The Importance of Faith and Belief

Or

Is Your Faith Really in God?

All of us have a measure of faith we are told in Romans 12:3. This is clearly indicated by what we say and what we do. What we have put our faith in is a result in what we believe about it. Therefore belief is a key component regarding where or in what we have put our faith. Both faith and belief are important for life but they are separate things with different functions. However, faith follows belief.

Hebrews 11 is called the Faith Chapter of the Bible. It is an abbreviated record of people who have put their faith in God and some people who didn’t. It also makes it clear that Christians are to be a people with their faith in God.

Verses 15 and 16 of Hebrews 11, makes it clear that where, or in what ,we put our faith is based on what we believe. It is also clear that what we believe is based on our thinking. Therefore, we direct our faith with our belief based on our thinking..

For instance I might think one day I will want to retire. After all retirement is a popular topic in our culture particularly with people my age. So, in my thinking I determine I will need a lot of money to retire. Given my age my thinking tells me I will need to make a lot of money quickly. This is fear entering into the thinking, process. So now my thinking starts to explore the options that are available to me. For instance, I could put money in a savings account and let the interest build up but given the present interest rate my thinking tells me that is not a viable option. Another option would be to buy a lottery ticket. After all, somebody wins the lottery! Maybe I could join a lottery club where they talk about the latest strategies for picking winning lottery tickets and have guest speakers come to the meeting to tell us their secrets, for a fee of course. Oh and they just happen to have a book for sale on how to be a winner in the lottery.

As you can see, jumping the gap from thinking  I could win the lottery to believing I can win the lottery is a process and the result is that I have put my faith in what I believe and am acting on my faith by going out and buying the ticket.  But the question is, “have I really thought this through?” What is the truth? It would be wise of us to put our faith in something that was true.

In His prayer recorded in John 17:17, Jesus said, “Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth.” ESV

Sanctify means to set apart. In this case He is asking God to set His followers apart from the thinking of the world and guides them with the Word of God. Earlier in John 8:31&32 we read, So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in my word, you are my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” ESV

To abide one must hear and then think followed by believing and then remain in that thinking and belief. The Apostle Paul illustrates this in Romans 1:16 where he says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek. For in it the righteousness of men of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” ESV

Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4 where God tells Habakkuk that wrong thinking often inflates the ego like a hot air balloon that is carried away in the wind currents. The person who does this will put his or her faith in the wrong thing ultimately to their disappointment and harm. Let’s read the entire verse. “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.” ESV

As I said in the beginning what we say and what we do indicate where or in what we have put our faith. This is a result in what we believe based on what we think about, we have read about, heard from others, social media, and so on. What we read in the Bible and hear from or about God is the starting point in our walk with God. In Genesis 15 we read that God revealed Himself and His plan to Abraham. In verse 6 we read, And he believed the Lord and He counted it to him as righteousness. ESV (In this verse “he” means Abraham and “He” means God.)

In order to be saved and have eternal life with God we must be righteous. How can we do that? We can’t do that on our own. Jesus did that for us on the cross. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21. Let me paraphrase. For you and me God gave His Son Jesus, who was without sin, to pay the price for our sin by taking our sin and placing our sin on Jesus. Jesus being without sin was righteous thus when we believe He paid for our sin and make Him our Lord by putting our faith in Him we become the righteousness of God that is required for salvation. Let’s look at verses 17-20. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ESV

Paul didn’t always think this way nor did his word and actions show that he had his faith in Jesus. Instead he had his faith in his ability and achievements. His words and action flowed from what he believed. If you are interested you can read about what he was like before he met Jesus in. Philippians 3:1-11; Acts 9,  26; 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Paul tells us in Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ESV

In the Law we read in Deuteronomy 17:6, On the evidence of two witnesses or of three the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. ESV

Paul’s words and actions, based on his thinking and beliefs, were evidence enough to condemn him to death or separation from God. The same is true for each of us. That is why I am grateful that Paul didn’t stop there in verse 23. God offers each of us a pardon that results in our spending eternity with Christ Jesus. Clearly this is a demonstration of God’s love for us.

