Faith is Trust

"Faith is trust. If your dad says he will put you in the oven because you didn't trust him, I might be stating the obvious here, but I wouldn't trust him.”

- Sam Gollan

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Hell is a Mistranslation 

Unconditional Acceptance

The “prodigal” son felt like a loser after he squandered his inheritance away and fed the pigs. Yet, that did not alter his sonship and his father’s unconditional love for him. 

The elder brother was the “good boy” of the family. He never missed one church service, he did not hang out with the “wrong” company, he worked hard at his father’s business; yet, he failed to understand the heart of his father -- because his trust was in his obedience and faithfulness, over his father’s unconditional acceptance. 

We serve. But we do not serve to be accepted by the Father. We already are accepted in the beloved, purely by his grace (Eph 1:6 NKJV).

The Choice

The modern man who prides himself on being "self made" comes to the point where the trust in all his five senses fail, where he has no other options to bank on.

To him, Jesus says, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."

This, obviously is not a new revelation. We all know that.

Jesus also says, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."

 

It is easy for us to believe the first scripture. We can leave all the responsibility to God and sing "Que Sera, Sera, Whatever Will Be, Will Be". It is also easy to blame God, when bad things happen to us.

However, with the second scripture, we are given a responsible choice. The choice to trust Him and believe His promises over the circumstances that does not line up with our new-creation reality in Him.

Trust

A story that my friend forwarded to me:

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They say the story of the mountain climber who was desperate to conquer a particular mountain. After years of preparation, he started his climb on a fine weekend.

But by the time he got around to climb, it was already getting very late. Instead of camping, he continued with the climb. It got real dark very soon. Visibility was zero. Clouds enveloped the moon and the stars and the temperature was getting colder by the minute.  

As he was climbing a ridge at about 100 meters from the top, the unthinkable happened! He slipped and fell. Falling rapidly, he could see nothing but darkness. Terror invaded his mind, as the gravity sucked him down at a terrifying speed. This really was the end, or so he thought.

Suddenly he felt a jolt that almost tore him in half. Yes, like any good mountain climber, he had staked himself to a long rope tied to his waist. He was now hanging in midair with nothing but pitch blackness and the frigid weather around him. 

He had no choice but to shout, "Help me God, HELP!" 

He suddenly heard a deep voice from the heavens, "What do you want me to do?"

"Save Me!"

"Do you really think I can help you?"

"Of course, my God!"

"Then cut the rope that is holding you up."

There was a moment of silence. And the man proceeded to clutch the rope that was holding him even tighter.

Next day, the rescue team reported that they found a frozen mountain climber with his hands clutched real tight to the rope... 

and he was merely five feet off the ground.

- Author Unknown
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Trust is a major ingredient in our walk with God. And it does not necessarily stem from our five senses. But at the same time, it is not a blind walk either. Our action will be in response to His words. Peter walked on water by trusting Jesus' words and when his eyes was focused on Jesus. But he began to sink when he trusted his senses. 

We have a clear choice.

Lessons from the Rapture

Harold Camping’s followers were sincere, but misguided. Instead of being connected to The Shepherd (Jesus), they were blinded by Mr. Camping and his doctrine. While we take turns in poking fun at them, we tend to forget that there is a chance that we may not be that different from the Camping followers. Yes, we have our scripture guns ready with scriptures to disprove Camping’s prediction. But the fact of the matter is, all of us can be misguided, if our beliefs are based solely on what’s coming from the pulpit, television preachers, traditions or books that agree with our core head-knowledge that were formed (again) solely from the pulpit, television preachers or traditions.

Contrary to popular assumption, Christianity is not about ignorantly swallowing what’s coming from the pulpit. Unfortunately that has been happening throughout generations. And this is one reason why people hop from church to church, doctrine to doctrine or sadly in some cases, abandon the journey altogether. Christianity, to me, is about an intimate relationship with Christ Jesus and His expression through us. Genuine relationships happen only when we spend quality time with the person we want to connect with. Conferences, church, Sunday school, theological knowledge or meetings cannot replace that personal connection.

