What Does Having a Faith Based Religion Really Mean?
As Christians we like to say we live a faith based religion but what does that really mean? You know that Jesus told Thomas that he believed because he had seen, but Jesus said blessed are those who believe but have not seen. (Paraphrased) That is faith, believing in something which we have not witnessed ourselves. We place our faith in the Word of God, the Holy Bible. Now having said that I ask you to go to Hebrew 11:1. “Now faith is confidence…”. First, faith is having the confidence in the written Word of God. If you do not believe in the Holy Bible then you do not have faith in God! A couple of great examples of faith are Noah and Abraham. Noah against all the ridicule of his people, he still had the confidence in God to go ahead and build the ark. By his total faith in God, he and his family were rewarded by being saved from the flood which destroyed the world and all who were in it. Abraham bagged it all up and left his land not knowing where he was going but he had the confidence in God and moved on out in faith to later settle in int promised land. Laurie Hernandez of the 2016 U.S. Women’s gymnastic team said she prayed before and after each event for the Lord’s guidance but always His will. And if you watched the balanced beam team event you saw her mouth “I can do this, I can do this” as she approached the beam. She had already placed her confidence in Jesus to help her perform well and it was her performance on the beam that put the U.S. team out of reach. So it is confidence in our faith that is the first step in guiding us as a Christian.
Now if we go to Hebrews 12, the writer brings us to the next level of faith, perseverance. Verse 1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…”. The cloud he speaks of is what we call today a great crowd and the witnesses are all those who have gone before us. This is much like the olympics of today where there are large crowds of people cheering on the participants to victory, the prize being one of the coveted medals. These athletes train hard and long to be prepared to persevere through the entire race. However there is a much greater race we are all in but we are not competing to win any reward from this world. We are running to complete the race and by doing so we will all be winners. Our heavenly hosts (crowd) are there cheering us on to persevere and run a great race. Verse 1 continues on, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,” We are running this race for one reason and one reason only. It is that we have faith the Jesus of Nazareth is exactly who He says He is, that being the Son of God. If we persevere in this faith our reward is at the finish line! We continue to verse 2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” You see the greatest race has already been run for us. Jesus, by placing all His faith in His Father and fulfilling his appointed mission (race) and persevering through all the hatred and punishment this world could throw at Him and has perfected the path we are to follow in order to receive our rewards by the grace of God. As long as we continue to focus on Jesus we will not grow weary and we will come to the finish line where Jesus has reserved our place in the Heavenly Kingdom of God! I have placed all my hope and faith in the love of Jesus, my Savior. I pray that you have also!
In the loving name of Christ Jesus, Gary
What Does Having a Faith Based Religion Really Mean?
August 25th, 2016
What Does Having a Faith Based Religion Really Mean?
As Christians we like to say we live a faith based religion but what does that really mean? You know that Jesus told Thomas that he believed because he had seen, but Jesus said blessed are those who believe but have not seen. (Paraphrased) That is faith, believing in something which we have not witnessed ourselves. We place our faith in the Word of God, the Holy Bible. Now having said that I ask you to go to Hebrew 11:1. “Now faith is confidence…”. First, faith is having the confidence in the written Word of God. If you do not believe in the Holy Bible then you do not have faith in God! A couple of great examples of faith are Noah and Abraham. Noah against all the ridicule of his people, he still had the confidence in God to go ahead and build the ark. By his total faith in God, he and his family were rewarded by being saved from the flood which destroyed the world and all who were in it. Abraham bagged it all up and left his land not knowing where he was going but he had the confidence in God and moved on out in faith to later settle in int promised land. Laurie Hernandez of the 2016 U.S. Women’s gymnastic team said she prayed before and after each event for the Lord’s guidance but always His will. And if you watched the balanced beam team event you saw her mouth “I can do this, I can do this” as she approached the beam. She had already placed her confidence in Jesus to help her perform well and it was her performance on the beam that put the U.S. team out of reach. So it is confidence in our faith that is the first step in guiding us as a Christian.
Now if we go to Hebrews 12, the writer brings us to the next level of faith, perseverance. Verse 1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…”. The cloud he speaks of is what we call today a great crowd and the witnesses are all those who have gone before us. This is much like the olympics of today where there are large crowds of people cheering on the participants to victory, the prize being one of the coveted medals. These athletes train hard and long to be prepared to persevere through the entire race. However there is a much greater race we are all in but we are not competing to win any reward from this world. We are running to complete the race and by doing so we will all be winners. Our heavenly hosts (crowd) are there cheering us on to persevere and run a great race. Verse 1 continues on, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,” We are running this race for one reason and one reason only. It is that we have faith the Jesus of Nazareth is exactly who He says He is, that being the Son of God. If we persevere in this faith our reward is at the finish line! We continue to verse 2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” You see the greatest race has already been run for us. Jesus, by placing all His faith in His Father and fulfilling his appointed mission (race) and persevering through all the hatred and punishment this world could throw at Him and has perfected the path we are to follow in order to receive our rewards by the grace of God. As long as we continue to focus on Jesus we will not grow weary and we will come to the finish line where Jesus has reserved our place in the Heavenly Kingdom of God! I have placed all my hope and faith in the love of Jesus, my Savior. I pray that you have also!
In the loving name of Christ Jesus, Gary
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