[vimeo 105368125 w=500&h=281]
LifeChange, Episode Sixty Three
[vimeo 104554099 w=500&h=281]
LifeChange, Episode Sixty Two
[vimeo 104343109 w=500&h=281]
Is All Faith The Same?
Faith. It's one of the most misunderstood words to people today, including Christians as a whole. With so many talking about it, it's surprising just how few people really understand what faith is. To meet this need, why haven't more people made things simple by explaining, in simple language, what faith is? Hopefully today's post helps bring simplification to faith. Faith is faith. Faith for salvation, faith for healing, faith for prosperity, a new/better job-it's still faith.
How does faith come? By hearing the Word (Romans 10:17) in the area you need faith. Need faith for salvation? Romans 10:9,10, 13 works just fine, a practical application of John 3:16 itself. What about healing? Psalm 103:3, Isaiah 53:4,5, Matthew 8:17, Acts 10:38, I Peter 2:24, and 3 John 2 are but a few good healing scriptures to produce faith in your heart. For prosperity, hear these faith-building scriptures: Deuteronomy 8:18, Psalm 1:1-3, Proverbs 35:27, Isaiah 48:17, Matthew 6:33, Luke 6:33, 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, and 3 John 2, among others.
The same gasoline that runs a car's engine will also power a generator, lawnmower, or a motorcycle. Cookie dough at Christmas becomes a star, tree, snowman, or a reindeer. As with faith, the application determines the end result.
Regardless of application, how we get faith remains the same: by hearing what the Bible-God's Word-has to say on a given subject. We do the hearing, God does the providing (of faith).
Is all faith the same? Yes, in that faith is faith, gasoline is gasoline, and cookie dough is, well, cookie dough. No, in that the application of faith will produce salvation, healing, prosperity, or a job, to name a few results. The same faith, applied through different verses, will produce different results.
What other illustrations can you add to make faith simpler to understand?
LifeChange, Episode Sixty One
[vimeo 103743706 w=500&h=281]
Will the Real Church Please Stand Up?
The Church needs fixing. As a whole we're too comfortable, being either unaware of the need to change or unwilling to do so. Like it or not the times they are a changing, just as they were a generation ago. I see the Church desperately needing to do two things-and do them quickly-to regain the influence it once had (and should have) in our homes, schools, communities, and nations. The first is a return to who we really are. A return to what and who God created us, the Church, to be, nearly 2000 years ago.
The book of Acts is the pattern for the Church today. Read the book of Acts. With no internet, printing presses, or mechanized transportation, the early Church turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). This included signs, wonders, and miracles, resulting from the preaching of the Word of God. That same power belongs to us today. Signs, wonders, and miracles haven't passed away anymore than faith, hope, or love have. It's a matter of taking God at His Word, doing our part in proclaiming the truth, and expecting God to accompany His Word with signs following.
It worked for those in the early days of the Church; it'll work for us in these days, as well. Let's be the Church the world despises, yet so desperately needs.
The second thing the Church, as a whole, needs to do is change. Without changing core beliefs, change our methods to reach an ever-changing world, replete with tech-savvy young people who shun the very methods whereby those of the 60s, 70s, and 80s came to Christ. Folks, let's have as much sense as an experienced fisherman: if the fish ain't biting, don't blame the fish.
Change the bait.
Let's embrace the power, determination, and persistence of the early believers. At the same time, let's also embrace new ways-particularly technologically creative ones-to reach our world for Christ.
What are some ways you can think of to reach those around you-particularly young people between 13-25? What have you done or are planning to do to accomplish your ways?
My Concern With Change
Change. It's a popular word nowadays. A change in seasons, the economy, politics, to name a few. And, of course, one that's been in featured in the news: climate change. Suffice to say change-perceived or otherwise-affects us all. Looking back over the 50's and 60's I've noticed that changes are occurring at a faster rate than I can remember. What used to be seen as "one for the ages" is now, well, just another super invention; just another change. Having a touch-tone phone was once a status symbol. Now consumers expect the latest "G" on their iphones once a year, sooner being better.
Yet, with all this change, I'm concerned. My concern is that society as a whole-even Christians-have embraced change to the point that there's nothing unchanging in their lives, nothing to anchor themselves to. I'm concerned that we've become more concerned about the latest change than the unchanging things of God, which are as true today as they were thousands of years ago.
The Bible is a faith book written by a faith God, through men of faith. Unlike technology, faith never changes; it's constant. Faith in God's Word will work just the same today as it did for Jesus 2,000 years ago, Faith for salvation, healing, and finances hasn't changed over time, because God hasn't. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it's impossible to please God. When the Bible was written it took faith to please God; the same is true today. There's more chance of the devil being nice, than faith changing.
I'm all for change, to a point. My college senior paper was typed on a typewriter. No computers, word processors, or spell check. Computers make for more productive lives now. So, what's my point? I'm saying that, maybe, in our passionate embrace of the latest and greatest change, we've allowed change to distract us from something greater than change. That something is the unchanging truths found in God's unchanging Word, the Bible. Unchanging truths which, when believed and acted upon, change us from the inside out. That's change we can all live with.
How has constant change changed your own walk with God? What steps did you take (or are you taking) to maintain your focus on God's unchanging Word?
LifeChange, Episode Sixty
[vimeo 101966035 w=500&h=281]