Slave to the father

Luke 15:21-22"And the son said to him, 'Father I have sinned against Heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
Here we have the son not wavering. That is even after he felt the love, compassion of his father, he still confesses his sin. Have you ever decides to confess...then never do it? He is also ready to take the punishment...,if you will, of his sins. Willing to become a slave of his father. He recognized that being a slave of his father was better than being free and working...for "others". Did you notice that concept? It is better to be a slave to the "Father" than to be free... and working for others...or ourselves. So many times we don't realize that it is better to obey God and follow Him; than to have the freedom...that we think we have, the freedom of the world... or for us the freedom...of living in the U.S. Now it is hard for us to understand this slave thing.
So what I'm going to do is give a few verses that will help us.
Gal.4:9 "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be know of God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?"
Rom.6:16-19 "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the ones who you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you presented your members as slave to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification."
As the Apostle Paul says, "a bond servant of our Lord Jesus Christ".

A good feeling

"So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long ways off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran, and embraced him and kissed him." Luke 15:20. This is a wonderful verse for us to comprehend. But before we dive in to understanding this verse let's recall our story. A man's son demands his inheritance, now. The father grants his son's request and the son leaves. Let's think a little here, do you think that this was all done with no conflict? Or maybe not on the fathers side but how about the son...what kind of character did he have...It seems he did not leave on good terms... The son goes to a different land and spends his inheritance on loose living. Now he is on his way back home, coming up the driveway if you will. No phone call, no e-mail, not even snail mail. He just comes. His father sees him. Let's stop there for know.
As with all stories it is hard to understand the deep thoughts...of a character in the story. Sometimes we see a little bit, in their reactions in the story. Today we are going to focus on the father. What kind of man was he? Now guys this is a good example for us. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him." Most often when one is disobeyed....sinned against...betrayed...there is the feeling of hurt...un-trust, displeasure, bitterness. anger and even hatred. You see this father did not display these things, in fact I like what is said, " felt compassion for him."
What does it mean compassion? It is a word that I myself, have a problem to grasp and practice. It involves words like mercy and sympathy, but with a sense to help...make better...; maybe not just a sense but the actual doing. It may even include forgiveness. So many times when one is going through trials...or sin it is hard to feel compassion for them. You see this father felt compassion right away, I would even venture to say he was waiting for his son to come back. No matter how, when...he came. The important thing was that he came back. To feel compassion, do you understand that it is a feeling. And yes it is a good feeling. Too many times we as men are hard nosed...we lack compassion...we lack feeling...we even lack in our thinking, that it is not a good thing to feel compassion...we don't try to understand compassion or the feeling. We might even think of it as a weakness but it is not. O.K. Guys did you notice what he did when he met his son? That's right he embraced him. That means he hugged him! For some of us that is hard, we don't show our feelings that way. But it is important! It shows a tenderness...and love...much more than words, a hand shake or gifts can show. Now that kissing thing, I will let you figure it out on your own. Remember the parable of the good Samaritan? Luke 10:30-36. How he felt compassion on the man; that was beaten and robbed. How the Samaritan helped him, got him well... That is another good example of compassion. So let's work on compassion! Sometimes men we need to work on it in our own homes! We lack compassion in the everyday living of life. Now men there is an area that most of us struggle with. That is compassion toward our wives or even girls. O how important it is to feel compassion. O how important it is to show compassion. Do them both! Compassion it is a good feeling!

