Sincere faith is not nice if we manage it; sincere faith is vital. What is faith? Faith is the lifeblood of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Without faith we cannot see God. Faith is not believing there is a God. That's not faith, it is simply belief. I can believe a lot of things without them impacting my life. It is impossible to have a faith that does not impact our lives.
Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1, CEV)
What we have today is a lot of religious people who are very faithful at practicing their religion. We do not have a lot of people who have made the decision to live by faith. What do we think God is saying to us when we read:
But we live by faith, not by what we see. (2 Corinthians 5:7, CEV)
We don't have time today to go through all the scripture related to living faith but we need to understand that Jesus even reflected on this as he wondered out loud:
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find on this earth anyone with faith? (Luke 18:8, CEV)
When I was young I had no idea why Jesus would say such a thing but now that I am older and I see what passes for faith, I understand. Within myself there is a war that rages because it is easy for me to do things in my own strength and intelligence. I am a very capable man but Jesus never asked me to do anything within my own ability because my ability is too limiting to him. He wants to achieve things through me that I cannot achieve in myself, not for me benefit but for his. He wants me to live a surrendered and obedient life so that I will listen to his words without question and act on them. Faith means obedience.
Paul warned Timothy that the end times would be filled with a lot of religious people but not so many living by faith:
Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won’t be real. Don’t have anything to do with such people. (2 Timothy 3:5, CEV)
Let me ask you this: How much time have you spent studying Jesus' life and words? We are guilty of spending a lot of time studying methods, history, all kinds of different topics but what about just Jesus? Just his words? Just his actions? Just his promises? Just his commands? We want to look at everything except for our responsibility in this relationship. Our responsibility is to have faith and this faith produces trust and obedience. This faith provokes us into actions that go beyond what we can do in our own abilities. This faith changes everything we see, everywhere we go, everything we put our hand to and everyone we encounter.
Honestly, if we were living by faith there would not be a word of complaint on our lips. If we were a people of faith, fear would be replaced by faith. Fear will try to press in but faith will be our shield. If we are a people of faith, there would be nothing in this earth that can come between us and Jesus. Faith destroys fear, depression, lostness, despair. More than that, faith gives us hope, strength, joy, amazement, purpose because Jesus is real and present with us. Faith makes obedience to Jesus' commands as our purpose and priority. Can we say that of ourselves? Can we honestly?
Look around. Will Jesus find anyone with faith on his return? Perhaps we should make a declaration like Joshua: As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord! We need to bring the reality of faith into our lives so that we will have the determination not to disappoint Jesus when he calls us to him. It's frustrating to see what we are making of it, playing church and being faithful to our religion but leaving the reality of it untouched. Sincere faith, we must live by it.
Showing posts with label end of the age. Show all posts
Showing posts with label end of the age. Show all posts
Friday, April 12, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Where Is This Attitude Coming From?
As we sit and wait to see if another madman will drag us into another world conflict, we should do a little reflection on how we are impacting the world as individuals. This crazy little man is willing to sacrifice countless lives for some hidden personal agenda. What are you willing to sacrifice to impact this world as Jesus did? There is no doubt we are in the last days so we need to do everything we can to fulfill the mandate that Jesus gave us which is to present him to everyone we can, whenever we can, wherever we are.
The world is going crazy, and not just because of dictators. Look to our own neighbourhoods and lives. We have neighbours killing neighbours, parents killing children, children killing parents, children killing themselves. We have wife abuse, child abuse, elder abuse, animal abuse. We have countless thousands of unborn children being killed on the altar of self. It is crazy and will only get crazier. The Spirit warned us through Apostle Paul:
People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity. These people will hate everything that is good. They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. (2 Timothy 3:2-4)
That is a lot to take in so take it one thing at a time.
The first is a great description of a lot of people I meet today : People will love only themselves and money. For sure, there are a lot of great people who have a heart for others but those numbers are falling. Many problems in our cities and neighbourhoods are because people put themselves ahead of others. If people were not in love with themselves, we wouldn't mind sacrificing for each other. The question is, are we any better? The money issue speaks for itself.
Consider the people you see every day. Would you describe any of them as being proud, stuck-up (not willing to associate with those in a perceived lower class), rude, disobedient to their parents? Obedience to parents is a big thing to God. If we don't learn obedience to our parents then disobedience will run in everything we do. We will find ways to get out of paying taxes, cheating the system, doing whatever we can to better ourselves against the system without getting caught. Disobedience is a huge problem and I am not referring to teenagers.
