Faith (101)
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Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened.
It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for Him.Matthew Henry's Commentary
The devil wants you to be as happy and prosperous as you can possibly be provided you don't make any difference for Jesus.
Any trust, except in God, brings about sin. Future Grace (325)
"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed" (v. 6). Then as now, Christians become aware of the inadequacy of their faith when they are made responsible for leading others. As leaders, they face challenges greater than their faith. They hope for great faith, certainly greater faith than their followers. Surprisingly, Jesus does not require superior spiritual endowments of Christian leaders, even apostles, nor does he offer them such. He promises, rather, to be present in the smallness of their faith. A mustard seed is so small that, held in the palm of one's hand, it appears as a speck of dust, barely visible. The image of the mustard seed is another hyperbole, but the point is clear. Christians, even apostles, are distinguished not by the quantity of faith, but by the employment of faith; not by greatness or smallness of faith, but by acting on faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed.Pillar Commentary, Luke
Anxiety is living out the future before it gets here. Faith is trusting that when the future comes, our Father will be there to give us what we need.
Fear consults with flesh and blood, while faith engages with God to supply strength to endure the siege.Triumphing over Sinful Fear, 53
The Christian accepts the truth of the existence of God by faith. But this faith is not a blind faith, but a faith that is based on evidence, and the evidence is found primarily in Scripture as the inspired Word of God, and secondarily in God's revelation in nature.Systematic Theology (21)
The Christian, like a net, must have both the lead of a godly fear and the cork of a lively faith.
Justification takes place by works and by faith—by the works of Christ and by our faith.
In the matter of justification before God, faith, I repeat emphatically, stands entirely alone. Faith is the hand that lays hold on Christ. Faith begins, faith carries on, faith keeps up the claim which the sinner makes on the Saviour. By faith we are justified. By faith we bathe our souls in the great Fountain for sin. By faith we go on obtaining fresh supplies of pardoning mercy all through our journey. By faith we live, and by faith we stand.Old Paths, Ch 6
Without revelation religion sinks back into a pernicious superstition.
Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.
It sounds really spiritual to say God is interested in a relationship, not in rules. But it's not biblical. From top to bottom, the Bible is full of commands. They aren't meant to stifle a relationship with God, but to protect it, seal it, and define it. Never forget: first God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, then He gave them the law. God's people were not redeemed by observing the law. But they were redeemed so that they might obey the law.The Hole in Our Holiness
Seek first the kingdom of God, and then trust that He will take care of our needs, even before we know what they are and where we're going.
Saving faith may be defined as a certain conviction, wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, as to the truth of the gospel, and a hearty reliance (trust) on the promises of God in Christ.
The Christian's motto should not be 'Let go and let God' but 'Trust God and get going.
Faith is not primarily a function of how you feel. Faith is living out and believing what truth is despite what you feel.
If God then withdraws Himself, if in the soul of men He bear no more witness to the truth of His Word, men can no longer believe, and no apologetics, however brilliant, will ever be able to restore the blessing of faith in the ScripturePrinciples of Sacred Theology, 366
Only one life,' twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last. Poem: Only One Life, Twill Soon Be Past
If your going to take on your self a religion that puts on silver slippers. Just know it's taking you to hell. If your Christianity does not cost you throw it away, it's a lie! Sermon: Is Your View of the Cross Worldly
By faith alone one is freely forgiven of all sins and the believer is no longer burdened by the Law for meriting good works. Our works, however, are demonstrative of our faith and will determine whether we are ultimately justified.
All, therefore, were glorified and magnified, not through themselves or their own works or the righteous actions which they did, but through his will. And so we, having been called through his will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our wisdom or understanding or piety or works, which we have done in holiness of heart, but through faith, by which the almighty God has justified all who have existed from the beginning, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.1 Clement 32:3-4
One last word, about getting rid of fear. Two men had to cross a dangerous bridge. The first convinced himself that it would bear them, and called this conviction Faith. The second said 'Whether it breaks or holds, whether I die here or somewhere else, I am equally in God's good hands.' And the bridge did break and they were both killed: and the second man's Faith was not disappointed and the first man's was.
Your faith will not fail while God sustains it; you are not strong enough to fall away while God is resolved to hold you.
Perhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the resurrection.
Sin always dies most where faith lives most. The most believing soul is the most mortified soul.
