Category Archives: Faith

Faith is a topic which is widely misunderstood. This is largely due to it’s being treated like a religious topic or a “tool” to manipulate circumstances and ultimately God to make our own lives more satisfying.

Any Biblical idea which has been stripped of its relational context is doomed to mislead people in the end.

Faith is nothing more that relational, whole-hearted trust placed in God as a RESULT of Him taking the initiative to reveal Himself to us in any area of our live. The trust we place in Him, initiates from Him. As He reveals Who He is to us, the heart response of trusting Him to be Who He reveals Himself to be is what faith is – nothing less and nothing more.

Faith Good Works

Faith & Good Works Pt. 3

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In our series on Maturity & Ministry we have been looking at the need to maintain good works. As we continue in James, we learned today about the very real possibility of hearing the Word so much with a heart that intellectually believes it, without considering our lives in the light of it. To hear the word and NOT produce the ‘good works’ of the word.

James offers controlling what comes out of your mouth as proof of ‘good works’ produced by faith. He also mentioned caring for widows (especially those of your own family) and orphans as a demonstration of true worship of God.

We ended in chapter 2 verse 17 where James really begins to bear down on the fact that true saving faith is always accompanied by works. He then introduced the unique subject of ‘dead faith’, which we will learn more about next week beginning in verse 18.

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Faith Good Works

Faith & Good Works Pt. 2

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Last week we turned to James for more wisdom on living out our confession of Jesus as our Lord having first read what Romans 2 and Hebrews 10 had to say about ‘Good Works’.

James bears down on the necessity of faith in the production of ‘Good Works’. To do this he starts off with how the believer is to approach times of temptation which James tells us is a testing of our faith as well as our character.

He offers seeking God for wisdom and how the poor and rich should approach life as examples.

He wraps up with a teaching on temptation and where to set our focus which offers us more insight on the topic than perhaps any single author in the New Testament.

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Faith Good Works

Faith & Good Works Pt. 1

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Well if you have been following this series of “Maturity & Ministry” you know that we have been investigating what the New Birth looks like in terms of our ongoing responsibilities and stewardships in the Kingdom.

These include, but are not necessarily limited to:
• Love and respect for God
• Being proactive about the Word of God abiding in us
• Pursuing love of the brethren
• Desiring and being good stewards over the spiritual gift(-s) given to us
• Being faithful stewards over the ministry to which Jesus, the Lord of the Body, appointed us.
• Producing good works

Over the past 4 weeks we have taken a journey through the New Testament identifying specific things God calls “good works”.

This week we are beginning to look at the role faith plays in our pursuit of good works and our responsibility to encourage it in our fellow believers.

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Message manger

The Message in the Manger

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The Father loves to reveal Jesus to us through feasts & festivals, stories, metaphor, names and plays on words.

God’s first lesson to Israel was of the manna. It was to teach than mankind needs more than natural bread to thrive. We need the bread of God’s words spoken to us.

Jesus was the final word God spoke over his creation and He was the only word we needed.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the house of bread. In a teaching that caused nearly all who followed Him to walk away, Jesus called Himself the true bread from heaven. That His body was bread and His blood drink in which was the eternal life God sent Jesus to bring and be.

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