Faith is the victory

This was a post from three years ago.  I just want to repeat it because there is much about faith that is a myth of Christianity.  Christianity is more than just believing.  During the 2010 winter olympics in Vancouver there was a comercial on tv that said that we just needed to believe.  Believe in itself has no power.  It is nothing more than positive thinking.  What is needed is faith but faith in a person.  It is never our faith that does anything but it is our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His power to do anything.  Just believe?  Yes, but believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is the post from March 2010.

There is an old hymn that goes;


Faith is the victory,
Faith is the victory,
Faith is the victory
That overcomes the world.

Is this true? It could be argued that in one way it is true but it is also misleading. Our faith is never the victory, even our faith in Jesus Christ is not the victory but rather it is Jesus and Jesus alone that is the victory.

Now scripture says in 1 John 5:4 "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." When you read this in its context you know that it is faith in Jesus Christ and you must believe that He is the Son of God.

Overcoming the world is different than signs and wonders. Overcoming the world is overcoming the world's influence on our lives and having a new world view, one that is shaped by the Gospel.

Without Holiness

Before I say anything else I must say that it is true that without holiness no one will see the Lord.  The writer of Hebrews makes that clear.  However, it cannot be our holiness.  There are holy men who are not Christians who will not see the Lord because they have trusted in their own holiness.  We must be holy, we are called to be holy but while we know that we must be holy we fail over and over again.  We fail in so many ways so does that mean will not see the Lord?
The holiness we need is His holiness.  Now you may quote Peter who says, "Be holy, because I am holy".  1 Peter 1:16.  Remember a holy God will have a holy people. 
The writer of Hebrews says, "And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."  Hebrews 10:10.  We have been made holy not by what we have done but by what He has done for us.  Therefore, we can be holy.
So what about those that fall into habitual sin?  Are they a holy people?  Again let me ask you, are you a holy person apart from Jesus Christ.  We can admonish those who fall into habitual sin not to do it again but once again they fail.  We can pray for victory but what they really need is to have such a love fro the Lord that they will no longer want to sin.
It is true that we cannot see God without being a holy people but the myth is that we can make ourselves holy.  Only God can do that.

Power in the Blood

Growing up in rural Saskatchewan I did enjoy the rousing singing we did at our little church.  One of the songs we sang often was Power in the Blood.  Later I thought about that song and wondered why there was power in the blood.  The blood itself has no power but it represents the life.  When Jesus blood was shed on Calvary it represented that His life was given for our sins.  If Jesus had cut His finger do you think that there would have been power in the blood of that finger?  As Christians we need to always remember that the power in the blood is because of whose blood and why it was shed.
Similarly people often wear crosses or hang crosses around their necks.  Why?  The cross has no power in itself but the cross is where our Lord and Saviour died.  The cross without Christ has not significance.  The blood without the life and death of our Lord has no power. 
I still sing that wonderful hymn but I know now what it means. 

Is the need the call?

Growing up I often heard that the need was the call but as I studied scripture I saw over and over again that to go without the Lord sending you was disobedience.  For example in Jeremiah 14:15, "Therefore this is what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine."  When Isaiah saw the need his prayer was that the Lord would send him.  He did not assume that because there was a need that he should go.  His prayer was, "Here am I, send me."  Isaiah 6:8  When Jesus saw the people He told His disciples that they would, "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”  Matthew 9:38
So how should we view the need if it is not the call?  It should lead us to pray that the Lord would send workers into the field.  We should also pray that we would be willing to go ourselves if the Lord would send us.  The need is all around us and if the need is the call then what would we do?  What need would we respond to?  Let us pray that the Lord send workers and let us pray "here am I, send me."

Aren't we all God's Children?

At a former church we attended I remember a member chastising us regarding a group of people (I don't remember who or the context now) and telling us that they were God's children.  I wanted to ask her why she thought they were God's children.  Was it because they were created by Him?  We all have that in common but does that make us God's children?  The Scriptures tell us, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."  John 1:12  John is telling us that we become the children of God by receiving Him and believing in Him.  We have to be born into the family and we have to be adopted into the family.  We are born by the Spirit and we are adopted by the Spirit.  To quote J. I. Packer, " Sonship to God is not, therefore, a universal status upon which everyone enters by natural birth, but a supernatural gift which one receives through receiving Jesus."  Knowing God Chapter 19.
This is one of the myths of Christianity.  Some would have us believe that everyone is a child of God but Scripture makes it plain that only those who have been adopted into the family are children of God.  "For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.  The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.  And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."  Romans 8:14 - 17

Rude in church

What are some of the rude things that people do in church.  One pastor made up the following list:

1. Talking during a service.




2. Texting or surfing the web during a service. (One person mentioned seeing people playing video games on their phones.)



3. Sleeping—or snoring!—during a sermon.



4. Clipping fingernails during church. (I was amazed at how many people listed this offense. One person said his church’s sound technician clipped his nails routinely during the sermon, and it was amplified over the loud speaker.)



5. Answering a ringing phone in church.



6. Constantly getting up and leaving the auditorium, presumably to use the restroom.



7. Walking out of a service early, especially during a prayer.



8. Letting babies cry incessantly in the service.



9. Chewing or smacking gum. (One friend from Puerto Rico said he is particularly annoyed when people “chew gum like a goat.”)



10. Public display of affection. (One person complained about a man and wife who enjoy giving each other back rubs during worship.)

He got his attention

This year I decided that I would do something different on Sundays.  I have been reading the Bible through in three different translations, NIV, NASB, ESV, but on Sundays I would read from the Gospels.  Each Sunday I would read two chapters and this morning I was in Luke 5.  Pastor Gord preached from Luke 5 this morning. 

Peter was a fisherman and to get a fisherman's attention you need to do something with fish.  That is what happened.  Peter ended up with the biggest catch of his life.  I am sure that he noticed that it was no mere man that had told him to let down his net.

Peter was just a casual follower but he had learned to live in daily obedience.  His act of obedience resulted in his life being changed forever.

Take a listen to Gord's sermon.  You will find it here at http://www.gregorydrive.com/?i=9087&mid=18  It hasn't been uploaded yet but listen to it when it becomes available.

Mathematics

I studied mathematics in university and then I taught mathematics for 35 years.  The one thing I realized as I learned more and more mathematics is that there is more and more mathematics to learn. 

Suppose my seven year old grandson came to me and told me that he knew how to add, subtract, multiply and divide so he knew everything about mathematics.  Certainly I would not want to hurt his feelings but I also would want to show him that there is much more mathematics to learn.  He would not understand if I told him that he didn't know Calculus.

Sometimes as Christians we think of God the way that a seven year old thinks of mathematics.  They know the basics so they think that is enough.  Their knowledge of God may be that God is love but though that is true they are missing so much of the theology of God.  God is love is not just a definition of God or a description of His character but it is the basis of the justice, wrath, and so much more.

May we learn this:  The more I learn about God the more I learn that there is so much more.  Unlike mathematics which is finite, God is infinite so we can never understand with our finite minds everything about God.