Have you received His offer of forgiveness of sin and eternal life? The purpose of my writing this is to get us to think, to believe, and put our faith in Jesus. We are saved by faith and not by works as Paul tried to do as he told us in Philippians 3. However, our works will be evidence of where our faith is. In Paul’s case we read in Romans 6 that Jesus is now his Lord and in 2 Corinthians 5 he is now an ambassador for Christ. That is what a new creation resulting from faith looks like.

Do you know where your faith is?

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 ESV

The Church And The Nature Of God

“I was glad when they said let us go to the house of the Lord” Psalm 122:1 NASB

What does the house of the Lord, or Church in our day, represent? It is a place where fallen man meets with God and God meets with man. It is a place where God’s Law is received, brings conviction and hope, and where one learns to put it into practice. It is a place where fallen man can discover God’s love, God’s patience, God’s grace and mercy, and see God’s nature. By understanding God’s nature one can respond to God with an expression of love through worship and godliness. It is a place God can use to bring about a new creation from sinful man and a child of God is born when forgiveness has been found and received, and worldliness is transformed to godliness and righteousness.

But what happens when the house of God becomes corrupt as it was in Jeremiah’s time. The Law had been lost in some dark corner of the temple. With the Law lost what were the priests teaching? What were the scribes writing? Sadly idolatry, false teaching, and worldliness had invaded the temple corrupting and deceiving the people. The people thought they were saved because they went to the Temple. Jesus found the same thing had happened to the temple and the religious rulers in His day and quotes Jeremiah 7 (and Isaiah 56:7) when He cleared the temple. I fear the same thing is happening today. When this happens the Church ceases to be the Church and becomes a club church.  Clubs tend to put more requirements (read traditions) on who can and cannot attend. In Jesus’s day the religious rulers had set standards regarding who was accepted and who was not.

So what does God do when the Church becomes a club? He sends a new voice. Before the nation of Israel had Kings God sent Judges.  Before the captivity of Israel by Assyria, God sent prophets. Before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, God sent prophets. Before the destruction of the nation and Temple in 70 AD God sent His son.  Jesus addressed the religious rulers and their rules in Matthew 23. He established the New Covenant and formed the Church and in Revelation 2&3 it is clear Jesus is concerned about how the churches represent Him.

The Church is to be salt and light. Salt represents the wisdom of God which comes from the Word of God. The Church is to reveal God to the world. That is what light does, it illuminates. Jesus said He was the Light of the World. What that means is that He was showing the world who God is. Hebrews 1:1-3 says, “God after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He also made the world. And He is the exact radiance of His Glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sin, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; NASB  

If we, the Church, are to call ourselves Christians, then we must be Christ like and represent God’s glory and nature to the world just as Jesus did, adding only to this the good news of the new covenant and the purification of sin. In the book of John we read of Jesus saying that he was doing what he saw the Father doing. He was teaching only what the Father was teaching. In the things Jesus said and did He shined His light on the nature of God so the world could see and understand God’s love for the world.

The nature of God is found in Exodus 34 .There God reveals His nature to Moses on Mount Sinai after the nation had made and worshiped the golden calf. We read in Verses 6&7 Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.” NASB

The idea of God “visiting” the iniquity on future generations may be a little troubling to us until we see how the Hebrew word translated “visiting” is used in other verses. It is most used in making a count of troops and carries with it the idea of calling the troops together for inspection. However, it is first used in Genesis 21:1 where we read that God visited Sarah and did for her as he had said He would do in Chapter 18. God said that by the next year He would return and she would bear a son which would have been impossible at her age. Of course, nothing is impossible for God. The same is true for sin. God forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, but that does not mean sin goes unpunished. As He did for Sarah, He did for us what is impossible for us to do.  He gave His Son to pay for our sin. Jesus took the punishment for our sin but we must receive the gift of forgiveness of sin. How can one receive forgiveness of sin if they haven’t heard of God’s grace of forgiveness? The Church is to proclaim the Good News of the forgiveness of sin and the Holy Spirit convicts the world, guilt in regards to sin.

