FAITH continued

Cactus growing in the form of a donkey's head! It was an incredible sight.

In our first message about FAITH, we mentioned about warnings the Holy Spirit gives in the Scriptures for these last days we are living in. The Scriptures say: SOME will abandon the faith, or fall from the faith, by giving heed to deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Since the Apostle Paul mentioned that some will abandon the faith, this solemne warning is especially to such who teach and preach to others.

For that reason, the Apostle warned Timothy to teach the Word, or preach and proclaim the message of the Gospel. The Gospel means "good news". The exhortation was to be ready at all times to preach the Good News. Paul said to Timothy: I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage -with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great amount of teachers so say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

Be sure of this dear friends in the Lord, the Holy Spirit is not warning us today of this great danger which will have tremendous consequences for those who turn their ears away from the Truth in Christ to live in the world of deceit and lies. And worse when we come to the place where people do not want to hear about repentance from sin and faith in Christ for eternal life. Then the Apostle Paul concludes with these words of encouragement for each one who has his or her faith in Jesus today and is willingly walking in His footsteps: "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of rightousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to ALL who have longed for His appearing."
(1 Tim. 4:6-8).

The Word of God solemnly exhorts and encourages us about FAITH in Christ in our daily life. But this FAITH comes through the Word of God in the Scriptues. That is why the Lord gave gifts to people. God gave spiritual gifts to the Church - the body of Christ - after Jesus' resurection and ascenion. Read Ephesians 4:1-16. In verses 11-13, we read: "It is He who gave some to be Apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ."

It is not the will of God that we remain infants tossed to and fro by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

The Lord willing we will continue this topic in our next Blog as a conclusion for now. Take time and study more on this topic and together let us do what the Scriptures exhort us to do: examen ourselves to determine if we are in the faith.

FAITH

Today we want to share a little about what the Scriptures say about Faith, but in particular what we read about faith in the New Testament. The O.T. mentiones the word "faith" only two times, whereas the N.T. mentions this word "faith" around 240 time! Surely this would indicate to us that Faith must be an important factor for our daily lives.

Also, I would like to emphasize that this message is for such who have already professed or confessed FAITH in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In 1 Timothy 4:1,2 we read the following: "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith, and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared with a hot iron"..etc. These warnings are for each and every one of us, who profess FAITH in Christ. Why? It is not possible to "abandon" or "fall from" something you do not have. These words are directed to believers. These Scriptures indicate the possibilty for believers to follow deceiving spirits and thereby abandon the faith.

Take your Bible and turn to 1 Timothy 3:6. Here we have a similar exhortation:"If anyone teaches false doctrine and does not agree to the sound doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to fiancial gain." Continue to read through verse ten.

Dear friend, believe it or not, any one of us who is sincerely believing in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, can be in danger of falling into false and wrong teachings. The true answer is found in verses 6-8. In is in this category each one who believes in Christ for his or her salvation, belongs in: "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it."

GODLINESS is each one of us living in fellowship daily with God, our Heavenly Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is the greatest blessing one can have, and it can be mine and yours! The Apostle Paul calls this GREAT GAIN or TOTAL SATISFACTION.

There will be more on this subject of FAITH in our next blog, the Lord willing.So remember to log in soon.
Betty and Bicento Henriquez