The hand that holds onto its own alleged goodness, or attempts to sneak in a merit here, a good work there, will not find the open hand of God's grace. Only the empty hand fits into the powerful hand of grace. Only the person who finds in Christ his all-in-all will, in so finding, be made right with God. This is why the Scriptures say it is by faith so that it might be in accordance with grace: in God's wisdom, he excludes man's boasting by making salvation all of grace.http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/1993/04/29/the-empty-hand-of-faith/
Faith means acknowledging that your heart is not good at all, and trusting Christ alone. What is the Gospel?(79)
The tears are in my eyes as I look at you and say, Why will you die? Will you not give your soul a thought? Will you perish through sheer carelessness? Oh, do not do so, but weigh these solemn matters and make sure of eternity! Do not refuse Jesus, His love, His blood, His salvation. All of Grace (150)
It is dangerous to be more notion than motion; to have faith in the head and none in the heart; to have an idle and not an active faith.
Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
It is true that faith alone justifies, without works; but I am speaking about genuine faith, which after it has justified, will not go to sleep but is active through love.
Because faith alone justifies... publicans and prostitutes will be the first in the kingdom of heaven.
It is not of our own accord that we have believed... and even when we had come to believe, He did not require of us purity of life, but approving mere faith, God bestowed on us forgiveness of sins.
we cannot expect the earliest Christians to have the same clarity on the issue of sola fide as the Reformers. The emphasis we find among them on topics like good works and merit lacks the clarity of the later discussions, but a sympathetic reading doesn't posit a contradiction between them and the Reformers. True faith results in good works, and the term "merit" in the early fathers may designate the reward given instead of being interpreted to say that one earns salvation.Sola Fide, 23
Justification by faith alone isn't the product of rigid and brittle orthodoxy. It speaks to the minds and hearts of people all throughout history because it tackles one of the fundamental questions of our human condition: How can a person be right with God?Faith Alone, 15
sola fide! These words declared that salvation does not come from looking at our own works of righteousness, but from looking outside ourselves to another, to the person and work of Jesus Christ.Faith Alone, 15
We cannot commit our sins to God's protection--only our duties. God is so great a friend to truth and righteousness that He will not take part in sin--no matter how dear you are to Him. If truth lies with your enemies, the mistake is yours. Do not involve God in your errors and failings, much less any sinful designs. You might commit to Him a doubtful case to be decided, but not a sinful case to be protected.
First, although pistis does not always mean allegiance, it certainly does carry this exact meaning sometimes in literature relevant to Paul's Letters and the rest of the New Testament. Second, since Paul regards Jesus above all else as the king (the Christ) or the Lord, this is the most natural way to speak of how the people of God should relate to Jesus. Third, allegiance makes better sense of several otherwise puzzling matters in Paul's Letters. Fourth, the proclamation "Jesus is Lord" resonated with Greco-Roman imperial propaganda, so that pistis as allegiance fits into the broader cultural milieu of the New Testament world.
How many men do actually think that it is unreasonable to serve God at the expense of their business activity? To give Him their first and most energetic service? How many think it would be unreasonable in God to put His service before their provision for themselves and family? How many of us who have been able to "risk" ourselves, do not think that we can "risk" our families in God's keeping? How subtle the temptations! But, here our Lord brushes them all away in the calm words, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Is this not a rebuke to our practical atheism?Faith and Life
We feel His presence and activity in some things but not in others; we seek His blessing in some matters but not in others; we look for His guidance in some affairs but not in others; we can trust Him in some crises and with some of
our hopes but not in or with others. This too is a practical atheism.Faith and Life
How many men who would not think of saying even in their hearts, There is no God, deny Him practically by ordering their lives as if He were not? And even among those who yield, in their lives, a practical as well as a formal
acknowledgment of God, many yet manage, practically, to deny in their lives that this God, acknowledged and served, is the Lord of all the earth. How prone we are to limit and circumscribe the sphere in which we practically allow for God!Faith and Life
If we thoroughly understand and believe what power is in God's hand to defend us, what tenderness is in His heart to help us, what faithfulness is in His promises, our hearts will be calm - our courage will grow stronger and our fear will grow weaker.Triumphing over Sinful Fear, 29
Love influences the graces, it excites the affections, it makes us grieve for sin, it makes us cheerful in God; it is like oil to the wheels; it quickens us in God's service. How careful then should we be to keep alive our love for God!
a true Christian is not a sheep who has gone looking for the Good Shepherd and found a man who seems to fit the bill, but someone who has been looked for and found by God.God is Love
Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.