Victory

Sin, continued sin...does all kinds of things. It can have far reaching affects. It can make you not to think right...It can even go so deep that you can lose hope. This next phrase "I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men." This is also said when he came to his senses. He recognized that his deeds were of such that the shame... also affected his family. He also recognized that he needed to be back with his family even if it meant to become a hired hand.
Sometimes the guilt of sin is so strong, you have a hard time lifting up your head. It is so strong that it was hard to go before God...Have you ever felt that way? That what you have done was so bad that, you think God could not forgive you. Well we know that God through His son Jesus Christ forgives...You see he was sent to bring us back, to pay the price of our sin...all, every kind..., to heal us...teach us...give us life...
So many times one who has sinned...then comes to his senses...repents to God...That one has a hard time coming back to "church". He may have the sense of not being worthy... Have you experienced what I'm talking about? That a feeling of contempt is there... Sometimes we, the "church", put conditions to prove... that one has really repented. I'm not talking about the need to stay away from...a situation that will tempt you to sin. But we step back...we may even say, ' Let's see if there is any fruits..." or even 'just wait he'll be back where he was before.' Sometimes we just hold back. We inside the "church" lose hope in that person...
You see there is a war going on that we cannot see. And sometimes the battle is right before us or a few blocks away and we don't even know. Sometimes the battle is in our home and we don't even know. Then there is a break through for our side we hear the news and guess what we don't believe it...or we just let it pass as having no significance. Sometimes we can't get over the hurt...we may even think that there should be punishment...payback... When we turn back to God or when one turns back to God...or repents...asks forgiveness...there is a victory! We need to be shouting...praising...not sitting back with a look of unbelief. Yes, sometimes things happen...it may not seem real after a period of time. But we need to be up lifting... and encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ. Helping each other on our Christian walk. Let's face it tomorrow I will need forgiveness, I'm a sinful man, I will also need encouragement...to help me in my Christian walk. Isn't this true of most/all of us?

Admitting

We ended with the young man in our story coming to his senses. We talked about him taking action "getting up". But there is another important part of coming to one's senses. We see that in our story in verse 18b "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight." One must recognize that one has sinned against God. It is a hard concept to grasp, even for Christians. For the most part we think that we sin only against other persons or people. When one comes to his senses, he grasps this truth of one sins against God first. Psalm 51:4"Against You, You alone, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight." You see we need God's forgiveness of our sins...because it is His law...that we break...It is Him who will forgive us, heal us, restore us... bring us back into fellowship with Him... It is in His son Jesus Christ that we have forgiveness of our sins and everlasting life. So when one sins...no matter how small or insignificant or big...we sin against God.
Now as we continue our discussion we also need to recognize that sometimes we do sin against others. That when we break God's law...sometimes when we do it involves persons or people. Guess what? Yes, we need to take care of business with those affected too. Yes, we need to ask for forgiveness! Just like how sin affects our relationship with God so does our sin affect our relationship with others we sin against. Now when we ask for forgiveness we admit the wrongful action, deed...Now here's the deal that person has a choice, to forgive or not to forgive. It is important to ask for forgiveness of people but one must note that people are not like God who "is faith and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1John1:9b. Also people cannot cleanse us from our sin....only God can do that! But we need to forgive each other we are commanded to. The Lord's prayer and read Matt.18:21-35. It is for our good...restoring, healing...because bad things...can come about when forgiveness is not asked or given. Have you ever experienced the power of being forgiven? The relief...not being condemned or owing... the weight is lifted. The relationship being restored! You know this goes both ways, for being forgiven and also giving forgiveness. Forgiveness what a wonderful thing.

