blog, but I also do not give up that easy...
May I suggest the following. God gives everyone the gift of faith. It is our responsibility to exercise the gift that God has given us. For example, God revealed Himself to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ. Did everyone accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour? No.... the conclusions that people came to varied from a servant of Satan to the Son of God. In a similar way, we can guess how people may deal with the gift of faith. Some will toss it aside (no faith), others may marvel at the packaging but never delve in to see the contents (little faith), and others will use the gift to varying degrees.
How might an individual know where he stands with regard to his faith? Or, how would you like to put your faith to the test, or grow in it? Where would you start? A good place to start would be in the beginning. "Really?" But of course...
In Hebrews 11 what is the first example of faith given?
Hebrews 11:3 "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
What do you believe about the origin of life? What the Bible says or something else? I could not write, "or what science says," because there is a body of science that supports what the Bible plainly says. I write "plainly says, " because there are those who would add to what is in the text to match what they think they see. The Bible plainly states that the heaven, and earth, and the seas and everything in them were created in six days with the seventh day being the day that God rested from the work that He had done. The six days of work and one day of rest was cited later as an example to the nation of Israel for observing the Sabbath. Exodus 20:11
"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." There is plenty of evidence, both in scripture and in science, for a young earth. If you are interested in further study see.
www.icr.org
www.answersingenesis.org
Romans 1:20 indicates why it is important to understand and acknowledge God's hand in creation...
"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"
Can you think of any examples that would support Romans 1:20? Something about the nature of God that can be understood by the things that are made? How about the Trinity? Or God being three in one? You may have heard the Trinity compared to an egg. The shell, the yolk, and the white. Or maybe even water. Ice, liquid, and steam. Does the Bible ever say, "God is an egg?" or "God is water?" How about this..."God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all" 1 John 1:5. What did God say on day 1? "Let there be light"
What do we know about light?
Well if you are sitting in front of a computer at the moment, you are seeing light. That is if the computer is on and the monitor is not in a sleep mode. If there is a white patch and you have a very good magnifying glass you will see that the white is not white, but a combination of red, blue, and green. In fact, if you have a paint program, those three colors can be combined in different quantities to produce all the colors that can be seen. All three are required for white light, the absence of all three is darkness. Each one of the three is light. The sky is blue, the grass is green, and sunsets that cause us to gaze in awe are different shades of red. Our Father is in heaven (blue), the Spirit enables us to grow (green), and we are saved by the precious blood of Christ (red).
Faith is ... the evidence of things not seen.
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