The highest ideal for the Christian is not to make peace with the world, with science, with culture at any price, but to keep himself from the evil one.
"I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb 13:5). The Greek text of this verse contains five negative particles, cumbersome to render into English, but soul-enriching nevertheless: "Never will I leave you—no, never—no! Nor forsake you."Preaching as Reminding, 20
True faith is grounded upon knowledge. Knowledge carries the torch before faith. There is a knowledge of Christ's orient excellencies. Phil iii 8. He is made up of all love and beauty. True faith is a judicious intelligent grace, it knows whom it believes, and why it believes. Faith is seated as well in the understanding as in the will. It has an eye to see Christ, as well as a wing to fly to him.Ten Commandments, 203
The Christian life makes no room for independent agents, onlookers, renters. We who are washed in the blood of Christ are stakeholders.
I feel that it is good to commit my Soul, my Body, and my all into the Hands of God, Then the World appears little, the Promises great; and God an allsufficient Portion.
When I left England, my hope of India's conversion was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles, it would die, unless upheld by God. Well, I have God, and His Word is true. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God's cause will triumph.
Faith is not bare knowledge or passive persuasion but the
embrace of Christ by the heart, resulting in personal knowledge of God.
The heart must therefore be prepared by the law awakening the sinner
to his need of Christ. The law beats on the stony heart as a hammer to
smooth its surface before God writes His Word upon it. Though some
men called this repentance, Calvin preferred to think of it as preparation
for faith, which in turn leads to true repentance.
Live above the world, and underneath you shall be God's Everlasting Arms.
People want to recommend themselves to God by their sincerity; they think, 'If we do all we can, if we are but sincere, Jesus Christ will have mercy on us.' But pray what is there in our sincerity to recommend us to God? ... therefore, if you depend on your sincerity for your salvation, your sincerity will damn you.
Lord, help me to begin to begin.
Only love for Christ has the power to incapacitate the sturdy love for self that is the bane of every sinner, and only the grace of Christ has the power to produce that love.
Justification is by faith alone, but it isn't a faith that is alone, for true faith produces good works. Still, good works are not the ground or cause of salvation; they are the fruit of one's faith. The perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers, so that their righteousness is not inherent but is theirs because they are united to Jesus Christ. At the final judgment God will declare publicly what was already the case in the lives of believers, i.e., that they are righteous by faith, and their works will verify (but will not be the foundation of) that declaration.
So the end of the matter is this: Live for God. Obey the Scriptures. Think of others before yourself. Be holy. Love Jesus. And as you do these things, do whatever else you like, with whomever you like, wherever you like, and you'll be walking in the will of God.
We can stop pleading with God to show us the future, and start living and obeying like we are confident that He holds the future.
There is a greater difference between the genuine Christian and the deceived professing Christian than there is between a living man and a corpse. None need remain in doubt if they will honestly measure themselves by the Holy Word of God.
Follow Christ for His own sake, if you follow Him at all. Be thorough, be real, be honest, be sound, be whole-hearted. If you have any religion at all, let your religion be real. See that you do not sin the sin of Lot's wife.
God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.
Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.
Have your heart right with Christ, and he will visit you often, and so turn weekdays into Sundays, meals into sacraments, homes into temples, and earth into heaven.
The Christian life is a life of non-conformity.
We are secure, not because we hold tightly to Jesus, but because he holds tightly to us.
We can be in our day what the heroes of faith were in their day - but remember at the time they didn't know they were heroes.
Every Christian should be both conservative and radical; conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it.
We rob men of a greater vision of God because we will not give them a lower vision of themselves.
Men and women who are used of GOD, if I had only a few words to describe them, they are the passionate-weak, they are the violently-desperate.
In his later years, Newton wrote more about the Bible than about science, though little was published. Humanists have said that they wish he had spent all of his time on his science. They think he wasted the hours he expended on biblical study, but they really are a bit blind when they say this. As Whitehead and Oppenheimer stressed, if Newton and others had not had a biblical base, they would have had no base for their science at all.How Should We Then Live, 150
When you observe that the fire in your room is getting dull, you do not always put on more coal, but simply stir with the poker; so God often uses the black poker of adversity in order that the flames of devotion may burn more brightly.
You can't confuse childlike faith with childish thinking.
It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church.