Coming to one's senses

"And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving any to him." As we continue on, we see that this young man is now willing to eat food fed to pigs. From being well to do to being in rags. Now we must remember that there were days in between these two ends. That this down ward spiral had days of hard times...stress. What happen to all his friends...as we mentioned before he is alone. No one to give him even pig food...You know when you are going wayward...most of the time it seems alright. You say to yourself, it's ok, nothing is happening...it feels good, I'm happy...We even find people to tell us that it's alright...we even associate with people doing/acting...the same way.
"But when he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger.' Don't you just like that phrase, "But when he came to his senses"? So many times we need to come to our sense. You know what I mean? We need to think, true thinking(Gods way...), not relying on our wisdom or wisdom of the times... Have you ever made choices in life that effected you greatly? We are talking about wrong choices or decisions not just sinful choices. Being not waiting, spending above your means, going where you should have not gone...You see we all are being pulled...For this young man the pull was hard, and it took him a long time before he came to his senses. I know in my life sometimes it took me a long time to come to my senses in some areas of my thinking. While others were easy for me, we are all different. So are you in the storm, being beaten down...maybe know is the time to come to your senses. Let's say the storm is about relationships, marriage, parenting, friends...and things are just not going well. It is hard to come to your senses here, to change yourself. That is to initiate a Godly change of putting on love...That you will forgive, that you will ask for forgiveness, that you will take a look at your own way of thinking...and change. That you will be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ.
For it is important when you come to your sense to start doing. Hopefully I 'm not the only one who has come to his senses...wanting to change...and to be better...do better...thinking of what to do..., all with good intentions, then don't do them. Do you know what I mean? Or sometimes I start out doing and then slowly go back to the way it was before. It is hard. It is hard to change. It is hard to let other know that you were not think right...not acting right...even if we are only changing our actions. We do not like to admit we were wrong...we were not thinking right...You see the young man in our story, came to his senses and said, "I will get up and go to my father". You see when one comes to his senses, he doesn't just stay there, he get's up and reacts.
For him it was to go back home to his father. He had to leave where he was and go back to where he left. So many times we need to go back or turn back to God. That is we need to go away from where we are now. Let us remember that in this situation, the young man is in rebellion...He moved into harms way. For some the storm that blows is for us to endure, to put more trust in God. For our young man, now he has a long journey home, walking...with a lot of time on his hand to think... You know guys it is hard to admit a wrong, never mind a continued wrong. It is even harder to admit that we are sinful...and not good...It is hard to admit that we need Jesus Christ. It's true these decisions are hard for us, but the love of God through Jesus Christ, will heal you and restore you! So he came to his senses and took action.

Things come our way

" Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished." Luke 15:14. As our story continues we see that this young man spent everything. It is hard for us to understand how one can be wealthy...and spend everything. It is hard to manage money! It is hard for us to recognize a need verses a want...Never mind that there is so much out there that money can buy. So this young man foolishly spent his inheritance on stuff...loose living. Do you know what I mean? Even just a little bit. You are compelled to buy something (a want) and you take money...that was for a bill or for your families well being...to buy it or even to do something. Even if it is just a small amount... Or we might save...but we still only have in mind our desires...wants, not willing to compromise for the good of your family.
This young man found himself to be impoverished. From being well off to being poor. You see in life things happen. So a famine is upon the land, food prices are up and rising, now he is in want of just having enough to eat. So next thing this young man is looking for work, just to survive. Guess what, he finds a job feeding the pigs. You see for this young man the storm is blowing hard, and now he is starting to feel the effects of it.
So what I want to do is make a side note here. We must remember that storms in life come. Just look what is happening in our country; floods, fires, tornados...Now some of the people going through those ordeals are Christians. Strong Christians following God...we need not be asking why...is this happening to them or that area... So many times we think that it's because of sin...God's judgment. So when things like that happen be slow to react to why...Pray for our brothers in those areas. Now with our young man, do you think that he needs prayer...Now there are a lot of youth that all of us know...and some of them need our prayers. Some maybe going wayward, some having a tough go in life, some have life changing decisions before them...some lost...we need to be praying for our children, our young adults and yes for the adults too! We all need prayers from fellow believers. Yes we all need praying believers praying for us. It is easy to condemn...but to pray for them, that takes work---and love.

