We spent the Holidays with our family hanging out together and fishing. I had a great time!
That trip reminds me of a fishing trip I went on years ago. Standing on a riverbank where the water was shallow and kinda muddy where we saw other fishermen nearby, but they were not catching much.
Our guide, a young man who brought us to this spot, had led us to believe that we could catch big fish here. He got out the bait (it didn’t look too attractive to me) and told us to put our lines in the shallow water. There we stood, the only ones on our lines in shallow water, using some weird bait, hoping to catch a lot of big fish. It sure did take a lot of faith.
That reminds me of something in the Bible.
Trusting God and His Word (The Bible) takes faith and so does living the Christian life.
Luke 7:50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
2 Corinthians 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
one of my favorites: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
Our fishing trip was a great success just as our guide promised.
The Bible promises we will not be disappointed if we put our faith in God, His word (The Bible) and what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us. He shed His innocent blood that our sins could be forgiven.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,[a] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5:1-11 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Faith is mentioned 299 times in the New Testament.
See you in Church next Sunday.