Faith doesn’t compel God to act on our behalf the way prosperity/health/wealth false teachers say it does. Our words are NOT containers of power. Our prayers do not make God do things for us, no not even when we add, “In Jesus name.” to the end. Faith is the belief that God will do what He has said. Faith is the belief that He is who He says He is. Here is a section of scripture that is always violently twisted by the false teachers. I want you to notice something. The centurion didn’t make Jesus heal his servant. He came asking humbly for his servant to be healed. Jesus, being God decreed that it is so, and it was. The servant was healed because Jesus did it in accordance to His own will. He wanted to heal the servant. He demonstrated the love, mercy, and sovereignty of God in this healing. The lesson is to come to Jesus humbly and ask, believing that He is God and if it is “HIS” will it will be done. Then when He says it is so, we demonstrate great faith by believing Him. Do you want to hear Him tell you things? Read the Bible. Don’t wait for a, “word” or, “a still small voice.” Open your Bible and study it. Read His words and believe them. Live your life as if you do believe them. That is great faith.
Matthew 8:5-13 NASB And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, (6) and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” (7) Jesus *said to him, “I will come and heal him.” (8) But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. (9) “For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” (10) Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. (11) “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; (12) but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (13) And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment.
Tag: faith
Two Types of Faith.
There are two types of faith. One type of faith is willingness to believe in something, which isn’t proved, or a hope in something that may be. Then there is a saving faith, which is granted by God to those who He has elected, and predestined.
The first type you might have had in a person. For instance, perhaps they told you that they would do something for you, and you believe that they will. Then you act on that faith in hopes that they will fulfill their promise to you. Some people have that type of faith in God, in a general sense. They believe there is a God, and they hope He is merciful. They might even believe He is merciful. They might even believe they are saved. Have you talked with someone who has many heretical beliefs, bad fruit, and still insists that they are a Christian? I’m sure you probably have. This person doesn’t have the second type of faith.
The second type of faith is the saving kind. It isn’t something we can come to without God. It must be granted to the person by God. You can want to believe, but without God granting it, you could never have it. Have you ever been talking with someone, sharing the gospel with them, and had them say, “Wow! That really sounds like a great gift, I just can’t believe in a God that would_______.” They can understand the gospel intellectually, they might even like it as a philosophy, but they just can’t believe it.
The second type of faith, when God grants it to a person, allows them to believe in Him rightly. It allows them to believe in the work of Jesus on the cross. Without it the cross is just another mythology. The true believer has the faith to do things that doesn’t make sense to the world. We have the faith to put into practice the doctrines of the Bible. God fulfills His promises and makes effectual that which He has willed. The believer will produce fruit in keeping with the spirit of salvation. The believer will persevere until the end. The believer will operate with the presupposition that the Bible is true. The believer will love Jesus. The believer will love others. You get the idea. They don’t do the things they do because they want to believe, they do them because they actually believe. This is a gift from God. It is coupled with true repentance when a person is justified by Christ.
Gay marriage, What’s next?
In the near future, gay marriage will be a reality across the U.S. It seems that we have become the moral minority. The younger, more liberal crowd and even moderates are on board with it. Even some professing evangelicals are approving gay marriage. I don’t understand it, but it is going to happen. I have resigned myself to it as a certainty.
We’ve been told that all they want is the same rights that we have to be married. Marriage isn’t a right to be conveyed upon a people by a government. Marriage predates any human government or authority. As such, governments can only recognize what God has already ordained. In this post-Christian world of secular morals, government no longer looks to the moral authority of God, who transcends their authority. No, they look to the secular majority for their doctrine. The majority wants gay marriage to be a reality. We can’t stop it from happening. The secularists and the government will take marriage and define it how they will. That does not mean that the marriage is one of Godly ordination.