Storms

" And there he squandered his estate with loose living." Luke 15:12b. Last week we talked about praying for one's family, now. While they are in the midst of the storm or they are in the calm, of a sunny day. If you have lived a small amount of time you know that storms come up quite often. And the storms of personal life come up often too. Sometimes there quick thunder storms, sometimes there with flooding rain, sometimes with sever winds...and sometimes the rain comes for days at a time... And when the storm comes sometimes it hit a small area and sometimes it covers vast areas. Now we are not talking about the weather only.
Back to our story; the younger son is in the midst of a storm. Here's the thing guys; I believe he doesn't even know it. This is the type of storm that keeps growing slowly. So this young man is in the middle of a big storm and it's getting bigger. " Loose living" we don't have to think too hard to know what that means. Now some of us might think of only money but I believe it's a lot more(look at the end of the story). So here we have a young man in a middle of a storm and guess what? He is there all alone. He doesn't have faithful friends(God believing). But I believe He has the prayers of his father. Sometimes the storm, will calm down for a bit only to hit harder. They can be tricky! Keeping us pinned down, trapped.
Have you ever been caught up in something, rebellion...sin, that seems to be o.k. That is, it isn't affecting anyone...everything seems to be going alright...You might even be saying no one knows, what's the big deal. Let's face it we can be very secret men...everything is just fine..things are still going well. It may even seem to be going better than before... But there is nothing that our God doesn't see. Prov. 15:3 "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good." Last week we talked about prayer, using David as an example. So let's continue using David as an example. You see there was a reason that David was praying for his son, or better yet why his son was sick unto death. 2Sam. 11 is the account of David's sin with Bathsheba...something that he tried to keep secret, but God sees. God revels to David that He knows...2Sam. 12 and in verse 10-14 He tells him the consequences of his sin. One of them being that his son will die. You see sin does all kind of things, not good things and sin also, for the most part has consequences. Our (your) sin affects you and the ones around you... It needs to be addressed! We need to ask for forgiveness...Let me end with one more thought. You ask God to forgive you of your sin, what then? Have you heard the word repent? How about put off the old and put on the new? So many times when we repent of a sin...we don't put on the new. That is we stop the old sinful action but we don't replace it with a new action. Then before one realizes he returns back to the old. Now when we talk about new, we are talking about Christ like; Godly actions. So let me end with this phrase, "sin destroys and forgiveness restores."

Reactions of dad and mom

Luke 15:12b-13 "So He divided his wealth between them. And not many days later the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country," As we continue our study of the prodigal son let me remind you of what we learned so far. We talked about the love of money and being demanding. The love of money, that can take you away from the faith, or that you think that having more money will solve your problems... Demanding as to think we have a right or deserve...something...we kind of tied it in with "beware of all types or greed."
In our parable we see that the father grants his youngest sons request, and divided his wealth between the two sons. We could talk about this and say what is he thinking...but it is a parable so we will just accept what it says was done; without trying to get to a motive...of why the father did this.
After the younger son "gets" his share; he decides to move. To move far away to another country. Guess he wasn't happy where he was living. Was it the area? The people? His family? or Was he being pulled by the "bright city lights"? Not too sure but I do understand a little of each. Not being content where one is and looking over there thinking that it is easier...funner(is that a word?) or I will be better off.
What I want to do here is to focus on our reaction as dads and moms. As our children get older and become adults, they have to make their own decisions...in life. Sometimes these decisions will be, let's say, not good or maybe questionable. So what do we do as fathers? For the most part we get frustrated I think. What I want to do is encourage us to do is to pray for our(your) children. In 2Sam. 12:15-23 we have the account of David's son becoming sick. in verse 16 "David therefore inquired of God for the child, and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground." Let's call this hard prayer for his son; he just didn't do the quick prayer...He was on his knees...and more. As we continue to read, David learns that his son died. What does he do? He get's up, cleans up and goes to worship God. Wonder if he was singing a form of "Blessed be the name of the Lord". To wrap things up we need to be lifting up our children in prayer now, before things happen, and while things are happening. Not just in a quick prayer... but on our knees, if you will. Pleading or inquiring of God for them. So many times we lack in this area and so many times when we start to pray it's too late, it's after the fact. As fathers let's lift our family up before the Lord in prayer. Let's pray for our children now, even if things are going well.