Institutions might detest questions, but God is not insecure as we assume He is. We can come boldly to His throne of grace with questions that we would not dare ask our churchy contacts for the fear of being ostracized. Although there is nothing wrong with an open discussion with friends, they cannot replace the insight from the Source Himself. The Bereans did not blindly swallow Paul’s words. They did not think it was rebellious to double check the Scriptures to see if Paul was not making things up. We now have access to the Scripture in a gazillion translations and formats, but the problem usually is, we read it through our own doctrinal spectacles. Truth will not be contained or limited by a doctrine that tickles us. This is why we need to move out of the way and actively depend on the Holy Spirit to enlighten the scriptures.

Ministers should encourage the listeners to connect with the Vine, for it is from Him, the life - His life - flows. Books should connect the readers to the person of Jesus. If not, we will continue to see blunders like the May 21 Rapture Prediction happen in various shapes or forms – no matter what camp we are in. I don’t care an iota if self-serving, mindless, man-made doctrines fail. There is no sweeter smelling aroma than that which comes from the slaughter of a sacred-cow doctrine. I am concerned about the hurt that a person goes through when he realizes that he was led by the blind all along. Churchianity is oblivious to this hurt and disillusionment. And we wonder why people are leaving organized Christianity in droves. 

Unless the message connects the listeners to the Person of Jesus Christ and encourages them to depend on the Holy Spirit, they might rather be taught about cooking; for without His active presence, Christianity becomes nothing but a dead religion.

Focus On Him

And this is the commandment, That we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. - 1 John 3:23

The New Testament commandment is to believe (put our complete trust in, adhere to, solely depend on) in Jesus Christ.

‘Believe’ is not limited to a one-time exercise that we did when we first received Him to our heart. It is a present continuous action. We believe in Jesus, when the newspaper screams “recession” – because our (the believer’s – not necessarily the person who knows a lot of scripture) need is supplied according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We believe in Jesus, when the media talks about “flu” season – because by the stripes that Jesus bore on His back, we (again, the believers – not the churchian) have the provision to walk in divine health.

If Jesus could solve the lack of food issue for five thousand (not including children and women) within a matter of seconds, His miracle working power has not faded away one bit, for Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

His Power is constant. The only variable is our trust in Him. Let us not get distracted anymore and put our focus on Him and Him alone.

Abide In Him

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. - Jesus (John 15:4-5)

We know that the fruit comes from the branch (us) not because of any merits of the branch but because it is part of the Vine, Jesus. The branch does not strive to bear fruit; all it does is stay in the vine. It is the life of the vine that brings fruit to the branches.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We cannot manufacture it with our own strength. We can do nothing if we do not abide in Christ Jesus.

The question is how do we abide in Jesus?

1 John 3:24 (ESV) sheds light on this topic: Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

The person who keeps the commandment dwells in Jesus Christ. Which commandment is John referring to here? John wrote this book after the resurrection of Jesus, so this is not about the 613 commandments in the Old Testament, because Jesus fulfilled the law. So what commandment is John talking about here? Let us go up one verse: And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. (1 John 3:23 ESV).

The commandment for the New Testament believer, is to believe (putting our complete trust in, adhering to, solely depending on) in Jesus Christ. And as the result of His life in us, we will be able to keep the second part of that commandment, that is, to love one another.

When we believe in His Name, we have the confidence that He hears us when we ask for anything according to His will and if we know that He hears us, we know that we will have whatever we ask according to His will. We also know that when His words abide in us, we will receive whatever we ask of.

It all starts with believing (putting our complete trust in, adhering to, solely depending on) in Jesus Christ – not on our works, tradition, upbringing, education, culture, circumstances or the economy.

Strength

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." - Philippians 4:13

Our strength is not our will-power or our disciplined lifestyle; our strength is Jesus Christ. And this Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, lives in us. It is when we trust in His Life that is in us, nothing becomes impossible for the believer.

Our task then, is to believe that truth just like a little child would. The proportion of Jesus’ life flowing through the believer is equivalent to the proportion in which the person believes in Jesus, who is in him.

If he thinks Jesus can heal only common colds, then that is the extent to which he receives the healing. It is not because Jesus is limited, but we, with our limited thinking, limit the manifestation of the already freely available provision. We sometimes look at the natural circumstances and we choose to accept whatever comes our way. That need not be the case.

Jesus says in Matthew 28:18, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."

‘All’ in Greek or Hebrew means all. The Person with ‘All authority’ resides in us. There is not one sickness or negative circumstance that will not bow at the Name of Jesus.