The question we need to ask now is, “What’s next?” What will they want from us? I am certain they will want the, “right” to be married in a Christian Church, by a Pastor. Now ask yourselves, “Why would a couple who don’t believe in the authoritative word of God or God Himself, want to be joined in a covenant between Him and a man and a woman? Why would they want to do this in a Church that is dedicated to God? Why would they want a minister of His word to perform the ceremony?” It doesn’t make any sense to us because our minds are being renewed by the reading of His word. We are not worldly thinkers anymore. Our moral authority is external to us. God is our Lord and master, not the sinful world system that enslaves the minds of the unregenerate.
We can’t expect them to change their minds and be reasonable. They are deceived by their very own sinful natures. It is this fact that drives them to pervert every good thing from God. They will keep doing this because they are His enemies. Because we love the Lord and are His children, the world will hate us for His namesake. This is just one step on the path to full open persecution of Christians in America. The next step will be to punish Churches that won’t perform the ceremony for them. Then it will be to arrest anyone who preaches from the Bible about Hell, sin, and mankind’s wretched state. It will be a, “hate-speech” violation to call a person a sinner and to suggest that God is anything other than love. Try it now. Try preaching the justice of God and His sovereignty. Try preaching that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Preach that all are destined for eternal torment in Hell lest they repent and put their faith in the exclusivity of the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the utmost offense, that there is only one way to the Father and that is through Jesus.
If you don’t believe it will happen, then you will be surprised when oppression, in a velvet glove comes to quietly crush you in the night. Then later the gloves will be off and open persecution will come. We will see the type of persecution that happened during the communist revolution in Poland. We will see the persecution that happens to our brothers and sisters in Christ that is happening now all over the world. When it hits home it will be too late. It will be too late for us to be salt and light. There will be nobody to listen to us except to delight in our cries.
For those of you who are secular and reading this… remember. Remember what I have said this day. When it happens while you are young or much older, remember and intervene. Let it be a testimony to you. Let the screams of the tortured bounce around in your head until you see the truth of it. Then, repent and ask God to forgive you for being so very wrong. Repent and put your faith in Him to forgive you for going along with it. He is merciful and trustworthy to forgive a humbled, penitent heart. You can know peace between you and your creator through His finished work on the cross. Jesus has paid the debt that your sin has accrued. He provides righteousness for you upon your regeneration and justification. May God bless you with salvific repentance and faith.
Here in Idaho the gays are being very hypocritical against Butch Otter and all of us poor breeders.
All the so called poor persecuted sure are putting out some hateful, bigoted, intolerant, rants against Butch Otter. Haters be hatin’ funny, as long as they are doing the name calling it’s ok, but say anything against their personal brand of sin and they get all bent. Guess what kids, we are all sinners and it is NOT ok. We need to repent and put our faith in Christ. Sexual sin is just as bad when a straight person does it. That doesn’t make it right. Just because it is something you can’t change about yourself doesn’t make it right. God changes us. We don’t do it by force of will. If you don’t get that I guess that is your answer as to why. If you could understand repentance and faith you would. I was born a sinner. We all are. Your pet sin needs to be repented of regardless of what it is, whether it is adultery, fornication, porn, lying, hatred, or any other sin your wicked little heart can think of. There is no such thing as a God ordained gay marriage. The government and the people can do what they want. If they vote it in, fine. Just stop hating on us poor breeders for voting our consciences that are in keeping with our worldview. Here is just one example http://www.boiseweekly.com/CityDesk/archives/2014/05/17/boise-state-public-radio-idaho-brewery-announces-little-bitch-otter-beer
Christian oppression and persecution around the world and in America.
Christian oppression and persecution around the world and in America.
Persecution – a program or campaign to exterminate, drive away, or subjugate a people because of their religion, race, or beliefs: the persecutions of Christians by the Romans.