The prodigal son

As summer is here, what should we do as men? Last year we went through selected sections of the book "Love Dare". This year we will start to look at a parable of our Lord Jesus. I think that this parable is fitting for us as men for the main characters mentioned are male. All of us should be able to relate to these characters or at least understand somewhat, what each character is like. This is a story of a father and his 2 sons. Have you guessed yet? It is found in Luke 15:11-32 and we know this as the parable of the prodigal son.
We will start our study with the definition of prodigal, 1. one who spends and gives lavishly and foolishly. 2. one who returns after an absence. (Merriam-Webster collegiate dictionary). With this definition our main character fits into both. For us today, returning after an absence, doesn't always mean a bad thing. One might return after an illness or a call to active duty...so there could be a positive prodigal. Now when we think of prodigal, or the prodigal son, we usually think about the first definition or even we might think of one who is rebellious.
Our story starts out in Luke 15: 11-12 "And He said, "A man had two sons. "The younger of them said to his father 'father give me the share of the estate that falls to me.' " What is being said is that the younger son wants his inheritance now. What a unique demand! What word could one use to describe this action...bold, arrogant, unhappy, rebellious...How about these two words, greed and demanding. Think about it for a minute, greed we can see easily, but demanding? It is there too, 'give me'.
So again I will go over the single page in this devotion! Greed, to desire more...for example money, power, fame. Now this I believe is one of the problems that this young man has. So with this greed we will talk about the love of money. In 1 Tim 6:10 "For the love of money is the root all kinds of evils." The son in our story, well what do you think? Did he love money? It sure does seem it. We're not going to go to deep here; we will talk about that in another devotional. But to desire money, to wish you had more money...if only I had more money so many of my problems would be fixed...Have you ever had those thoughts or similar ones? Sometimes we can get to a point when we think that money will solve our problems in life. It can even get to be, so strong of a feeling that it can draw us away from the one who can solve our problems, our Lord Jesus. Yes, if we continue to read in 1 Tim 6:11" It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith..." Money, things, wealth...the desire of...the love of; how dangerous a desire. Let's face it we all need to be on guard here.
The next characteristic of this young son is that he is demanding. He wants what he wants and he wants it now. Let's face it for the most part we can be very demanding as people or a person. In all types of situations and with material things. With that comes the attitude that we deserve or have a right to whatever it is. This young man wants his inheritance now, can you just picture him telling his father how much...and what he believes is his? So many times I have seen and heard of family members fighting over an inheritance, even when things are in order. Jesus says this in Luke 12:15 "Beware, and be on your guard against ever form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions."
The nation of Israel wants(demands) a king in 1 Sam. 8. You see they rejected God as their King and wanted to be like the other nations. Oh, you might say Samuel's son had a part but God says they rejected Him. So God let them have a king to rule over them. If you read your bible you will be amazed at how many bad kings there were. You see we can be demanding or thinking we deserve...but at some point we can cross that line of "beware of every form of greed." It is every form of greed, not just of money. That desire to have more or even to be more...(I'm not talking about the wanting to be Christ like here). So are you demanding, thinking you deserve, or you are better than...do you try to act...to elevate one status...greed comes in all types of ways. How about money? It is so easy to get caught up with money. It can consume you, even when you don't have any or very little. Let's end with a few words for us to be able to understand this better; money, power, fame, prestige, status...

Time and remembering

Now as we move on in our discussion of faith, we move into our growth spiritually. Now this does involve time, experience, learning...Some might grow in aspects of the Lord rather quickly, while others slowly, but that time thing plays a big part. Faith though it involves learning, it is more than learning and memorizing. It involves all aspects of one's life and the actions one does if everyday life. The learning part helps us to know God's direction. That is learning the word of God. But, God also gives us the Holy Spirit, who helps us...
Now let's get back to the time thing. As we go through life time continues, day and night keep on coming. With each day different things come with it, our world is not a boring place! People are all around, things need to be done, places to go... Now this is where our faith starts to grow. As we see God working in our lives from day to day, in situation to situation, from task to task... When we see that He is helping us, protecting us...We learn to lean on our God, going from strength to strength(Psalm 84). The learning of life that is hands on. That, when you needed patience; God helps you to learn patience. Think about it, are you more patient than you were 2 years ago, 5 years, 10 years...and still even if it has been 30 years you find that you still need more patience. How do I know; because every day is different and guess what, some things just keep on coming, in different ways of course. Hopefully one is getting stronger with God's help and hopefully one begins to understand that we need God's help.
How many of you have teen-agers? For some strange reason they seem to have life figured out. They don't need wisdom from their parents...I'm not too sure but my dad tells me I was the same way. How foolish I was. Now that I am older I wished I had all that wisdom and experience that I have now, back when I was younger. You see our faith grows stronger as we go through the things of life with God's help. We must understand that it is the time thing, we don't go through all life situations all at once or in just a few short years. We started out our faith by believing the truth that God is real and His son is Jesus Christ. Then we moved on to that word of "trust", that we will trust God to do what He said He would do. Now let us remember the things God has done for us, in the "times of life" and ... It is so important to remember what God has done! The nation of Israel did, they held the Passover and other feasts. They built stone memorials, Ebenezer stone, 1Sam.7 . We are commanded to do it. The Lord's supper, " do this in remembrance of me." To remember the basic of our faith, the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ and eternal life. So we must always remember, to remember our God, to the race is finished and we are taken home. " We will never forget", we here that saying often, now let's say that statement about our God.

