Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts

Monday

5 Best Quotes on Faith - Coffee & Conversation




Here is my Choice for the 
5 Best Quotes on the subject of

 
FAITH









I am not a fan of QUOTES

In fact sometimes I get very annoyed at how people almost treat a quote
 as more important than the Word of God

I actually wrote a blog post about








However I do see that there are certain topics that there are some great quotes on from some very reliable people. This month I have been thinking about Thankfulness and decide to encourage you with some quotes around this.

There are many quotes from so many people on Thankfulness but I prefer to only refer to or recommend ones from people who I trust as standing firm on the Word of God.

So in the list below I will quote


Not  Joel Osteen   but   R.C. Sproul

Not  Beth Moore   but   Corrie Ten Boom 

Not  Bill Johnson  but   William Gurnall





1.  Corrie Ten Boom

"Faith sees the invisible believes the unbelievable and receives the impossible"



 




2.  C.S. Lewis
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else"



 




3.  William Gurnall
"We must come to good works by faith, and not to faith by good works."








4.  Corrie Ten Boom  (yes a second one!)
"Faith is like radar that sees through the fog - the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see."





Want some help or encouragement by being able to read these quotes again?


The visual Below is available as a  

Faith Quotes Free Printable






5.  R.C. Sproul


"The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in."










 

Don't forget to download  your
                      Faith Quotes Free Printable 










Wednesday

Where Should Our Focus Be? - A Dose of Encouragement


Where is your focus?

Where is my focus?


Where are we told our focus should be?






What are we focusing on?


What should we really be focusing on?



Have you noticed the I, I, I mentality that people are exerting these days?

So many blog posts, tweets, facebook posts are all trying to direct us to focus in on 

what we feel, 

          what we think, 

                    what we want to do, 

                              who we want to be, 

                                        where we want to get to etc.


I saw a tweet a few months ago where someone wanted to encourage us to know 


"who we were and to cultivate the person we wanted to be"



Even in Christian circles and unfortunately also in some churches we are being led in the same direction with the focus being on how great we are and how we can be better if we see and know and push on to be the great person who is within us.


BUT


Does the Bible tell us that?


Does the Bible focus on us?


NO





The Bible always focuses on Jesus
 and is constantly directing us
 to His Death on the cross
 and
 not to ourselves.




Jesus is the one who leads us to God, 

               Jesus is the one who stood in our place, 

                              we cannot do anything without His strength, 

                                             we are not the overcomers Jesus is the overcomer.




Preachers like to take the story of David and Goliath and turn it all to be about us.
We are not going to overcome our giants as so many people preach today. 
God will do that. 




Any limelight is not for the preacher, 
and
 not for the congregation 
but for 


Jesus.



Preachers like to preach about us and our mountains.  
But what does the Bible really tell us?
Prayer will move mountains.
Faith will move mountains.  
We should not take the credit for anything we must give all the credit to God.



Preachers quote Mark 11 v 23


For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

and preach on it giving the impression that if we believe it, then it will happen.


However as with all scripture it must be taken in context and then we see more of what Jesus had said hence giving a clearer picture.


Mark 11 v 20-24 


The Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree
20 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.”22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

This clearly shows us that:

  • Our prayers will be answered if we have Faith in God.
  • God will move the mountains.


Preachers also like to quote Matthew 17 v 20

20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 

However again let's take it in context and see the clearer picture. 


Matthew 17 v 19-21
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your [e]unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Nothing will be impossible for us because nothing is impossible for God.  
If God was not there then the things would be impossible for us.


We also know that Scripture backs up scripture and so looking at other places in the Bible such as Nahum we see the definite proof that it is God who has all power and not us.




The mountains do not tremble before us they tremble before God.


And further this is the reason it is God who has power over the mountains


Psalm 95 v 3-5


For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods.  In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also.  The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.

because they are His.


Why does faith do anything?   
To bring glory to God.
Not to bring attention to us.


What is man’s purpose on earth?  
To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.







So why should we be told that we are great?  or that we are the conquerors of our Goliaths?  or that we are strong?  or that we are the overcomers?  or that we can work miracles?




We can't 

But God can.


We can't, but God can!

Let us focus on Jesus and His love for us shown by His death on the cross and our salvation through faith by the grace and mercy of God.

Only by knowing Jesus and the Bible better will we grow in faith.


If you are wondering about this faith we are talking about then please click on the short 3.2.1. video on my sidebar.











Sunday

Sunday Scripture - Matthew 8 v 27


Sunday Scripture is just simply a thought or two on a Bible verse that may have struck me afresh or maybe for the first time or has always be special to me.


Today I am looking at Matthew 8:27







In chapters 5 -7 of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus taught the people and they could see he spoke with authority but then he continued His ministry to them through signs and miracles in chapter 8.

It is a chapter of healings (the leper v. 1-4,  the centurion's servant v. 5-13, Peter's mother-in-law v. 14, many who were demon possessed v. 15 & 28-32) which verse 17 tells us was to fulfil the words of the prophet Isaiah.


This chapter also shows the faith that people already had in Him.  The leper, the centurion, the demon possessed as they came to Him for their miracles.   

Why?

Because of faith.

Looking back we can see that the teaching of Jesus recorded in the previous chapters stirred up faith in the hearts of those people who came to Jesus in chapter 8.

Yet then in verse 27 we read




The disciples may not even have known exactly who He was, and the people certainly didn't, but they had heard Him and witnessed His power through the miraculous and this led to their faith.

So what excuse then is there for the people who do know who He really is?


The teaching of the Word of God and the work of God around us should stir up our faith too.



We need to stir up our faith.


What about the difficulties we have been through?
What about the difficulties we are facing right now?
What about the difficulties that will come to face us in the future?


Nothing about these difficulties should hinder our faith because we will be stirred up in our faith if we read God's Word and take heed of His miraculous deeds.


We should be able to say:


Who can this be but the Son of God!











It's God's Love #26


On Sundays I have been writing a short post consisting of a Bible Verse around the topic of God's Love and today we have come to the end of this series.














God's Love 

is 

Perfect

and

will continue forever

regardless 

of everything else. 









I am thankful

that

God's Love

is

greater

than everything else

and

that it is always extended

toward us.














It's God's Love #22


On Sundays I write a short post consisting of a Bible Verse around the topic of God's Love and I would be very pleased if you would come and join me each week.











Everything

to do 

with our lives

is because of 

God's Love.

Faith 

would not have been possible

without

the Love of God.







Thank you God

that you loved us so much

that you sent Jesus

who loved us so much

He died in our place..