Proclaiming the Good News or Gospel is the work of the Church, but we must do so in a way that expresses God’s nature and glory in the way we live our lives in this world. We are God’s ambassadors and represent God and His wisdom to a world that is in desperate need of Him.

It has been said that Christians are too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. This statement is from the pit. If Christians and the Church are not heavenly minded they will be no good at all! Their wisdom and message will be thrown out and trampled on. Matthew 5:13

I am convinced the only way to be able to express the nature of God is to spend time with our Lord in the Word of God. John tells us in John 1 that Jesus is the Word and the Word became flesh. If we want to hang out with Jesus we must hang out in the Word of God. We cannot give away what we don’t have.

Pastor Dave

The Almeda Fire and My Thermometer

Back in the dark ages of my early years when people of organizations wanted to raise funds they would set a goal and make a poster of a thermometer to show the amount of the funds given and the progress they were making to reach the goal. Of course the real goal was to have the thermometer fill to the top and over flow. 

It has been six days since we evacuated our home and church because the Almeda fire was being blown and fueled by very high winds and smoke was telling us that the fire was no longer miles away. Of course everyone else in Talent was trying to get out as well so traffic was at a standstill.  It seemed like the fire was moving faster than we were and at one point I could see the flames to the right of us. After two hours we made it to Medford city limits and relative safety, a drive which would normally take 10-15 minutes. After an hour there we had to evacuate again. By this time it was getting dark.

It was a time of great emotional stress which was demanding me to change course and double back hoping the fire had past. It seemed like since the winds were behind us we were driving into the fire and we were still moving slowly.

We came back the next day and were shocked to find all homes across the street for blocks were burned to the ground and smoldering. There was no water, power, or internet, and no one around. It is hard to describe the overwhelming and helpless feelings I had at that time. Today as I look at the ashes across the street that were once homes of friends and neighbors it is still hard to process.

Proverbs 24:10 says, “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength.” NIV

I used to look at this Proverb with judgmental eyes, but Solomon was writing these proverbs to teach his son the wisdom needed to be a leader and king. I realize now that this is a thermometer. It is an indicator of spiritual strength. All too often I am tempted to rely on emotional strength and wisdom. Emotions cry out for us to abandon wisdom and discipline and try something new or different, and almost always, act impulsively.  

As we were creeping along I chose to pray and trust the Lord. I somehow knew we would get through this if we just stayed the course. But! My emotions were screaming. Had I listened to my emotions (based on fear) and doubled back I would have driven into the fire with the worst yet to come.

I’m old enough to remember the young men who came back from fighting World War two. Those men were the fathers of my friends. As my generation grew up and “got educated” we accused the WW 2 generation of stuffing their emotions. This was wrong. It was not that they stuffed their emotions; they managed them. There are many ways to do this. Discipline is one way. Substance abuse is another. I have found the best way is with spiritual strength. I remember in Overeaters Anonymous they would say, “Feel the pain, just don’t eat.”  It was a good saying but where does one find the strength to not eat when they are feeling the pain? It is in developing our spiritual strength. This is something all of us need to do because if we do not, and “go with our heart,” there can be grave dangers ahead.

The first church I served as pastor met in the conference room of a drug alcohol rehab center.   The director of the center who was not a Christian said that the first thing to go in addictions is the spiritual and it is the last thing to come back in recovery. I have studied rehab groups long enough to realize that he was right and if the spiritual does not come back the recovery is short lived if there is recovery at all. I have also observed that many, if not all addictions, along with many of the self-inflicted problems we have, are a result of emotions that were or are out of control.

