Authoritative Faith

The Gift of Faith
Tests of Faith

Simple Faith

Matthew 7:24-29  The Message

^24-25 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
^26-27 “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”
^28-29 When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying—quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard.

For Reflection

Christianity is not a self-help program!  Jesus Christ is not a motivational speaker!

The Gospel is foundational.  It is, as *Diana Butler Bass  puts it, "God is ...that which grounds us ...home is a divine place, and our lives are linked with our neighbors' and with those around the globe."  She continues to say that the gospel contains a "deeply spiritual theology that  relates to contemporary concerns, provides meaning and hope for the future, and possesses surprisingly rich ties to wisdom from the past."

God is the ground from which we spring and to which we cling.  Jesus Christ is the gravity that draws us to God.  God is here! God is now!


Pray

that you will be held so tightly to the ground of God that you will never escape God's pull.  Pray that you will face the storms of life with courage and trust in God.  Pray for the hope in the future which can only come from God.

*Grounded, Finding God in the World, a Spiritual Revolution, 2015

Abundant Faith

The Gift of Faith
Tests of Faith

Simple Faith

Isaiah 55:1-7The Message

Buy Without Money

55 ^1-5 “Hey there! All who are thirsty,
    come to the water!
Are you penniless?
    Come anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
    Buy without money—everything’s free!
Why do you spend your money on junk food,
    your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
    fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
    listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you,
    the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.
I set him up as a witness to the nations,
    made him a prince and leader of the nations,
And now I’m doing it to you:
    You’ll summon nations you’ve never heard of,
and nations who’ve never heard of you
    will come running to you
Because of me, your God,
    because The Holy of Israel has honored you.”

^6-7 Seek God while he’s here to be found,
    pray to him while he’s close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life
    and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful,
    come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.

For Reflection

Eat from the tree of divine fruit.  Drink from the living waters.  God has not died.  God has not abandoned us.  God is here among us.  God's covenant with us is still active.  Embrace the Mystery that is our God.  Abandon your search for assurance in the material world.  No one, no thing; not position, nor power, nor riches will provide the freedom which comes from trust in God.

Pray

Pray about all things.  Pray so that you can deepen your dependence upon God.  Pray so that you can strengthen your intimate relationship with God.  Pray so that you might enjoy a oneness with the Holy Spirit.

Faith in Riches

The Gift of Faith
Tests of Faith

Simple Faith

Psalm 49:1-19  The Message

A Psalm of the Sons of Korah

49 ^1-2 Listen, everyone, listen—
    earth-dwellers, don’t miss this.
All you haves
    and have-nots,
All together now: listen.

^3-4 I set plainspoken wisdom before you,
    my heart-seasoned understandings of life.
I fine-tuned my ear to the sayings of the wise,
    I solve life’s riddle with the help of a harp.

^5-6 So why should I fear in bad times,
    hemmed in by enemy malice,
Shoved around by bullies,
    demeaned by the arrogant rich?

^7-9 Really! There’s no such thing as self-rescue,
    pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
The cost of rescue is beyond our means,
    and even then it doesn’t guarantee
Life forever, or insurance
    against the Black Hole.

^10-11 Anyone can see that the brightest and best die,
    wiped out right along with fools and dunces.
They leave all their prowess behind,
    move into their new home, The Coffin,
The cemetery their permanent address.
    And to think they named counties after themselves!

¹² We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
    Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.

^13-15 This is what happens to those who live for the moment,
    who only look out for themselves:
Death herds them like sheep straight to hell;
    they disappear down the gullet of the grave;
They waste away to nothing—
    nothing left but a marker in a cemetery.
But me? God snatches me from the clutch of death,
    he reaches down and grabs me.

^16-19 So don’t be impressed with those who get rich
    and pile up fame and fortune.
They can’t take it with them;
    fame and fortune all get left behind.
Just when they think they’ve arrived
    and folks praise them because they’ve made good,
They enter the family burial plot
    where they’ll never see sunshine again.

For Reflection

Only in our memories the good times prevail.  Sometimes we forget the bad times which were intertwined with the good times.  For many, God is ignored when the going is good.  We tend to think that the good times are all a result of what we have done, not what God has provided.

But, when the going gets tough and self-determination does not work, God is the first to be called upon.  "Save us!" we cry.  Can we trust God only when we are at the end or our rope?  Do we turn to God only after the false prophets of hope have led us down destructive paths? 