What better way to describe the growing attitude of our society than ungrateful, godless, heartless and hateful. It is a very angry society, hurting and being hurt. There is a lot of hate out there and it doesn't take much to touch it off. People care less about their neighbours. Maybe they mean to care but they don't. "Live and let live" because I don't want to be involved, is a great way of summing up a lot of attitudes I see these days.
Notice how Paul is describing the people of the end days because what is being described is a people who have lost love: cruel words, no self-control, no pity. They just have no heart. They don't know grace or even understand it. It's all about vengeance and justice. The love those who love them and hate those that hate them. These are the days we are living in as we see our communities and the world being transformed by an underlying hate and distrust.
So where is this evil coming from? Simple : instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. That is all we live for, what our society orbits around; pleasure. We don't want anything to interfere with it. Half the world is starving to death but we are fine as long as we have our $500 game counsel and the latest smart phone. It is incredible how the world has changed in 50 years. I really don't think it has another 50 to go.
In this mess we have been given the task of burning bright for Jesus. We recognize the times we are in. We continue to call good good and evil evil. We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and we refuse to be polluted by the self-centered atmosphere of our society. We know we are here to serve. We are here to impact the world for Jesus. In the face of the selfishness of our society we live a selfless life, willing to give it all up for the sake of one soul. Does this describe us? It should if Jesus is our everything. It should if we understand our mission. It should if we are walking in obedience because we love him.
According to the world thermometer, it is time to wake up from the intoxication of this world and seek the holiness of our God. It is time to put on the robe of righteousness and live every moment of every day for the glory of our King. We have been distracted long enough; now let's get our mind and heart on things above.
The world is going crazy, and not just because of dictators. Look to our own neighbourhoods and lives. We have neighbours killing neighbours, parents killing children, children killing parents, children killing themselves. We have wife abuse, child abuse, elder abuse, animal abuse. We have countless thousands of unborn children being killed on the altar of self. It is crazy and will only get crazier. The Spirit warned us through Apostle Paul:
People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity. These people will hate everything that is good. They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. (2 Timothy 3:2-4)
That is a lot to take in so take it one thing at a time.
The first is a great description of a lot of people I meet today : People will love only themselves and money. For sure, there are a lot of great people who have a heart for others but those numbers are falling. Many problems in our cities and neighbourhoods are because people put themselves ahead of others. If people were not in love with themselves, we wouldn't mind sacrificing for each other. The question is, are we any better? The money issue speaks for itself.
Consider the people you see every day. Would you describe any of them as being proud, stuck-up (not willing to associate with those in a perceived lower class), rude, disobedient to their parents? Obedience to parents is a big thing to God. If we don't learn obedience to our parents then disobedience will run in everything we do. We will find ways to get out of paying taxes, cheating the system, doing whatever we can to better ourselves against the system without getting caught. Disobedience is a huge problem and I am not referring to teenagers.
What better way to describe the growing attitude of our society than ungrateful, godless, heartless and hateful. It is a very angry society, hurting and being hurt. There is a lot of hate out there and it doesn't take much to touch it off. People care less about their neighbours. Maybe they mean to care but they don't. "Live and let live" because I don't want to be involved, is a great way of summing up a lot of attitudes I see these days.
Notice how Paul is describing the people of the end days because what is being described is a people who have lost love: cruel words, no self-control, no pity. They just have no heart. They don't know grace or even understand it. It's all about vengeance and justice. The love those who love them and hate those that hate them. These are the days we are living in as we see our communities and the world being transformed by an underlying hate and distrust.
So where is this evil coming from? Simple : instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. That is all we live for, what our society orbits around; pleasure. We don't want anything to interfere with it. Half the world is starving to death but we are fine as long as we have our $500 game counsel and the latest smart phone. It is incredible how the world has changed in 50 years. I really don't think it has another 50 to go.
In this mess we have been given the task of burning bright for Jesus. We recognize the times we are in. We continue to call good good and evil evil. We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and we refuse to be polluted by the self-centered atmosphere of our society. We know we are here to serve. We are here to impact the world for Jesus. In the face of the selfishness of our society we live a selfless life, willing to give it all up for the sake of one soul. Does this describe us? It should if Jesus is our everything. It should if we understand our mission. It should if we are walking in obedience because we love him.
According to the world thermometer, it is time to wake up from the intoxication of this world and seek the holiness of our God. It is time to put on the robe of righteousness and live every moment of every day for the glory of our King. We have been distracted long enough; now let's get our mind and heart on things above.
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