Oppression – the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
These are the two concepts we are going to be dealing with today. I want you to note that oppression is a way to persecute people. It is persecutions ugly little sister. When oppression is fully grown she becomes open persecution. In America today we are beginning to see oppression of the Christian world view. The post-Christian, secular, world is now beginning to openly and brazenly display their hatred, intolerance, and bigotry, towards anyone espousing a Christian world view. If it isn’t evident to you it is because you aren’t a Christian, ipso facto you are part of the oppressive secular world. Of course you wouldn’t want to consider yourself an oppressor, but you are complicit. My favorite intolerant hate mongering comes from the people, who claim to be its biggest victims, the gay community. “Tim Tebow prayed to God! Shut him up!!! Another athlete came out of the closet! Hooray!!! He/she is such a brave hero to come out in the face of such oppression!!!” Wow! Seriously? What is wrong with your mind? Can’t you see the blatant double standard?
I also love it how secularists will criticize Christianity, but they won’t touch Islam for fear of getting their heads chopped off, being hung, or having their buildings blown up. When is the last time you saw a Presbyterian burn down a newspaper building for printing an article criticizing them? When is the last time you saw Christians chop off someone’s head for saying derogatory blasphemous things about Jesus? It’s ok though. We are told that the world will hate us for loving Jesus. That is how we know we are doing it right. If the world loved us we would be just like them.
If they hated Christ so much they wanted to kill Him, hated His Apostles so much they brutally killed them all as well, hated the early Church Fathers so much they did the same to them, what makes us think we will get treated any differently? Let’s see, Jesus was savagely beaten, cursed, spat upon, and crucified. Peter was crucified upside down on a cross because he didn’t think himself worthy to be crucified like Jesus, whom he loved. James was decapitated with a sword. His unfailing faith in Jesus and the resurrection affected his executioner so much that he himself was martyred. Stephen, the first Apostle to be martyred was stoned to death by Paul who would later become a Christian as well. Andrew was crucified as well just like his brother Peter. Doubting Thomas, we all remember him right? He had so much faith in Christ he continued to preach of Him until he was finally killed. They made it a party, they burned him with hot metal plates, and they stabbed him through with spears of pine, and then finally burned him alive. How’s that for a good time? Do you feel it yet secularists? Phillip was tortured and crucified. Matthew was beheaded, in other words they chopped off his head… Noticing a trend here? That’s not even all of them. That is but a few.
We aren’t seeing that in America… yet. We are seeing it all over the world. It hasn’t stopped. It won’t stop. As long as there are Christians in the world the world will hate them, torture them, and kill them. The secularists don’t even ask why. They don’t care. They are like the communists in Poland during the communist takeover. They think the world will be better without them. Just do a search on the internet for images with the words, “persecuted Christian” You will find people that have been hung, stabbed, had acid poured on their faces, been cut with machetes, even crucified. 
Somehow this goes right under the secularist’s radar. They turn a blind eye while screaming about gay marriage. They scream for women’s rights and how this Christian society is so oppressive, but they don’t look twice or even once for that matter at how Islam treats women. It is ludicrous!!!
We are being oppressed now. The secularists are shouting us down. They won’t listen to reason, and they won’t be swayed away from their own hateful hearts. They believe they are justified in hating Christians. Why is that you might ask? It is because we say that all men and women are born sinners and are evil. This is at the root of it. They hate it when they have to look into the mirror and see their own sin as contrasted to the righteousness of Christ. They know they are sinners, but have repressed that knowledge in unrighteousness. They seek to elevate man, and eliminate God. When they see someone or something that reminds them of how evil they are they have two options, repent, or kill it. Guess which option they are choosing more and more today? My friends it is imperative that we preach the good news of Jesus Christ even under the duress of persecution and death. When John Hus the Reformer was burned alive for opposing the Roman Catholic Church and staying true to Christ he was singing hymns in the flames and praying. We must finish our race strong for Christ. Pray that He grants us the grace to be faithful under oppression and for us to finish strong when martyred.
Pragmatism is a lack of faith.
Pragmatism is a lack of faith.
Pragmatism is a lack of faith. It stands in opposition to faith. Pragmatism is defined by Dictionary.com as;
noun
1. character or conduct that emphasizes practicality.
2. a philosophical movement or system having various forms, but generally stressing practical consequences as constituting the essential criterion in determining meaning, truth, or value.
