11 November 2007

Sunday School Class: Proverbs 26:2 speaking of 'fools'...

Choruses:  

Scripture reading: #670

Sunday evening @ 5 p.m. The Life of Christ - Luke 13.10-21 Jesus offends the religious leaders by healing a woman on the Sabbath day.

Wednesday @ 7 p.m. Developing a Biblically consistent World-View: How our knowledge is shaped by faces and features – first hand awareness? “We are five years from now what we are today except for the places we will go, the people we will meet, and the things we will read.”

Crisis to crisis

Rom 1.16. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

Are you experiencing one crisis after another, or is your life just 'faith to faith!'?

I have long been fascinated with the 17th verse of Romans 1, '...in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."'(N.I.V.)

No where in this verse is the word 'crisis' mentioned - but it definitely is inferred! The verse is telling us that the 'gospel' of Jesus Christ reveals to us how we are to live 'right.' It just so happens that this is revealed in an opportune fashion through crisis after crisis.

Our personal perspective of faith aside (our religion; our optimism; our beliefs), we find faith mentioned here in Romans chapter one in terms of the 'right' way in which we are to live our life as professing members of The Church.

It has been noted by different philosophers and authors that we don't seem to learn much from good times. I'm an example of that philosophy. My times of life-changing learning have come through adversity.

Those are the times in which my 'faith' has been developed. Those were the times in which I discovered my weaknesses and found my need for strength.

One who is strong in good times - but quite evidently weak in the face of adversity, has no strength.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer – jailed by Hitler, wrote about ‘cheap grace…’ If your faith can't keep you on top of the heap during great difficulties, you don't have much of a faith. There is often a big difference between religion and faith...crisis will bring out the disparity.

It's easy to talk the big game when everything's going our way. The real measure of one's big game is when everything isn't going our way.

Perhaps we ought to spend a week in which we daily read Matthew chapter six, learning what 'righteousness' is supposed to be. This is thought to be the reference for Paul's "...in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed..."

Then when we have a handle on that, we can expand our attention to Matthew chapters five and seven. By the time we 'master' the Sermon on the Mount we should be progressing in ‘a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."’