If God is in us, how can we be fearful?  If God is in us, how can we be led by the selfish bullies?  If God is in us, how can we be duped into false hope?  If God is in us we will be strengthened by our unreasonable trust in God's promise of all things good.

Pray

for the confidence in God which will lead to unreasonable, irrational trust.  Pray and listen for God who resides in you.

Fulfilling God

The Gift of Faith
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Powerful Faith

John 6:35-40The Message (MSG)

^35-38 Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.
^39-40 “This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.”

For Reflection

Are you aligned with Jesus?  Do you put your beliefs where your action is?  Do you act in love?  Do you forgive?  Are you humble.  Are you hospitable?  Do you have unreasonable trust in God.  Are you at peace with all of this, or are you nervous and fearful and still feel the pressing need to take matters into your own hands?

Pray

Having declared your belief in God and in the life that was and is Jesus the Christ, pray to remain in an intimate relationship with God.

Forgiving God

The Gift of Faith
Tests of Faith

Powerful Faith

John 5:19-24  The Message

What the Father Does, the Son Does

^19-20 So Jesus explained himself at length. “I’m telling you this straight. The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing.

^20-23 “But you haven’t seen the half of it yet, for in the same way that the Father raises the dead and creates life, so does the Son. The Son gives life to anyone he chooses. Neither he nor the Father shuts anyone out. The Father handed all authority to judge over to the Son so that the Son will be honored equally with the Father. Anyone who dishonors the Son, dishonors the Father, for it was the Father’s decision to put the Son in the place of honor.
²⁴ “It’s urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.

For Reflection

The Father is the son and the son the father, perfect atonement.  So, what we have read and heard of Jesus we have also read and heard of God.  We who believe in the consubstantality of God and the Son and gives up our lives to God will themselves receive ever lasting life and is no longer subject to the vagaries of the world.  When you live in God and God lives in you, you cannot help but to live a righteous life of love for God, for your self and for all of God's creation.

Pray

That you will act as Joseph, who was deceitfully driven from his home by his brothers yet received them in forgiveness and grace.  Thank God for The capacity to heal and to restore.

Healing God

The Gift of Faith
Tests of Faith

Powerful Faith

Matthew 9:27-33  The Message

Become What You Believe

^27-28 As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, “Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!” When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, “Do you really believe I can do this?” They said, “Why, yes, Master!”

^29-31 He touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe.” It happened. They saw. Then Jesus became very stern. “Don’t let a soul know how this happened.” But they were hardly out the door before they started blabbing it to everyone they met.
^32-33 Right after that, as the blind men were leaving, a man who had been struck speechless by an evil spirit was brought to Jesus. As soon as Jesus threw the evil tormenting spirit out, the man talked away just as if he’d been talking all his life. The people were up on their feet applauding: “There’s never been anything like this in Israel!”

For Reflection
God has shown us how to leap beyond the bounds of our humanity.  God has promised to abide in us, guide us , protect us, and has given us the power to serve God's will.  All God asks is that we give up our self-determination and turn our lives over to God.

Pray

that you might be able to rest in the knowledge that God is within you and God will lead you into righteousness.  Pray so that you many become what you believe.

Saving God

The Gift of Faith
Tests of Faith

Powerful Faith

Genesis 50:15-21 The Message

^14-15 After burying his father, Joseph went back to Egypt. All his brothers who had come with him to bury his father returned with him. After the funeral, Joseph’s brothers talked among themselves: “What if Joseph is carrying a grudge and decides to pay us back for all the wrong we did him?”

^16-17 So they sent Joseph a message, “Before his death, your father gave this command: Tell Joseph, ‘Forgive your brothers’ sin—all that wrongdoing. They did treat you very badly.’ Will you do it? Will you forgive the sins of the servants of your father’s God?”
When Joseph received their message, he wept.
¹⁸ Then the brothers went in person to him, threw themselves on the ground before him and said, “We’ll be your slaves.”
^19-21 Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid. Do I act for God? Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people. Easy now, you have nothing to fear; I’ll take care of you and your children.” He reassured them, speaking with them heart-to-heart.

For Reflection

God makes all things good.  God works for good in God's creation.  So no matter what transpires, trust in the Lord, be patient, and look for God's hand in improving the circumstances.  Trust the mystery that is our God.

Pray

That you will act as Joseph, who was deceitfully driven from his home by his brothers yet received them in forgiveness and grace.  Thank God for the capacity to heal and to restore.