Here is another definition from World English Dictionary;
1. action or policy dictated by consideration of the immediate practical consequences rather than by theory or dogma.
2. Philosophy
a. the doctrine that the content of a concept consists only in its practical applicability
b. See also instrumentalism the doctrine that truth consists not in correspondence with the facts but in successful coherence with experience.
A pragmatic person relies on their experiences when making decision. Some may argue that you can be a pragmatic Christian even. They might assert that someone who has exercised faith and experienced the results of that faith and then came to trust it would be a pragmatist. The problem with that line of thinking is that the person had to have faith to make the unreasonable decision in the first place.
What is faith? Dictionary.com defines faith as;
noun
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another’s ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
5. a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.
6. the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: Failure to appear would be breaking faith.
7. the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one’s promise, oath, allegiance, etc.: He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.
8. Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.
In this instance we are looking at faith as the ability to make decisions based on what the Bible says about God, and life regardless of how our worldly knowledge would inform us. For instance, it seems wrong to the worldly to give to others selflessly when you see them in need. The pragmatist would only give what little he could spare, and he would only do so because his conscience was bothering him, or he wanted to look charitable in the eyes of his neighbors.
Pragmatism is a big problem in the church today. I’m sure it has always been a problem in the church. We recently were part of a church split over unrepentant pragmatism. I will make the example generic. Our old Pastor retired after many years at our church. The church board hired another Pastor only to find out that his political leanings were in opposition to the majority of ours. He was orthodox in the Primary Articles of Faith. After five months the board voted to ask for his resignation. One of the reasons they gave was that the older people in the church had all of the money, and that they would leave if he didn’t. The board was afraid of losing money instead of doing what is right. They acted pragmatically. God is the source of all wealth. They didn’t operate in the realm of faith. If they had, they would have been able to see God work in the situation, and have been strengthened by it. Instead they shorted themselves and lost an opportunity. This is only one example of pragmatism in the church.
Another I can think of off the top of my head is church growth. Many Pastors fall into the thinking that they need a large congregation with lots of resources so they can accomplish their goals in ministry. They might even follow the model of entertaining goats instead of shepherding sheep. All you have to do to see this is to turn on the television and watch a Sunday sermon.
I know that it is very difficult for a person to let go of their own reasoning and have faith. I used to beat myself up because I couldn’t let God have control over my money. I thought it was ridiculous that I could trust Him with my salvation, but not with my cash. I’m not saying to tithe like in the Old Testament. I’m not even talking about money here. This was my pragmatism shining through. I didn’t have the faith to surrender my worldly pragmatism to Him.
There are many areas of our lives where we operate out of pragmatism instead of faith. If you think about your own life you should be able to see where you have operated from a stance of pragmatism. I encourage you all to examine yourselves for pragmatism, and ask God to forgive you. Ask Him to grant you faith to do all that is in His word. Pragmatism puts us and our reasoning on the throne instead of God. Faith is trusting God, and His word enough to live our lives based on them. Our only hope is that God will grant us that kind of faith.
Repentance, granted by God.
Repentance granted by God
So imagine you are in a dark room. You have two actual options to choose from. You are only aware of one. The one you are aware of is in front of you, dimly lit. The other, is covered under a black box. You are not aware of its existence. How can you choose an option you are not aware exists? If you are a slave to sin, and not regenerate, you are like the person in the dark room. You choose what you have chosen, and you do it over and over again. If you are going to be saved, God makes the other option evident to you.
It is as if, He removes the box, and shines a bright light on the other option. In so doing, you realize it is far superior. The other actual option you were reveling in is realy like; vomit, feces, and maggots. In revulsion you cast it down. You vigorously whip your hands back and forth in disgust. The realization of what you had once loved, and called good, is so disgusting, in light of the truth, that you can’t believe you loved it. You flee to the truth of God, as fast as you can, with reckless abandon, throwing yourself at the foot of the cross, seeing it’s beauty for the first time.
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