Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/12/84; site aero.ARPA
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!aero!homeier
From: homeier@aero.ARPA (Peter Homeier)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Faith
Message-ID: <497@aero.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 9-Oct-85 17:17:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: aero.497
Posted: Wed Oct  9 17:17:15 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Oct-85 05:13:08 EDT
Reply-To: homeier@aero.UUCP (Peter Homeier)
Distribution: net
Organization: The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA
Lines: 159
Keywords: faith,salvation,endurance
Summary: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.

[...]

[this line is thrown in the teeth of any line-eaters around!]

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." (Acts 16:31)

To become saved, to move from this world system of darkness into the
light and fellowship of the kingdom of God requires faith.  It is not
something that can be established by good deeds, however noble and
sacrificial.  (Romans 3:20)  It is not something that can be achieved just
by intellectual study and rationalization.  (1 Corinthians 1:20)  Nor
is it something that comes purely as an emotional experience.  This
is not to say that there will not be righteous acts of love, powerful
and cogent reasonings about God, or deep-felt emotions caught up 
with the whole experience of salvation.  But the key is faith.

This is what opens the door to the kingdom.  But in this society,
faith is not well understood.  In the 11th chapter of the book of
Hebrews faith is defined for us:  "Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. ... But without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Romans 11:1,6)

Faith is what is required for salvation, not works.  Church attendance,
Bible study, giving to feed hungry people, even missionary work is worthless
for achieving salvation.  None of us is good enough to earn it.  It can
only be aquired through faith in Jesus.  "For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith- and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
that none may boast."

Faith is not just believing that God is.  There is also required a
concommittent alignment with Him.  For "Even the demons believe--
and tremble!".  (James 2:19)  Real faith always yields some action.
That action may not be immediate, but it will always occur, just
as true love always finds some action to express itself.  Faith
continues to do the good thing even though there is no visible
guarantee that it will be rewarded.  Faith is trusting God that what
He said in His Word, He will do, and acting upon that faith, even when
everything and everyone around is telling you the opposite.

Faith cannot be reached by a purely intellectual argument.  God desires
people to come to Him by faith, and so He made such a foolish thing
as faith to be the doorway to the Kingdom.

"For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not
know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message 
preached to save those who believe.

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks
foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God.  Because the foolishness of
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
(1 Corinthians 1:21-25)

This should not be taken to imply that faith is irrational or counter-
rational.  Rather, faith is beyond rationality, being a perception of
truth beyond the range of proof.  Since we are dealing with truth,
clearly all of it must be consistent!  When we can understand and deal
with things on a rational basis, fine.  God gave us our minds.  But
we must not limit God to what we can conceive Him to be.  God is far,
far more than we understand.

Faith does not come from ourselves, but rather it is itself a gift from
God.  Faith is not a work that we do, as if we could by some passion of
fervor and intensity achieve enough faith to ask for people to be healed
or mountains to be moved.  But faith is something that we grow in over time,
walking in the faith that we have been given up to now.  This is not to say
that people are not responsible for not believing; they cannot say, "Well,
I guess God just never gave me the gift of faith, so I am excused for not
accepting Christ!".  Ask for faith, and God will give it to you.

Faith is not a work.  It is the easiest thing in the world.  A little baby
can have enough faith to accept Jesus as Lord.  But we adults have
to make it a big process, when really it is very simple.  Just think of
how a little child has faith in Jesus.  That is how you should have faith.
"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little
children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."  (Matthew 18:3)

Often people feel like they wish they had more faith than they do.  That
is a good wish!  When the disciples asked Jesus, "Increase our faith,"
he responded by encouraging them to seek faith by telling them that if
they had only faith as big as a mustard seed (an extremely minute seed!)
then they would literally be able to say to a mountain, "Be lifted up, and
be thrown into the sea!" and the mountain would obey them.  There is 
an enourmous reservoir of power available to people who will pray
believing.  One excellent way to increase in faith is to do a lot of
Bible study.  "So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
In seeing the faith of the other great men in the Bible, our own faith
is strengthened.  In seeing the great deeds of God and the love He bears
towards us, we are encouraged to trust Him and believe Him that He is able
to do all He has promised.

Now whatever level of faith the Lord has given to you, walk in it!  Exercise
your faith.  For example, pray for things, like the healing of ill people
you know, trusting the promise that says "by His stripes we are healed.".
When difficult decisions come up in your life, ask the Lord what you 
should do, and wait for His answer.  He will answer you.  It will not be in
the way you expect, but if you are really willing to hear Him and obey
Him, then He will show you His will.  If you believe in Him, then wait
and listen until He answers.  DO NOT rush off, grabbing things back
into your own hands, thinking that God has forgotten you!  When it is time,
He will do what he has promised.  But faith waits patiently.  I don't mean
that one should take this to absurd limits, like not making a decision
that must be made today because you didn't hear anything from the Lord.
But there will be opportunities for you to give decisions over to the Lord,
and when you do what He says to do, everything will flow and work with
infinitely greater success than if you had done it on your own power.

Read in Hebrews chapter 11 for the great roll call of the heroes of the
faith.  "And what more shall I say?  For the time would fail me to tell of
Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the
prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of
fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness werre made strong,
became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead raised to life again." (v 32-35)

But now note how the tone changes:

"And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain
a better resurrection.  Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings,
yes, and of chains and imprisonment.  They were stoned, they were sawn in
two, were tempted, were slain with the sword.  They wandered about in 
sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented-- of whom
the world was not worthy.  They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens
and caves of the earth." (v 35-38)

This shows one of the deepest mysteries of faith.  As the first half of the
scripture shows, many times we achieve great visible victories through faith
in God, as Daniel was saved in the lion's den.  But there is another level
of maturity, when God appears to withdraw His protection, allowing terrible
sorrows to come upon His beloved children, when it appears that there is no
comfort or peace from Him, when the world feels as empty and drear as if there
were no God.  But this is for our good that He allows this, that He might
build our faith in times of darkness, stress, and trouble.  He wants us to
believe in Him even when we cannot see His salvation anywhere at hand.  He
will take us right up to the brink of Hell, and we may even topple in.
But God has not sent us in without an example.  Jesus also endured the Cross,
when everything around said that God had forgotten Him, abandoned Him to an
ignominious death.  He could have taken things into His own hands, summoning
legions of angels and coming down from the cross.  But Jesus maintained His
faith in the Father, even to death.  And because He did, God raised Him from
the dead.

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and
let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God."  (Hebrews 12:1-2)

-- 

Peter Homeier                                  ______
Arpanet:    homeier@aerospace                 / o    \_/
UUCP:       ..!ihnp4!trwrb!aero!homeier       \___)__/ \
The Aerospace Corporation, M1-108
El Segundo, CA 90245