So if your spiritual life was a thermometer what would be your temperature? If it is low what must we do? We can’t deny that we have emotions, we do, and many emotions are good, but emotions must be managed and controlled. Emotions can be controlled with discipline but they are best controlled with spiritual strength from God and His wisdom and discipline. The only way to do that is to give ourselves to God, get to know God, learn from God, and trust God. Obviously this is not a one-time event, but an ongoing one.

So where do we start? We start by giving our life to God. On this site there is a Know God link for you to do that. Second, we need to spend time with God and the way to do that is through Bible study and prayer. If you’re struggling with controlling emotions I recommend reading a chapter a day of Proverbs. Go through the book again and again until God’s wisdom starts to take hold. I also recommend reading a Psalm a day. Many of the Psalms are prayers and some are very emotional but in this case the emotions are released to God as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:7. The more we do this the more we will grow spiritually and trust God. To know God we must spend time with God. A good place to start is by reading one of the Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. This may seem like a lot of reading but it really isn’t. More importantly the time we spend reading the Bible is time spent feeding our spirit and not our emotions. That is a good thing.

This is not a goal to be set and finished, it is a spiritual exercise that this old pastor has found he must do daily if I want to keep my spiritual strength at the healthy range on my thermometer.

Here are some verses to get started.

Matthew 11:28-30; Nehemiah 8:9&10; Psalm 37:3-6: Proverbs 3:5:6; Mark 12:28-31

There is plenty more where these came from but let’s start with theses.

Be safe, be strong, be blessed!

Pastor Dave

Psalm 46

Y2K, Covid 19, and Life in General

It was June 1999 at pastors conference during the question and answer session when this question came up, “What is Calvary Chapel doing to prepare for Y2K?”  Pastor Chuck answered with this, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling.” Psalm 46:1-3 NKJV

I am old enough to remember bomb shelters being built in the backyards of homes in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  I remember lining up at the gas stations in order to buy gas on an even number day in the month because the last digit of my license plate was an even number.  If the last digit was an odd number you could only buy gas on the date that was an odd number.  I also remember the experts were saying, “The earth only has enough oil to last ten years”. That was in the 1970”s

It seems there is always a crisis to worry about but I like how Pastor Chuck changed the focus from the crisis to the Lord. Where do you turn when faced with a crisis that there is little you can do to solve it? Hezekiah was certainly facing a problem that looked like the end was near for Jerusalem when the Assyrians had the city surrounded. He knew he did not have the ability to save the city or the nation, but he knew who did. So he went to the temple and laid out his petition to the Lord. 

There are some great promises in this Psalm. These promises are meant to bring hope and to set us free from the anxiety that comes from worry. Isaiah had been prophesying that the Assyrians would one day surround Jerusalem and try to take the city. In one of those prophesies Isaiah also said this. “The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in Thee. Trust in the Lord forever, For in God the Lord, we have and everlasting Rock.” Isaiah 26:3&4

When times of trial and difficulties come we have the Lord to turn to. He will grant peace when we trust in Him. When we realize this we will no longer be driven by waves of emotions and the ever present and haunting question, “What if?” We will be establish on the Rock by our faith and upon that Rock we will be able to see beyond our fears and focus on hope that only comes from the Lord.  

Much of what we worry about never happens. I have given up worrying about Y2K.  I am still putting gas in the same truck I was driving when I was waiting in the lines back in the 1970’s.  I never had a bomb shelter nor have I ever needed one, but I would like a basement.  Maybe I could shelter in place there. It’s not over until God says it’s over.  When God says it over I expect to be home with Him and more alive than I have ever been.  Until then may this Psalm remind us that God is in control and when we trust in Him there is hope and stability.

Don’t let your emotions drive you to fear when an impossible crisis comes up. Look to the Lord. He will give you hope and stability no matter what happens.

Pastor Dave