FAITH

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1,2 James 1:3 For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 1 Peter 1:7 These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. Romans 5:2-4 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. My faith is not in my works. My faith is the generator of my works. Faith produces works. Works reveal faith or the lack of it. Being is expressed in doing. Quotes on Faith: God is still calling us to live by faith. (Ray C. Stedman, "What Faith Is") The great enemy of faith is a complacent spirit, an attitude of self-satisfaction with the status quo. (Ray C. Stedman, "What Faith Is") "Faith, for instance, is not positive thinking; that is something quite different. Faith is not a hunch that is followed. Faith is not hoping for the best, hoping that everything will turn out all right. Faith is not a feeling of optimism. Faith is none of these things, though all of them have been identified as faith." (Ray C. Stedman, "What Faith Is") Faith is believing there is another dimension to life other than those which can be touched, tasted, seen or felt. There is more to life than that. There is also the realm of the spirit, the invisible spiritual kingdom of God. All the ultimate answers of life lie in that kingdom. (Ray C. Stedman, "What Faith Is") Faith believes that God, in his grace, has stepped over the boundary into human history and told us some great and very valuable facts. (Ray C. Stedman, "What Faith Is") Faith believes them and adjusts its life to those facts and walks on that basis. (Ray C. Stedman, "What Faith Is") If faith is the gaze of the heart at God, and if this gaze is but the raising of the inward eyes to meet the all-seeing eyes of God, then it follows that it is one of the easiest things possible to do. A.W. Tozer It is a life of FAITH, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing Who makes us "go." Oswald Chambers- Quotes From "My Utmost For His Highest"(p 79) Many of us are loyal to our notions of Jesus Christ, but how many of us are loyal to Him?. . .Faith is not intelligent understanding, faith is deliberate commitment to a Person where I see no way. Oswald Chambers- Quotes From "My Utmost For His Highest" (p 88) After we have been perfectly related to God in sanctification, our faith has to be worked out in actualities. We shall be scattered, not into work, but into inner desolations and made to know what internal death to God's blessings means. Are we prepared for this? Oswald Chambers- Quotes From "My Utmost For His Highest" (p 95) "God wants us to lay our burdens on Him and rest in His love. It's His responsibility to work out the purpose and plan in our hardships. Only our refusal to trust Him....can hinder His purposes in our lives." Joni Eareckson Tad Faith recognizes the fact that God is in control of my life. Whether I believe it or not, it's a fact that God is in control of the world. If I don't believe it, I"m just robbing myself of the enjoyment of the fact. Paul Little "We are saved by faith alone. However, faith that saves is never alone...it is always accompanied by works." Martin Luther "Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible." Category: Faith Author: Ten, Boom, Corrie "Faith, if it be true faith, is a sure trust and confidence of the heart, and a firm consent whereby Christ is apprehended: so that Christ is the object of faith, yea, rather he is not the object, but, as it were, in the faith itself Christ is present." ------ Martin Luther "Faith...comes only when the outward fact penetrates to the inner heart of man and takes possession of him there -- and this is the work of the Spirit."------ George Hendry, *The Holy Spirit in Christian Theology*. "By faith we receive the saving grace of God that delivers us from guilt and sin. In love we participate in the victorious struggle of God against the principalities and powers of evil." ------ Gabriel Fackre, *A Christian Story*, p.203 Faith is believing He, the miracle worker, can turn my stone-cold indifference into a fire of love toward certain "unlovables". Pamela Reeve "In the Book of Acts, faith was for each believer a beginning, not an end; it was a journey, not a bed in which to lie while waiting for the day of our Lord's triumph. Believing was not a once-done act; it was more than an act, it was an attitude of heart and mind which inspired and enabled the believer to take up his cross and follow the Lamb whithersoever He went." Born After Midnight, 16. Faith (A.W. Tozer) "Faith never means gullibility. The man who believes everything is as far from God as the man who refuses to believe anything." The Root of the Righteous, 120. Faith (A.W. Tozer) '...Faith is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God. Believing, then, is directing the hearts' attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind to "behold the Lamb of God," and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives.' The Pursuit of God, 90. Faith (A.W. Tozer) Faith as Paul saw it, was a living flaming thing leading to surrender and obedience to the commandments of Christ. Faith in our day often means no more than a meek assent to a doctrine. Paths to Power, 56-57. Faith (A.W. Tozer) I always admired atheists. I think it takes a lot of faith. Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Seoul Mates, 1991 If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory. William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830) Remember that faith is not a noble quality found only in superior men. It is not a virtue attainable by a limited few. It is not the ability to persuade ourselves that black is white or that something we desire will come to pass if we only wish hard enough. Faith is simply the bringing of our minds into accord with the truth. It is adjusting our expectations to the promises of God in complete assurance that the God of the whole earth cannot lie. A man looks at a mountain and affirms, "That is a mountain." There is no particular virtue in the affirmation. It is simply accepting the fact that stands before him and bringing his belief into accord with the fact. The man does not create the mountain by believing, nor could he annihilate it by denying. And so with the truth of God. The believing man accepts a promise of God as a fact as solid as a mountain and vastly more enduring. His faith changes nothing except his own personal relation to the word of promise. God's Word is true whether we believe it or not. Human unbelief cannot alter the character of God. Faith is subjective, but it is sound only when it corresponds with objective reality. The man's faith in the mountain is valid only because the mountain is there; otherwise it would be mere imagination and would need to be sharply corrected to rescue the man from harmful delusion. So God is what He is in Himself. He does not become what we believe. "I AM That I AM." We are on safe ground only when we know what kind of God He is and adjust our entire being to the holy concept. A.W. Tozer