Category: Belief by faith needs no proof

Help my unbelief


The father in Mark 9:17-27, the father of a young boy with a demon came to Jesus asking Him to drive the demon out of his son. He said his disciples couldn’t do it but when he asked Jesus “If He could” do it, Jesus responded with, “If I can? Anything is possible for those who believe!” Then the father said that he believed but he needed help with his unbelief. In other words, he had faith but it was weak. Many of us are in that same situation today and sometimes we place our “faith” in things rather than the Person of Jesus.

Some people use handkerchiefs or anointing oil to give people some “thing” to believe in but God told us long ago not to place our faith in anything but to keep our faith and our spiritual eyes focused on Him. We have a Savior, Jesus Christ, Who is the Son of God, that is Who our faith should be in and in Him alone. Jesus finished the work that God sent Him to perform on the cross and it was by the shedding of His blood that our sins have been forgiven. We can do nothing to add to it or “help” Him in any way regarding our salvation.

Sometimes, life throws some pretty hard punches our way and they can cause us to question our faith. When sickness or a death in our family breaks our resolve it can be hard to keep our eyes on Jesus and keep our faith in Him alone but with prayer and seeking His strength in the Bible, we can do it with His help. David wrote many Psalms seeking God’s protection and strength and we have to seek Him in our time of need as well. Life is hard at times and the world around us will not help us…but God will and He is always as close as a prayer.

God is the Creator!


The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night sheweth knowledge. Their line is gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. Psalm 19:1‭-‬2‭, ‬4‭-‬5 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.19.1-5.KJV

Believe…


Faith is confidence in God’s provision


Even when we can’t see it happening, faith gives us the confidence that God will provide our needs. Hoping for His will to be done in our lives and having the faith to believe He will.

Believe…


This one-word command, “Believe”, is the one that we should be following. I know it sounds like such an easy command but it is also one that is looked at by many people as “too easy”. 

John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

It takes only your belief in Jesus to bring salvation into your life. Then the work starts. You have to learn more about Him and live your life accordingly every day from that point on. Not just on Sunday and Wednesday night, but every day! Your life in Him cannot be just a once-a-week thing. The disciples couldn’t do it that way and we can’t either.

Belief takes faith and your faith comes from God. He chooses you to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus by faith and belief in Him. We don’t have anything to do with our salvation except our choice to give our hearts and our lives to Him. Do you have a choice? Yes and no. God chooses you when you realize that you need Jesus for your salvation. It is your choice to accept Him at that time or you will accept Him later. Once God has chosen you, then one day you will follow Him. I found this out myself when I felt the call on my life nearly forty years ago but I didn’t want to answer it at that time.

It took about thirty years or so before I surrendered to His call on me to be a preacher. The decision about my salvation came about when my son was born. I had accepted the Lord as my Savior a few years before he was born but when my son was born, I became more intent on following Him so my son would have faith in the Lord and be able to see it in my life. Kids today need to have an example in their immediate family, especially their parents. If parents don’t teach their children about their belief in a Savior, the world around them certainly won’t.

Reading God’s Word as a family is one of the best ways to show your faith and your belief to your kids. I didn’t do it as much as I should have until I became a preacher but he did come to Jesus as a child and I made sure that the home-school material that we used taught Scripture as well as his other subjects. Why? Because the pathway to wisdom begins with God’s Word. Wisdom is one characteristic that our world needs desperately. Real wisdom, not just education, is only found in the Bible by studying it daily, not just one hour on Sunday.

Do you believe?


There are many who think that they do. Mark 11:22 is where Jesus told His disciples to “have faith in God and all things are possible”. The kind of faith that He was speaking of is one that is not swayed by feelings or problems. It is the kind of faith that allows you to believe even when things don’t look good or when things are not going the way you want them to. I think of people who go to church and study their Bibles yet they get a diagnosis of cancer. Does your faith give you the strength to stand up to that?

Many people’s faith doesn’t. Why? Because, in my opinion, they don’t think that God cares enough about them or their problems, their faith and belief in Him is not strong enough to stand up to their problems. It is not easy to believe that our Creator loves us this much. Especially when we can’t see Him or the evidence of His love but it is all around us. He gives us the food that we have to live on and the air that we breathe. He gave His Son to pay the price for our sins so that we could be redeemed from the penalty of those sins.

There is an unending supply of evidence that God loves each of us but many of us choose not to see it. We go through our lives every day and we live by the same rules that we have lived by all of our lives, some of them are His rules and some are not. The point is that we choose to pay little attention to the details that He takes care of when we can’t. He takes care of many details that we may never be aware of, like an accident that we avoided because He caused us to be a little later getting on the road. We may blame Him for causing us to be late but if we had been there when we intended, we could’ve been hurt in an accident.

There are likely many things that God does for us in the background that we aren’t aware of now, but we may find out about them when we are in His Presence one day. Then we will know about the little details that He took care of when we didn’t know He was doing it. Your faith in His should be based on all of the things that you can read about in His Word. Not because He did it two thousand years ago but because He can still do it today. Remember, Jesus said that we can do the things that He did and even greater…but it is likely dependent on our faith and our belief in Him.

God’s promises come true


One day soon…


What will get your attention?


In today’s society, our attention spans have decreased to the point of being only long enough for a blurb on the news. I’ve noticed that most news programs seem to sell drugs more than they tell us about the news. The news anchors only speak about one or two sentences then another commercial for some new or renamed drug comes on for three minutes. Then they will come back and say a few words and then more commercials will come on. I know that is the way that the networks make money but I would like to actually hear some NEWS if I bother to tune in.

If you have heard any sermons about Jesus Christ then you may remember one of His parables about the days near the end of the age. Two are working in the field, one is taken and the other left. Two women are grinding meal, one is taken and the other is left alone. Two are in the bed at night, one is taken and the other is left. This is a description of the “rapture” of the church or of believers when Jesus comes back to take His Bride, the church, to heaven. We are not far from that time.

I know that the disciples thought that Jesus was coming back during their lifetimes as well but there are too many prophecies that have come true in the past seventy years for His coming to be very far away. It could happen tomorrow or even tonight, but the world will know when it happens because it will be an event that will happen all over the world at the same time. No one knows the hour or the day or even the year in which it will happen but God knows the timing down to the second. Are you ready for it? Have you given your life to Jesus and repented of your old ways of life?

God loves each of us and He doesn’t want any to die the second death in hell but that is your choice. God doesn’t send you to hell, your decision to accept Jesus as your Savior or not accept Him is the decision that truly condemns you to hell. Murder, theft, rape, genocide or other sins will determine the severity of your eternity in hell but your destination is determined by you. Make the decision to follow Jesus and ask Him to come into your life as your Savior. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins and make you clean so that you can be counted in that number of those who will be “taken” to heaven when He returns in the clouds.

This decision only takes a minute of your time but it will impact your eternal life forever. Choose to Live with Him.

God is as close as your next breath


The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/zep.3.17.KJV

God has never left this world and the people who live here alone. Satan wants you to believe that God doesn’t care about you, but Jesus wouldn’t have died to atone for your sins if He didn’t care. Your life is worth more than all of the wealth of the world to God. If Jesus Christ could only save one person from hell, He would’ve still come to die for you or me.

Don’t turn your back on such a great love that God has for you. No matter what is going on in your life, God loves you and He will be there in your situation with you.