by David Brenneman
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible." Hebrews 11:1-3.
Dr. David Jeremiah wrote in the devotional that I am reading of Trusting God. He quoted Hebrews 11:1, but upon reading the passage included the next 2 verses.
He quoted also the "American Heritage Dictionary" definition of faith. That being "a belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence".
As written in the Bible, many convincing proofs came after the resurrection.
In ways that only God could do there would be no way to stop the knowledge that Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, IS risen indeed!
Dr. Jeremiah goes on to talk about how we ourselves display our faith in the things we have not seen ourselves in the way we live life.
Being actively in the Word of God daily is indeed for your spiritual heart health.
So many so-called experts can drone on endlessly about your physical health, your heart health being higher on that list.
But feeding your physical body doesn't necessarily feed your spiritual body. Neglecting one for the other tends to weaken the spiritual warriors we are meant to be in Christ.
What good is it to put on the whole armor of God if you don't even know how to, or how to use it? You need the owners manual.
You cheat yourself when you are not doing your due diligence in becoming acquainted with the manual that the Spirit of God has kept secure for thousands of years.
Do you realize that one of the roles of the Spirit of God is just that? To protect the Word of God so that you and I have the truth of God to know and grow by?
Churches falter and slowly die when the congregation devalues the importance of being in the Word of God. When it's treated as optional rather than a spiritual necessity. People don't see until it's too late that those false prophets and false teachers were among them. You cannot identify what you've never learned to see.
You and I need to keep it on the forefront of our minds that we are not still here on Earth for our good pleasure.
We come to Christ for salvation and then the work of God in Christ Jesus begins.
It's never about possessions.
It's never about seeing the sights.
The Bible says it's about our sanctification. About our growth in Christ Jesus.
Many Preachers, men of God, have taken to teaching on the promises of God. As Dr. Jeremiah said in this devotional, that is what we begin to dwell on that helps to grow us spiritually.
I am still dwelling on the super heavy losses in the Carolinas on down to Florida. A coworker told me of what his Grandmother used to say in the face of extreme adversity. Forget everything else, just grab your Bible and go. If you can't do that, just go. God will get you another Bible. Things can be replaced.
Don't starve your soul after you come to Christ for salvation.
Those in basic training eat a lot in order to build strength to handle the training. But too they eat a lot of what is beneficial to that training.
We come to Christ for salvation, we begin training as a Disciple. We learn by our walk with Jesus, learning from His Word to live by faith and not by sight.
We learn to be more like Christ by doing life in Christ not by osmosis of being only in proximity to other Believers.
Physical attributes barely have anything to do with your Spiritual attributes.
Your body does little to show a world who Jesus is like.
Your walk with Jesus often speaks volumes that you've never said.
Read that again.
Your walk with Jesus often speaks volumes that you've never said.
Others have taken to saying that to let your life be a witness and if you must, use words.
But it begins with being intentional.
You have to choose if reading your Bible is more important than a television show.
You have to decide if spending time with Jesus is more important than a football game.
You have decisions to make.
A person in basic training has to deprive themselves of much in order to pass their training.
The things they set aside might indeed be set aside permanently.
As Jesus also said, what does it profit a man to gain the world and yet forfeit his soul? What will he give in exchange for his soul?
God is a God of second chances.
People can be unnecessarily harsh in their ideas of second chances.
The grace and mercy of God is for us for our lifetime. Nowhere in the Bible does it say to set limits on how many times we should forgive someone. In fact the opposite is true. As many times as it takes.
It should be the same with regards to helping others. The hands and feet of Jesus are us in this world for those who believe.
My Dear Reader, open up your spiritual eyes. Get into the Word of God every day. Talk personally to Jesus every day. Talking to and talking personally to someone are different things. Pour out your heart to Jesus and expect to be heard. Walk by your faith and not by your sight.
Start your day in a very personal way with Jesus. Go through your day in that same personal way.
Take your training in righteousness seriously...it's so that you will be adequate, equipped for every good work in Christ Jesus.
All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.
No comments:
Post a Comment