Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Thoughts On Faith Part 1!

What is faith? Why is faith so important? Do you believe that faith in God is importnat? Why or why not? What does faith do? Does it play a part in salvation? If so, what? Why do you believe?

What do you think think?
Share your thoughts.

25 comments:

  1. When I think about faith I think about the word relationship. People in the bible like Abraham and David seem to have embraced a faith that was rooted in their relationship with God.. not sure if any other kind of faith is really faith at all.

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  2. Faith - a favorite and huge topic.

    Here are some of the ways FAITH is recorded.

    Hope you enjoy them.

    F.A.I.T.H.
    Forsaking All I Trust Him

    By Faith

    Ac 15:9 purifying their hearts by faith
    Ac 26:18 sanctified by faith
    Ro 1:17 live by faith.
    Ro 3:28 justified by faith
    Ro 5:1 justified by faith
    Ro 5:2 access by faith
    Ro 11:20 stand by faith
    2Co 1:24 by faith ye stand
    2Co 5:7 walk by faith
    Ga 3:11 live by faith
    Ga 3:24 justified by faith
    Ga 3:26 children of God by faith
    Ga 5:5 the hope of righteousness by faith
    Eph 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts
    by faith
    Php 3:9 righteousness which is of God by faith
    Heb 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith
    Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand
    Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God
    Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated
    Heb 11:7 By faith Noah ... prepared an ark
    Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham ... went out,
    not knowing whither he went.
    Heb 11:9 By faith he (Abraham)
    sojourned in the land of promise
    Heb 11:11 Through faith ... Sara herself received strength to conceive seed
    Heb 11:13 These all died in faith,
    not having received the promises
    Heb 11:17 By faith Abraham ...offered up Isaac
    Heb 11:20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
    Heb 11:21 By faith Joseph ... gave commandment concerning his bones.
    Heb 11:24 By faith Moses ... refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter
    Heb 11:27 By faith he (Abraham) forsook Egypt
    Heb 11:29 By faith
    they passed through the Red sea
    Heb 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down

    The Faith

    Ac 6:7 obedient to the faith.
    Ac 14:22 continue in the faith
    Ac 16:5 established in the faith
    Ac 24:24 concerning the faith
    Ro 1:5 obedience to the faith
    Ro 4:11 righteousness of the faith
    1Co 16:13 stand fast in the faith
    2Co 13:5 be in the faith
    Ga 1:23 now preacheth the faith
    Eph 4:13 unity of the faith
    Col 1:23 continue in the faith
    Col 2:7 stablished in the faith
    1Ti 1:2 my own son in the faith
    1Ti 3:9 mystery of the faith
    1Ti 3:13 great boldness in the faith
    2Ti 4:7 I have kept the faith
    Tit 1:13 be sound in the faith
    Tit 3:15 Greet them that love us in the faith
    1Pe 5:9 stedfast in the faith
    Jude 1:3 contend for the faith

    Of Faith

    Ac 6:5 full of faith
    Ac 6:8 full of faith and power
    Ac 14:27 door of faith
    Ro 3:27 law of faith
    Ro 4:13 righteousness of faith
    Ro 9:30 righteousness which is of faith
    Ro 10:8 word of faith
    Ro 12:3 measure of faith
    Ro 12:6 proportion of faith
    Ro 16:26 obedience of faith
    2Co 4:13 spirit of faith
    Ga 3:2 hearing of faith
    Ga 3:5 hearing of faith
    Ga 3:7 they which are of faith
    Ga 3:9 they which be of faith
    Ga 6:10 household of faith
    Eph 6:16 shield of faith
    Php 1:25 joy of faith
    1Th 1:3 work of faith
    1Th 5:8 breastplate of faith
    2Th 1:11 work of faith
    1Ti 4:6 words of faith
    1Ti 6:12 fight of faith
    Heb 10:22 assurance of faith
    Jas 5:15 prayer of faith

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  3. Kansas Bob,
    Thanks you so much brother for your thoughts and comments! I appreciate your thoughts on topic. I have many, many questions reguarding faith. I do believe that plays apart in salvation and maintaining a "true relationship" with God. I think of these men as well. Thank you for your friendship. I appreciate all you do for the Kingdom of God. You have played a huge part in my faith!

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  4. A. Amos,
    Thank you so very much for your thoughts on this topic. Thank you so very much on all the many, many scriptures on this topic. I greatly appreciate it!

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  5. Preacherman;
    I must admit that you ask your questions wisely, not giving away your own point of view on faith.
    Sometimes every Preacher-man must by FAITH put his head on the chopping block, so that he might die daily.:-)
    OK, then I put my head on the block.

    Without faith it is impossible to please God! (Heb.11:6)
    In fact, whatsoever is not of faith is sin! (Rom. 14:23)
    And all of us who are justified, we will live by faith. (Rom. 1:17)

    Faith pertaining to salvation;
    It depends on whether you think that faith is before salvation or after.
    If you think that faith is before salvation, then (Eph. 2:8) would need to say that you are saved by faith through grace, but it is said the other way around, that you are saved by GRACE through faith.
    The second part is very important, it is the explanation of the first part "and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast."

    Here you can see that faith is NOT before salvation.
    If it would be then we could boast and say to those who are not saved;
    'If you would have put your faith in Jesus like me, then you would also be saved'.

    Again, if you put faith before salvation, then it is by works and not by grace.
    Faith is merited and grace is unmerited.
    Salvation is by grace unmerited.

    I don't think that anyone of us would sing a Hymn like; 'Amazing FAITH that saved a smart fellow like me'.:-)

    Paul

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  6. I think "faith" is being able to read all of A. Amos Love's comment. :)

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  7. cwinwc:
    I'm not sure whether I rightly understand your comment.