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
faith also sees the godliness in what many pietists, on their own authority, have come to call sin.Future Men (p. 6). Canon Press
Believe God's word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your Rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea.
Faith is the empty hand by which we receive Christ and all His benefits.
Faith is chosen by God to be the receiver of salvation, because it does not pretend to create salvation, nor to help in it, but it is content humbly to receive it. Faith is the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it; but it is not the price which buys it. Faith never makes herself her own plea, she rests all her argument upon the blood of Christ. She becomes a good servant to bring the riches of the Lord Jesus to the soul, because she acknowledges whence she drew them, and owns that grace alone entrusted her with themhttp://www.aomin.org/aoblog/1993/04/29/the-empty-hand-of-faith/
It bears repeating: assurance of salvation is the fruit of faith in Christ. Christ is able to and does, in fact, save all those who come to him through faith. Since faith is fiducia, trust in Christ as the one who is able to save, there is a certain confidence and assurance seminally inherent in faith. The act of faith, therefore, contains within it the seed of assurance. Indeed, faith in its first exercise is an assurance about Christ. This dimension of assurance is therefore implicit in faith.The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (p. 197). Crossway
The ultimate ground on which faith rests, lies in the veracity and faithfulness of God, in connection with the promises of the gospel... Roman Catholics find the ultimate ground of faith in the Church; Rationalists acknowledge only reason as such; Schleiermacher seeks it in Christian experience; and Kant, Ritschl, and many modern liberals place it in the moral needs of human nature.Systematic Theology, 507
the term faith is taken in three ways, namely for that by which one believes, and it is a virtue; also, for that by which one believers, and it is not a virtue; also, for that which is believed, which is different from that by which one believes.The Sentences, Book 3, Dist 23, C3
Faith is personally Receiving and Resting on the obedience of Christ, and His atoning death as one's only hope before the All-Holy GodWestminster Confession, Chapter 11, section 2
Losing your faith may be God's gift to you. Only when you jettison ungrounded and untrue faith can you replace it with valid faith in the true God-- faith that can pass, and even find strength in, the most formidable of life's tests.If God is good
The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus. China's millions, Volume 1, Issue 1 (Page 41)
What you love determines what you feel shame about. If you love for men to make much of you, you will feel shame when they don't. But if you love for men to make much of Christ, then you will feel shame if he is belittled on your account. Don't Waste Your Life (Page 65)
Faiths way of walking is to cast all care upon the Lord and then to anticipate good results from the worst calamities.
Well, I was out here on the highway, and I was driving and I had a flat tire and I got out to change the tire, and when I was changing the tire, the lug nut fell off, and I wasn't paying attention that I was on the middle of the highway, I stood up and there was a 30-ton logging truck going 120 miles an hour about ten yards in front of me, and it ran me over and that's why I'm late.
Now, there would only be two...I know no one studies logic anymore, but there would only be two logical conclusions. One, I'm a liar or two, I'm a madman. You would say, "Brother Paul, it's absolutely absurd. It is impossible, Brother Paul, to have an encounter with something as large as a logging truck and not be changed."
And then my question would be to you -- What is larger? A logging truck or God? How is it that so many people today profess to have had an encounter with Jesus Christ, and yet, they are not permanently changed? Sermon: Shocking Youth Message
Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God and he is instantly free.
Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.
And when our attitude becomes one of no no no no no we shouldn't pay a price no no no no no we shouldn't suffer no no no no no why should we be suffering? Put a big question mark on whether you are a true Christian at all. Sermon: Is Your View of the Cross Worldly
True and saving faith in Christ is not a thing out of the power of man, but infinitely easy. 'Tis entirely in a man's power to submit to Jesus Christ as a Savior, if he will; but the thing is, it never will be that he should will it, except God works it in him. Miscellanies #71
faith means receiving something, not doing something or even being something. To say, therefore that our faith saves us means that we do not save ourselves even in slightest measure, but that God saves us. What Is Faith (173)
our thinking should be wholly engaged to do all it can to awaken and express the heartfelt fullness of treasuring God above all things. Think (84)
The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won't enlist you in his service unless you are healthy and Jesus won't enlist you unless you are sick. Brothers, We are Not Professionals (41)
the believer should not shrink from situations, positions, circumstances, in which his faith may be tried; but should cheerfully embrace them as opportunities where he may see the hand of God stretched out on his behalf. Answers to Prayer (48)
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