True Biblical Belief

Often people are examined today for being "biblical" based on what they say. Viewpoints on scripture are of course an important test for being "biblical," but far more important is how one lives.

Living biblical truth is far more important for being "biblical" than doting all the right points in a conversation. Living is what makes or breaks our faithfulness to scripture.

If we really understand scripture in a deep way it will change us. Understanding scripture in this way a way that really matters is ultimately what is important.

If you want to know how faithful we are biblically we need to not look as much at what we say, but look to what we do. The saying "talk is cheap" is very applicable.

If we want to know what we care about we often have to stop looking at what we say we care about and instead look at what our actions say we care about. Our actions flow from our heart and speak volumes to what we actually truly care about most.

How do we know what we believe?

How do we know what we believe? The question seems nonsensical in a way, but the bible affirms that our hearts are dishonest.

How do we know we have faith or are a true follower of God? I suppose than answer is not easy. First the question is if we have doubt "do we want to believe."

You see the desire to believe is usually a sign of faith.

A lot of people try to look negatively at the issue: how righteous am I. The whole issue is that righteousness is not a lack of bad actions. This is always the worst way to look at the situation especially since the issue with a dead heart is it does not see sin.

The main two ways to truly perceive faith are: where is your time and where your treasure is.

First where is your time? I'm not speaking about outward usage of time when people see us. There can be a bit of a deceptive nature to this. But when we have time and no one is watching what are we doing.

I'm not talking negatively saying are we sinning or not sinning. I'm saying when no one is watching is there a sense in which we positively live to the glory of God.

Did we happen to pick up a bible or a devotional when no one was looking? Did we think about anyone we knew in need and how they might be helped?

Did we have any contemplation of how the world might be better? Did we think of God? Was there anything good or noble or praise worthy we do when no one is around of which no one will know.

You see when we do good in private - real good of which we may not receive praise from men then we are following God. This is possibly one of the surest signs of faith.

Another is where is our treasure. The bible says where your treasure is there your heart is. We all have possessions and some of us are fortunate to have investments. But the simplicity is this have we done anything with our money for God.

Statistics suggest for most of the church the answer is no. Most of the charity of church members is done by 20% of its members. 20% of members account for 80% of giving. Usually giving to religion is also coupled with increased giving outside of religion as well.

Again there is a giving which has a nature of showiness to itself. The question is where is our money put when we have no benefit. Maybe we give but do we give if no one knows or praises us.

Obviously the quality of faith is difficult to judge. God knows and not man. If we want to believe we probably do.

I simply wish to point today to two signs of faith: the private use of time and money as what is done in secret is more important that what is not done. And absence of bad behavior is a much less interesting sign than what we infarct positively do when no one is looking.

Faith Belief and Trust

Faith has an element of uncertainty in it. A lot of western theology has had an issue with an uncertainty within faith.

The move often seems to place faith in the category of knowledge. There is some truth in this movement, but the bible always insists that the righteous will live by faith.

You see it makes no sense that the righteous live by faith if there is not an element of trust and need for belief that continues through the Christian life.

If someone in our church said in a prayer to God, "Lord I believe help my unbelief" churches would scoff. You see through the bible in the psalms of David and the great men and women of faith this sense of unbelief mixed with belief.

You see we have gone too far in our understanding of what is possible in the Christian life. To be a Christian is to continue to believe when things to not make sense and the chips seem down.

God is a good who delights in doing things his way. Sometimes he will send 300 men to win a battle when he could have sent 10,000. Sometimes he would prefer to get people where they should be in ways in which they do not like.

You see we always put God in a box and expect him to think as we think as if we think in a way which is good. We are always small and cannot see that we have no idea of how small we are.

Sin is always mixed though the Christian life. We always face unbelief and uncertainty. You see we see "through a glass dimly" as the Apostle Paul wrote.

The word of the Lord often comes in a still small voice. Sometimes the word of the lord is sent by unbelieving and wicked people to us.

But always God speaks and is there and supports our faith. You see he will not show us everything because it is not good for us. But he will always show us what we need to know and when we need to know it.

God has made many promises for his people in his word. These particularly take faith. Really we say has God kept his promises.

Sometimes I will doubt that God has kept his promises. You see life is hard and God has surely broken this promise in his word. But then I will reflect and see that God has not broken his promise at all and much of my hardship has simply been my weak faith.

You see faith often eases suffering because we trust that God has a plan and his provision or lack of provision has a reason. You see we don't trust that God knows what he is doing.

That is one crux of suffering is that unbelief increases suffering. Of course suffering is real the world is fallen and people suffer who have strong faith. But faith makes suffering more bearable as it happens.

Those who beliefs do suffer but the belief places the suffering into the context. The context is eternity and the eternity is eternity with God.

We should maybe thing of eternity like this if we had eternity to sit in the presence of Jesus at a table eating dinner with him would this make us happy?

You see it should because heaven is not about some sort of retirement vacation where we have maxed our 401K into an insane level and have more money than we could ever need.

Is suspect these things are true. The world is good and heaven is the world perfected but you see it is more it is relation with God and seeing God face to face.

It is the end of faith. Faith ends in the last day and is replaced by knowledge where we see God face to face. This knowledge is of course partial and incomplete.

You see we shall never see God fully only see him more and more each day. So the joy of heaven is always increasing as we learn more and more each day of the love of God.

The Difficulty of Faith

"...for whoever believes..."

The difficulty of faith at times is that it is too simple. Faith is simply a trust in God. In many ways faith itself is simply the receiving of a gift from God. The difficulty in this is that it is offensive to the human heart.

Of course we want to add something to the gift. Receiving something as valuable as faith (in the end nothing else matters) with no strings attached is simply difficult to take. To desire to add to faith is the natural tendency. But of course since faith is simply receiving a gift the addition of work or merit to it negates the faith.

The great difficulty of Christianity is not that it is too complex, but that its solution to the problem of the darkness in man's heart is too simple. We do wish to climb the mountain and obtain faith by ourselves. But scripture teaches us that faith is simply saying to God, "Lord have mercy on me a sinner."

To describe faith as an act is an exaggeration. Faith is simply an acknowledgement of brokenness and an acceptance of a solution that has already been done by Jesus after he had fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf then he paid all of our sin upon the Cross.

Where is our righteousness? It is in heaven seated at the right had of the Father.