Tag Archives: God is Faithful

Persuaded to Trust

Living in the Spirit

October 2, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.

‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’

Faith is to be persuaded, to come to trust*.

Faith (4102/pistis) is always a gift from God, and never something that can be produced by people. In short, 4102/pistis (“faith”) for the believer is “God’s divine persuasion” – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers, i.e. the persuasion of His will (1 Jn 5:4: for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. )*.

My book club is reading the book Sugar Birds by Cheryl Grey Bostrom. Anymore, I listen to most books, to lessen the strain on my eyes. I have been very busy recently and needed to find the time to read this book before our group meets to discuss it. I listen to the first chapter which was very sad, and I just laid it aside. I really did not want to return to it, but finally did. It is the story of life in families and communities where bad things happen to good people and where the strength to deal with that is in the gift of God’s faithfulness. The challenge lies in being able to come to that trust. There is a grandmother in the story who quietly prays without ceasing to intersect with the gift of God’s faithfulness.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. –1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gift of faith you share with us like the manna from heaven giving us enough faith when we need it. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

God is Faithful

Lent

March 18, 2022

Scripture Reading:

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. –1 Corinthains 10:6-13

Bad behavior can result in bad outcomes, but not necessarily. Good behavior can also result in bad outcomes. For example, the person who jumps in a lake to save a child from drowning drowns. I believe Jesus when he says it rains on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). That does not authorize us to do bad things. More times than not our bad behavior catches up with us whether it is overeating or mistreating others or robbing convenience stores. Our ancestors in faith lived in a time when direct connections were made from a bad outcome to something someone had done. When I worked in a nursing home one of the patients told me the story about the long red birthmark on her thigh. Her mother told her the birthmark was punishment for her mother’s climbing over a fence to take fruit from a neighbor’s tree. She slipped and the barbed wire cause an identical scar on her mother’s thigh. I did not know what to make of that when I was 19. I doubt she ever stole fruit from a neighbor’s tree. Paul’s comment No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone is important for us to heed. We come from a different perspective when we are tested because God is faithful and is always with us.

Prayer: Thanks be to God. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Is your God too Small?

Living in the Spirit

June 19, 2021

Scripture Reading:

Mark 4:35-41
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Your God is Too Small: A Guide for Believers and Skeptics Alike by J.B. Phillips is one of the best faith-based books I have ever read. Phillips challenges us to consider that we tend to relegate God to the events of biblical times without recognizing that the Creator God is just as relevant to us today. The things we read as history in the Bible were real-time issues of the era and place. They indeed describe the ways of God in relationship to humans, but the humans of that time and place had to implement God’s practices as they applied to their reality, just as we must interpret them for our world today. A good example might be that polygamy was acceptable in the stories of the Hebrew Bible and disappear in the New Testament. There are laws against it today. Polygamy was an economic phenomenon in its beginning. Today marriage is about the relationship. Both require the guidance of loving one another.

I think God sent Jesus to help us understand that God as love is the overarching litmus test of following God’s ways. The Bible does tell us that God created our world based on the foundation of love, and anytime we shift away from loving God, loving ourselves, and loving one another, our whole world gets out of sync, and we suffer the consequences for it.

Prayer: Lord, let your love empower our love so that our world becomes dedicated to your ways. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.