What is Faith

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)

Occasionally something hits me like a lightning bolt and suddenly once murky concepts become clear as a bell. This, I believe fervently, is the Holy Spirit, revealing God's truth to me bit by bit. I'm glad that He doesn't do it all at once because my Swiss-cheese memory (Quantum Leap Reference) couldn't take it. 

A good definition of what Faith is and is not hit me a short time ago when reading Preparing for Eternity by Mike Gendron

The top definition used in the Christian world for faith is Hebrews 11:1, but I'm not wild about the use of the word 'assurance'. Over the years 'assurance' has become a bit more wishy-washy than it once was. The definition of assurance is "the state of being sure or certain about something" The original Greek word used in Hebrews 11:1 is ὑπόστασις or hypostasis which means things like "that which has foundation, is firm" and "the steadfastness of mind, firmness, courage, resolution" I like 'steadfast' over 'sure' in this particular instance. If I'm wrong, please correct me, but try this on for size: 

Now faith is the steadfast trust of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen 

The Monastic Life Is Not For Me

You can't trust people, but you can always trust God, His word never changes. We know this to be true from Numbers 23:19. What may change is our understanding of God's word. God says quite clearly what a sin is, and which sin God really hates. (Of course He hates all sin, but there's one He really really hates)

As we continue to ride on this sin sick world the morals and values of the people around us change to something we as observers of this world are generally shocked to see. This was prophesied to happen, we knew it would happen, if anything we should be surprised how quickly it's happening and the levels to which it's reaching. We, as Christians, are under attack for not supporting sin, which is one of the things we should be doing best: not supporting sin. However are we to retreat to monasteries to avoid the sin sick world around us? I don't do monasteries. If we look in the bible is that what Paul is really saying?

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

Tips for a Safe Exorcism.

Professor Giuseppe Ferrari head of the Italian occult watchdog group, The Group on Research and Socio-Religious Information, has pointed out in a Vatican backed exorcism course that the pop culture focus on the occult such as "beautiful vampires" like in the Twilight nonsense movies and "True Blood" (an HBO vampire series that leapt the shark somewhere in the middle of episode 2) is encouraging young people to dabble in the occult. 

This, of course, is not news, as wide awake Christians we know this is happening all around us, but from articles printed in The Independent it appears that the Romans are being inundated with reports of demonic possession although some believe that the Roman obsession with exorcism is causing gung-ho priests mistake mental health problems for demonic possession. The increase in 'gung-ho' exorcists isn't just a Hollywood or Italian phenomenon, England is reporting an increase in the number of exorcists too. 

First of all, if you're thinking of throwing an at-home exorcism here's a few safety safety reminders from Vatican City:

Finding Peace in a Fallen World

Let's face it brothers and sisters, it's getting harder and harder to find the peace that Christ Jesus promised us. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are being horrifically murdered all over the world, the governing bodies we elected are negotiating to give nuclear weapons to terrorists, church denominations falling like dominoes to the wiles of Satan and his cohorts, and Christians are being hounded via the legal system for the sin of being a Christian. 

Personally, right now, I'm not in the best of physical health. I'd love nothing better than to recuperate and spend time with God's word, but my bride and I have been inundated by stuff. Some of this stuff is awesome (granddaughter on the way!!!), some of it is direct attack by people that we pledged ourselves to help, and some is just plain weird, but it's all stuff that keeps our focus diverted from Christ Jesus. According to CS Lewis the #1 thing that Satan does to separate us from Jesus is to keep us busy. He says that B.U.S.Y. is an acronym for Being Under Satan's Yoke. And he's right. 

Our church, the First Berean Congregational Church, is pretty awesome about busy. There's activities to foster fellowship and learning but we don't bury our saints in busy. So Satan attack in other ways, lately we're being hit by attacks as described in Psalm 6:19, and we know it's Satan behind all of  these covert attacks as well as the horrors going on in the world, 

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

As we approach the end of days it's going to get worse and worse. To conduct business we are going to be expected to pledge allegiance to acts of perversion, we are going to come under attack because we love Jesus, and other than having faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, there's not much we can do about it other than weather the storm by living the life He wants us to lead. 

God doesn't want us angry, or sick with fear, He wants our love, not our terror. It's going to get worse, not better, especially for those that love this world, so being forewarned we need to find the peace we need to weather the storm, Luckily God gave us instructions on how to do this, we simply have to follow His word

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

 It truly helps when you concentrate on the good things rather than the bad.

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Score one for the good guys: Memories Pizza in Walkerton Indiana which was shut down by the hyper reactive self centered left for daring to air their religious beliefs has re-opened to crowds of friends and well wishers and not a protester in sight. Freedom Loving Americans pitched in and raised $842,000 to help the beleaguered owners through the assault by the "liberal" left.

Religion of Peace Update: ISIS has decapitated a man accused of witchcraft and sorcery. This is just a latest in a long string of grizzly executions including a couple being stoned to death in front of children. Where did these barbaric animals come from? They came from Saddam Hussien's horrific nightmare of a government.

 Someone who gets it... and he's a Canadian!

Color Me Shocked. Yeah Right. Department: It's illegal to discriminate against gays, but Colorado is okey dokey with discriminating against Christians

Religion of Peace update II: the Islamist group Al-Shabaab has massacred hundreds of Christians in just the past few months. In December they killed 36 Christian quarry workers. They separated Christian from Muslim and shot the Christians. This was 10 days after they killed 48 passengers on a bus, and the day before that they threw grenades in a bar frequented by non-Muslims killing one and injuring 12. On April 2 Al-Shabaab entered the campus of Garissa University College and separated Muslim students from Christian by asking them to recite Muslim verses, and executed the Christians. The sad part is that if you read the reporting in Reuters or listen to Barack Hussein Obama you'd never know that this was an Islamic hate crime against Christians, neither had the guts to admit that this was Christian persecution.

We ran into this at the board meeting at First Berean Congregational last night. I think a Sunday School lesson on Psalm 6:16-19 is in order.

Let's recognize who the real haters are

You don't know how much I love stories like this one. I know a girl whose mom was faced with such a decision (for different reasons). That girl is going to make her mom a grandmother any day now.

PCUSA Update: The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a coalition of approximately 34,000 churches spanning various denominations and representing an estimated 15.7 million African Americans and Latinos, has “broken fellowship” with the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) after a majority vote was reached among the denomination’s regional presbyteries to redefine marriage.

Liberal writers make a shocking discovery: when you start calling Christians 'racists' people actually think you were serious and start treating Christians as racists.

You seriously didn't see this coming? Department: Personally I think Jeran Artery's problem is that he's leading the largest gay group in Wyoming and he's lonely. Very, very lonely.