Sunday, November 3, 2013

Sunday Faith Post

"We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith.  It may be so in the initial stages, but we do not earn anything by faith; faith brings us into right relationship with God and gives God His opportunity.  God has frequently to knock the bottom board out of your experience if you are a saint (Christian believer) in order to get you into contact with Himself.  God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of His blessings.  Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sun-spot of experience that had as much of sense as of faith in it, full of light and sweetness; then God withdrew His conscious blessings in order to teach you to walk by faith.  You are worth far more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight and thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character has to be cleared in our own minds.  Faith in its actual working our has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation.  Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive.  Faith in the Bible is faith in God against everything that contradicts Him - I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do.  "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" - this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible.

Hard for some of us to grasp but so important......probably the most difficult concepts to understand.  But worth it.  Some of you have experienced this, some of you will.  It's worth it.  It's forever.

"Faith as a grain of mustard seed..."  Matthew 17:20

From Oswald Chambers' MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST

Have a faithful Sunday.

Z

8 comments:

sue hanes said...


Z - I think Oswald Chambers is so good. I love his My Utmost for His Highest.

Have a good Sunday.

Mustang said...

It is difficult to maintain one’s faith when one can no longer observe the workings of the Lord. But if someone is unable to observe the workings of the Lord, they aren’t looking carefully enough. What has befallen America isn’t God’s fault—it’s ours.

Z said...

He is good. And the message is important especially for longer-time believers.

Mustang, that is so well said. Thanks. Perfect.

Marine4ever said...

Outstanding, Z. I really enjoyed reading this. A co-worker, looong ago, once told me something that I carry with me everyday. Jesus said to one of the thieves on the cross next to His, "I promised you that you would be in Heaven with Me; I didn't tell you that you could come down off the cross."

Ed Bonderenka said...

Z: Check this out from ElBro:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/november/fox-news-highly-reluctant-jesus-follower-kirsten-powers.html

Z said...

Marine4..the actual sentence of Jesus telling the thief he'll be in paradise with him that day just because he realized who Jesus was is my number one favorite Bible verse in the whole book (not that I've read them ALL, I've read most!)
But, I had never heard that ending and I will. NEVER FORGET IT, I promise. For my own good. THAT is an amazing addition...thank you for it.

Ed; thanks. Elbro sent it to me, too. I'm going to blog it tomorrow; in hopes that someone who needs to see it will see it.
You know what I mean.
xx

Marine4ever said...

Z -- I really need to apologize to you and the rest of the readers -- and Jesus. When I wrote that quote, those WERE NOT the words of Jesus. I got a little ahead of myself; it should have been written it as, “When Jesus promised him that he would be in Heaven with Him; He didn’t tell the man that he could come down off the cross.”

I caught what I had done and was in the process of sending this back when I saw that you had already responded. I do apologize and hope this hasn’t caused too much grief.

Z said...

Marine4...I did wonder about that, knowing full well that we all know that wasn't a direct quote, but it was such a fantastic lesson, I figured "What the heck" and sent it to a bunch of friends. HOWEVER, I also just wrote them back with your quote here..

this is much better.

Thank you very much!!!