More on faith

Now there is a lot more to faith than what I have written in the last few devotionals. What I want to do is to kind of wrap our series on faith up this week with a few more thoughts. But before we go on in our talk I want to go back to a basic principle of belief...and of faith.
Last Sunday during the sharing time, Rosa shared about how her father was saved; that is how he came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe she shared this verse, Romans 10:9 , for our study we go from verse 8b to 10, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." Rosa shared that she told her father, that she couldn't say the words or believe for him, that he had to say it for himself...So with faith one has to do it for oneself, you can't rely on your parent's faith, your spouses or even if you go to the right church; faith, belief...in Jesus Christ is a decision one has to make on one's own. It is also a decision for one as to how he will continue to walk in faith... Now as we continue to walk, God is gracious to help us and also to let us walk with other believes...so we can encourage each other....to build up our faith.
Now there are more things to talk about, a lot, dealing with faith. I want to wrap it up with, obedience and love. Yes, that obey thing, it is still there after one is saved. You see one doesn't want to sin anymore, that is deep down, even though we find ourselves still sinning. We want to obey the Lord Jesus...but we still fall in little ways and also in big ways. Some things just seem to plague us, but as a believer we strive to not sin and when we do we should also be striving to confess it to God, and ask for forgiveness...Now why do we want to obey Jesus? Because of our love for Him. We love Him because He redeemed us(you). He paid the price for our sins, not only that He given us eternal life, not only that He made us new, not only that He blesses us with spiritual blessings, not only that He sent us the Holy Spirit, not only that He intercedes for us before the Father, not only that He is going to perfect us and the list goes on and on. He keeps on giving to us, even when we are not deserving...what great love!
I heard a man giving a message and he said this, "when one realizes how much it cost God to redeem you...for the forgiveness of your sin(s). How much He loves you. Then ones love for God will grow...because one realizes how sinful one is...how much God has forgiven and how patient He is with us(you). Reminds me of Luke 4:47"For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." Let's face it I wish God only had to forgive me for only one sin; but my sins are many and not only that some of them I have a hard time with, committing them multiple times. Thanks be to our God, who is willing to forgive us our sins. 1John1:9"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So each time ones sins and has to confess...it should remind us how much God loves us and we should also start to love Him more or have more love for Him. You see God just didn't give us salvation, eternal life and the forgiveness of sin; but a whole lot more. He is showing His love to us daily! When we realize this/ see this/ experience this we can glorify God and the words of Jesus will play out in our lives, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. John 14:15. So another aspect of faith is love; let's call it "great love".

