Faith is, "Divine Evidence and or Conviction" Think about this if faith is not about our belief but about God giving us evidence and or conviction about something, then it would by necessity require God to initiate the conversation! See Faith installment 1.1
Several places in the New Testament we are told that Faith is a gift of God and as such it is not of us but from Him. Ephesians 2:8 "For by Grace you are saved through Faith, and that not of yourself it is the gift of God"
How do we get this faith?
Romans chapter 10 verse 17 reads as follows; "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" I'm using the KJV simply for clarity purposes. Other translations seem to cloud the true meaning of this passage and prevents us from understanding the writers meaning of this verse. A lot of people mistakenly think this passage has to do with preaching and hearing a preacher but the truth of the matter is something more profound, again you have to revert back to the authors language to grasp what he is saying. If you will allow me I would like to break this down for clarity sake.
Faith (divine evidence or conviction) comes to us by hearing, most of us do not consider the true meaning or process involved in the use of this word, if you are a spouse you know that sometimes a your spouse can be speaking but you are not hearing because you are not focused. Typically the conversation goes something like this, "Did you hear me?" "no i'm sorry what did you say?" more conversation flows (fill in the blanks) between the two and finally the focus is there and the spouse repeats what was originally said the difference is this time the other person is focused and listening. That is the true meaning of the word hearing. What you have hear is the apostle telling his hearers that God gives faith to us after he gets us to a point where we are focused and ready to listen. Hearing by the word of God. Again we need to think about this. Word as used by the apostle here has it's root in a Greek word that has the idea of breaking the silence and pouring out an utterance. Makes sense doesn't it.
So here is the flow of this and let me paraphrase, "Faith (divine evidence or conviction) comes to us when God catches our attention and creates a situation where we are ready to listen. It is at this point the He breaks the silence and pours forth an utterance." What happens when God speaks? Something is created and in this case what is created is Faith or an evidence or conviction about at thing.
Here is a weird thing about this, you can have faith and do something with it or not do anything. Either way it is faith. The difference is is when we act on it it becomes living faith, when we don't it is dead not of itself but to us. A long time ago I knew of a man who was poor, he shuffled around my home town in rags and was a beggar, after many years he moved south to a warmer climate, a friend of mine stayed in contact with him. His house in the south was a dirt floor shack. After quite a while the man died and in the floor of the shack was found a small fortune that had the man used it he would have lived comfortably as it was the money did him nor any one around him any good. The point is we can have a thing of great worth and if we don't use the thing it is worthless to the person who posses it. James 2:20 ..."faith without works is dead"
Thanks for reading check back again we'll look into this Faith a little deeper.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Faith 1.1
In our lives sometimes things get a little out of alignment and if not corrected the end result can be disaster. When I was in school I recall being taught about lines and line segments, it seems if you are off by the smallest degree the end result will be that you miss your mark. The same is true about our Christian walk. Most Christians today when asked "What is Faith" will tell you it is trust and belief and while this is a by product of faith it is not really a definition of faith. The Bible provides us with several insights into faith but a lot of those insights are lost in translation and it is only when we dig into the original words that were used that we begin to grasp the meaning penned by the original writers. It is not my intent to impress anyone with my knowledge of Hebrew or Greek, mostly because if I tried you would not be impressed, so I will simply refer to words and you can look them up as I have had to do. In this beginning article I will lay out a couple of thoughts and hopefully if you begin to follow me these will assist us in our journey together into a deeper understanding of our Spiritual walk.
The Hebrew word for faith means Faithful. Now at first glance most would say "Oh that means we are to be loyal to God", however the root of this word brings out something far more revealing for it carries within it's root word the idea that this faithfulness springs from experience. It drives home the point that we are faithful or loyal to God based on the fact of past experience with Him. He has revealed Himself to us in the past therefor when things get tough we trust Him stay loyal to Him because experience has taught us that He will not leave us. If you have not had a personal encounter with God, if you do not know from past experience that He will be with you and that He is in control, then the basis for your faithfulness is going to break down and you will abandon Him. So at the root of this Hebrew word is the idea that at some point in time we had to have had a personal encounter with the Living God or we have nothing to stand on. This draws us out into a journey that requires the Infinite to break in on our finite lives.
The Greek word for faith means about the same. The word the Greeks use in describing faith is varied but the one that refers to our walk with God is Pistis I may have spelled it wrong but I think it is right look it up if you want. Now this word when broken down to its root meaning has some interesting insights for us. It carries within it's roots the idea of Divine revelation, evidence, and conviction. Here is an interesting thought if you know the Bible you will recall that He is the author and finisher of our faith, the meaning of this word Pistis should cause bells to go off in our head as we ponder the flow of this definition. If God is the author of our faith it must by necessity start with Him. The Greek word does exactly that in that it has the idea of the Divine. In keeping with the Hebrew word this Greek word used by the New Testament writers, such as Paul, requires an intervention by the Divine or Infinite Being. The Greek word also gives us the idea of experience in that it involves the idea of evidence. That would mean at some point in our lives the Divine would have to provide us with some kind of evidence or proof of a thing. The last part of this Greek word's definition is conviction. A conviction is something deeper than a belief it is actually attached to our very core or heart and drives what we do and how we do it.
To conclude this article here is a definition of faith that has helped me understand a great deal as I journey with my God.
Faith is, "Divine Evidence and or Conviction" Think about this if faith is not about our belief but rather about God giving us evidence and or conviction about something then it would by necessity require God to initiate the conversation! I will post more about this next time and I invite you to drop back into my blog.
Terry
The Hebrew word for faith means Faithful. Now at first glance most would say "Oh that means we are to be loyal to God", however the root of this word brings out something far more revealing for it carries within it's root word the idea that this faithfulness springs from experience. It drives home the point that we are faithful or loyal to God based on the fact of past experience with Him. He has revealed Himself to us in the past therefor when things get tough we trust Him stay loyal to Him because experience has taught us that He will not leave us. If you have not had a personal encounter with God, if you do not know from past experience that He will be with you and that He is in control, then the basis for your faithfulness is going to break down and you will abandon Him. So at the root of this Hebrew word is the idea that at some point in time we had to have had a personal encounter with the Living God or we have nothing to stand on. This draws us out into a journey that requires the Infinite to break in on our finite lives.
The Greek word for faith means about the same. The word the Greeks use in describing faith is varied but the one that refers to our walk with God is Pistis I may have spelled it wrong but I think it is right look it up if you want. Now this word when broken down to its root meaning has some interesting insights for us. It carries within it's roots the idea of Divine revelation, evidence, and conviction. Here is an interesting thought if you know the Bible you will recall that He is the author and finisher of our faith, the meaning of this word Pistis should cause bells to go off in our head as we ponder the flow of this definition. If God is the author of our faith it must by necessity start with Him. The Greek word does exactly that in that it has the idea of the Divine. In keeping with the Hebrew word this Greek word used by the New Testament writers, such as Paul, requires an intervention by the Divine or Infinite Being. The Greek word also gives us the idea of experience in that it involves the idea of evidence. That would mean at some point in our lives the Divine would have to provide us with some kind of evidence or proof of a thing. The last part of this Greek word's definition is conviction. A conviction is something deeper than a belief it is actually attached to our very core or heart and drives what we do and how we do it.
To conclude this article here is a definition of faith that has helped me understand a great deal as I journey with my God.
Faith is, "Divine Evidence and or Conviction" Think about this if faith is not about our belief but rather about God giving us evidence and or conviction about something then it would by necessity require God to initiate the conversation! I will post more about this next time and I invite you to drop back into my blog.
Terry
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