    All Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims and Buddhists etc. are able to read A. Amos Love's comment.
    But I seriously question whether they understand those quotes.
    In fact they don't understand, otherwise they would believe and have faith in Jesus.

    But as to us who believe, by faith we UNDERSTAND. (Hebr. 11:13)
    Sometimes that too might be questionable :-)

    Sadly the Lord Jesus said, "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8)

    Paul

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  8. Kinney, I think faith is vital to life. We were created for worship and for relationship. That happens best within the context of faith.

    The thing that I have experienced is that faith and doubt are travelling partners, or at least in my life. I struggle if they do not walk hand in hand. My doubts, enrich my faith and increasing faith leads to more doubt...

    Blessings on you all for the holidays.

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  9. Hey Kinney, It's me, Jim. Hope you have been getting better. What took me so long?
    I just figured out a way for me to keep up with my former blogging pals and promote your blog. I am permitted to post the same content on Blogspot as I will at Richmond Evangelical Examiner. So, I have created a Richmond Evangelical Examiner blog, in Blogspot. Your link is already on my page. Just use this url to add my link to your side bar and we can begin exchanging traffic again and staying in touch.
    I’m polling the group I have linked in my side bar to ask if you all prefer that I use the link list format or the blog roll format. The blog role format is the one that places the most recent blog postings at the top of the list. Let me know what you prefer. I tally the vote in a week. Email me at jeleasure1@verizon.net

    ReplyDelete
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  11. Paul G. said "It depends on whether you think that faith is before salvation or after."

    Paul can you name one instance within the pages of the bible where a person was saved before he had faith in his savior.

    Was Noah saved without faith?
    Was Danial saved,from the lions, without faith.?
    Were, the three within the fiery furnace, saved without faith?
    I could go on but expect you already know of more instances where faith came first, just as it does with our salvation today.

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  12. laymond12:55 PM

    1Pt:1:7: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

    I know why (saved by grace only) folks never quote this passage, because it flies in the face of what they teach.

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  13. The conversation is already underway. I see Paul's answer as the best attempt to give an answer. Kansas Bob is giving some wisdom to us when he says, he does not know if 'any other kind of faith is faith'.
    I can't give you any more on that than being long winded at an attempt to give a different, more clever answer.

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  14. laymond;
    There are many types of salvation.
    Saved from disaster, from sin, from the wrath of God etc. but I think you mean 'saved unto life (eternal life).'
    If faith is required for that, then we who are saved would really have something to boast about. Worst of all, grace is no longer grace since grace is the absence of works.

    Let's take John the Baptist; he was saved (unto eternal life) while he was still in the womb of Elizabeth before he could believe and put any faith in Jesus.

    Or Paul; he did not have, or put any faith in Jesus, on the contrary, he persecuted the believers till the Lord Jesus struck him from his high horse of unbelief and saved him by His amazing grace.

    Noah, Daniel and all the Saints, they all had the life of God (or salvation if you like) in them before they performed by faith mighty deeds.
    Noah, by faith built an Ark so that he would not perish with the rest.
    Daniel also was saved before he trusted in Jesus and by faith believed that the Lord would close the mouth of those hungry lions.

    laymond; What about you and me, can we believe by faith that the Lord Jesus would save us from any sickness, diseases, accidents and calamities etc.?
    Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God!

    Why is it that professing Christians suffer the same consequences like unbelievers and pagans?

    Well, that was not so with the man of faith!
    Regards
    Paul

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  15. There are many Scripture verses about faith, we wish that they were not there, or perhaps we would like to sweep them under the carpet, so to speak, or even try to intellectually explain them away.

    If we believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that it cannot be broken, then what do you think about the challenge from the Lord Jesus.
    Mark 11:22-23)
    "Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain,'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him."

    To those who celebrate the birth of our wonderful Lord and savior Jesus Christ, I wish you a merry Christmas.
    Lots of love
    Paul

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  16. Paul G. there is a great difference in having faith in God doing what he said he would do, and faith in God doing what we want him to do.

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  17. Paul G - the hint would be in the ":)" I typed at the end of my comment. In other words, I was just having fun at the length of A.Amos' comment.

    No offense to you or A.Amos. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year as well as you Preacherman.

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  18. Faith is the human response to God's grace in Christ. And faith is not just passive, but active. It essentially sets us on a new course, in following Jesus.

    A Blessed and Merry Christmas to you and yours, Kinney!!!

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  19. laymond;
    Well brother, I thought that you might give me an 'AMEN'. :-)

    But since you did not!
    I will give you an 'AMEN' to your comment above.
    And a short question;
    Which one of the two do you prefer?

    cwinwc;
    I know that you mean no offence.
    Also, I welcome every opposing comment or idea, so that I or we would expand and increase in the knowledge of God, His Word and faith.

    Ted M. Gossard;
    I'm sure you could have expanded your comment a little bit more, so that I or we would have something to chew and digest with our Christmas cake. :-)
    Merry Christmas
    Paul

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  20. I apprecaite everyone's thought and comments on this subject. I think that there are many phases of faith. I think many believers confuse faith with always being solid, strong, undoubting, certain. Is that true faith? Do you think Abraham stratch his head when God said to leave his home, sacrifice his son, etc? Did Moses doubt God even after being in his presence on the Mountain? What about David, or the disciples of Jesus, Paul even? I think we need to understand that there are going to be times of question, stuggle, doubt. I know there are times in my life where I struggle, doubt, and even times when faith is hanging on by a thread. Yet faith that is hanging on by a thread is still faith, is it not?

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  21. I like your last comment Kinney. It reminds me that Cal Thomas said "doubt is not the same as disbelief" when he was reflecting on the doubts of Mother Teresa.

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