Faith and the Holy Spirit

Faith, do you have it; is it growing? We've been talking about faith for the last few weeks. From believing, trusting, remembering and also continued remembering. So, how do we know that we have faith in God? We sometimes get asked about when one accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, is that when we know? Some deep questions! So here will come some short answers, that will also go along with our discussion of faith. Guess this will have to be a 2 page devotional. We know we have faith, believe... born again, are part of the family of God... are a Christian; when our spirit comes alive. That is when our spirit comes alive, through Christ Jesus and at the same time when His Spirit abides(dwells) in us. Here are 2 set of verses to help us understand this; Eph. 2:1-4&5 "And you were dead in your trespasses and sin, ---But God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)." Let me throw in one side note and verse, James 2:26 "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." Yes, we all were dead before our acceptance of Jesus Christ, even though we were still walking around. Remember Pastor Paul's diagram of what makes up man? The 3 parts, body, mind and spirit. Well that is the spirit that we are talking about; it is dead before our acceptance... of Jesus Christ. Back to our next set of verses 1John 4:13 "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit." So this verse answer the question above. If you were like me this verse was hard to realize; it still left me with the deeper question of how does one really know He has the Spirit of God? What does one experience...?
The first thing one can experience is found in John 16:8 "And He, when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment." That "He" is the Holy Spirit. Have you ever heard that voice within, saying you should not do that or this, because it is "bad"? Or when you are deciding to do something good, do you hear the voice within say yes do it? Now for judgment, let's just leave that for now. It is easy for children to understand this principle, but as adults some times over time our hearts become harden to the voice of God; that time thing again. We need to come to God as children, trusting children, and believing children. Then this verse will become more prominent in one's life.
The next thing one can notice is that the Word of God starts to make sense. It starts to have meaning...you begin to understand it. Be it from reading or hearing it preached. 1Cor.2:12-14 " Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritual appraised(examined)." Now these first 2 can be used of God before one is a Christian, example would be God open ones heart to hear the gospel for the first time.
There is also the giving of one's spiritual gift, 1Peter 4:10 "As each one has received a special gift..." Now I will not talk about this aspect in this devotion but it is also part of the answer to our question.
Now the last thing we are are going to talk about is found in Gal.5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control against such things are no law." The fruits of the Spirit will start to be more and more evident in one's life. That these traits will start to take on a newer meaning, a higher meaning...and one will start manifesting these traits in a renewed way. That these traits that one knew about before being a Christian, now are more desirable to the fullest extent. That one desires each trait more and more; that one strives to learn and comprehend these traits. But most important is that one begins to do these traits more and more. Somehow over time they become more natural; not to say we ever attain perfection in these areas, but we are always growing in them.

Faith and time

Now as we move on in our discussion of faith, we move into our growth spiritually. Now this does involve time, experience, learning...Some might grow in aspects of the Lord rather quickly, while others slowly, but that time thing plays a big part. Faith though it involves learning, it is more than learning and memorizing. It involves all aspects of one's life and the actions one does if every day life. The learning part helps us to know God's direction. That is learning the word of God. But, God also gives us the Holy Spirit, who helps us...
Now let's get back to the time thing. As we go through life time continues, day and night keep on coming. With each day different things come with it, our world is not a boring place! People are all around, things need to be done, places to go... Now this is where our faith starts to grow. As we see God working in our lives from day to day, in situation to situation, from task to task... When we see that He is helping us, protecting us...We learn to lean on our God, going from strength to strength(Psalm 84). The learning of life that is hands on. That, when you needed patience; God helps you to learn patience. Think about it, are you more patient than you were 2 years ago, 5 years, 10 years...and still even if it has been 30 years you find that you still need more patience. How do I know; because every day is different and guess what, some things just keep on coming, in different ways of course. Hopefully one is getting stronger with God's help and hopefully one begins to understand that we need God's help.
How many of you have teen-agers? For some strange reason they seem to have life figured out. They don't need wisdom from their parents...I'm not too sure but my dad tells me I was the same way. How foolish I was. Now that I am older I wished I had all that wisdom and experience that I have now, back when I was younger. You see our faith grows stronger as we go through the things of life with God's help. We must understand that it is the time thing, we don't go through all life situations all at once or in just a few short years. We started out our faith by believing the truth that God is real and His son is Jesus Christ. Then we moved on to that word of "trust", that we will trust God to do what He said He would do. Now let us remember the things God has done for us, in the "times of life" and ... It is so important to remember what God has done! The nation of Israel did, they held the Passover and other feasts. They built stone memorials, Ebenezer stone, 1Sam.7 . We are commanded to do it. The Lord's supper, " do this in remembrance of me." To remember the basic of our faith, the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ and eternal life. So we must always remember, to remember our God, to the race is finished and we are taken home. " We will never forget", we here that saying often, now let's say that statement about our God.

Faith

Faith, do you have it? Last week we mentioned that faith involves God, that He has a big part in us having more/stronger faith. You see we trust Him to do the things He said He will do. Blessings we receive in this present time and we look forward for blessings to come. We also come to the recognition that without Him we are hopeless (that's a good thought); we can't do things... to make ourselves to be better, perfect...that no matter how hard we try, well that bad side keeps popping up. Did you listen to Pastor Paul's message last week? Totally depraved. We also need God's help to make that decision of accepting His son Jesus. He calls! Then He gives us a helper, the Holy Spirit.
Now when we see the Holy Spirit working in our life; that is when our faith can get stronger. Our part is to recognize when God is working. To give Him the credit, praise...God does something for you, you praise Him...When He answers a prayer, you praise Him. When He is silent you praise Him. When He is working in others you praise Him. Now here is the hard part, when things get rough...and we have needs or we are in difficult places, we expect, sometime, God to work...right away. We forget that sometimes we are where we are because of our choices or because of sin. Or even God letting you be tested so your strength can be seen, like Job was tested. How easy it is for us to forget all that God has done for us. Don't we tend to do that, times get hard and we forget how God has worked in our life. Or we blame Him for whatever it is, or we just forget we live in a fallen world and believe the lie that God isn't here...We must remember all that God has done for us and all that He is going to do for us. We must never forget the simple gospel, that God so loved "you" that He gave His son. That He gave you eternal life...Like the song says," I'm forgiven because you were forsaken, I'm accepted you were condemned, ....Amazing love, How can it be that you my King should die for me?...Amazing love I know it's true, it's my joy to honor you..." Our part of faith is to cling to that true fact(s) of God. To remember the things...He is doing in our(your) life. We must give Him honor.... So remember to, praise, give honor, thanks, pray...

Faith

So we are still talking about faith. We ended by saying which leads to more faith. Let's change that more faith into stronger faith! Now how does one's faith increase or get's stronger? When we start talking about strength, strong.... we think about exercise. We need to do things to strengthen our faith...Yes, but also no. Yes we have a part but also God has a bigger part.
In life all types of things, situations, problems, decisions...come our way. Even when you become a Christian these things...still come your way; and not all of them are what we will call pleasant. Some may involve extra toil, some maybe pain, some financial cost, personal relationships hardship....now before we were Christians we had to work these out on our own...and sometimes the results were not to good...
Now as Christians we have God to help us in our struggles of life. We have God on our side. He is a present help in time of need. He even refers to us believers as His children. We can call on Him to help us. I want to stop there for a minute and give a thought that relates and then pick up with some example type...for an ending.
Have you ever thought how in life God uses situations...to grow you? Think about, have you ever wondered why the same type of thing keeps coming up? Then you get it, you do it God's way or with His strength and/or wisdom(not yours); and somehow the easy button was there. Now this doesn't mean that everything will be let's say easy, perfect...But you changed to God's way...that's how God perfects us; that's how our faith get's stronger.
Do you remember these 3 guy's? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Well they were the 3 guys who were going to be throw into the furnace for not bowing down to the golden image. In response to the king they said this Duet. 3:17-18 "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. Even if He does not, let it be known to you O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image you set up." God did rescue them.
How about Stephen, in the book of acts 6- 7. A believer doing great things for God, then just like that He was being stoned to death. The reason I used these 2 examples is to show that God can work...but sometimes He chooses to work in ways we don't understand. You see the strong faith of the 3 above, no matter what they would not turn from God and God rescues them. Stephen full of wisdom from above, the Holy Spirit. Did not back down when brought to trial. But unlike the 3, he was put to death. Now is your faith strong enough to endure to the end? Can it a mist of hardship...can you say, no matter what I will follow Jesus Christ, till He brings me home. Even when God seems not to be working?