"I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on, you know Him and have seen Him." John 14: 6-7 |
| The Way Of The Lord Ministries |
| Reverend Noreen T. Kevern Mr. Henry A. Kevern 520-237-0329 |
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Defined By Faith In Christ Alone “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-32 How do you define faith? How do you define religion? How do you define being a Christian? Do you look to a building, or rubrics based upon a governing authority of a church, which are a set of rules and regulations, telling you how and what you are to believe. Most of those who go to churches that follow a denominational formula, hear only what that church professes. The word “religion” is English “riligioun” from the French “religion”. It is not known if it is derived from the Latin “religo” meaning “good faith,” “ritual,” or other similar meanings, or from the Latin “religãre” meaning “to tie fast”. Faith is defined as belief in God or the teachings of religion, a set of religious belief, or the Christian Theology of the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved. From the English “feith,” old French “feid” “feit,” Latin “fidem,” (Dictionary.com) For many being a Christian is based on what they do instead of what they believe. It’s the basic difference between Protestant and Catholic. Catholic belief is based upon what one does according to what the church has established. Protestant belief is based upon God’s grace that we are saved, not by works so that we cannot boast that we are saved by what we do. St. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians 2:8-10: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Christ died before we were even born, and so it is by nothing that we do, that makes us saved. But our faith has to be lived out in what we do. St. James said in his letter (2:21-24): Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. It’s important that we build a personal relationship with God. First and foremost in our faith should be our relationship with God. In the beginning, God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8). As Jesus tells us in the above Scripture from Mark 12, we are to love the Lord our God with all that we are from the inside out. That means that we love no one or no thing more than God. God is first in our lives, not our spouse, our children, our car, or our house, especially not ourselves. If we cannot put God first, than our whole relationship with God needs to be questioned. And when we spend time with God daily we do so in order to grow in the relationship with God. It’s not a Sunday thing it’s an everyday, an every moment thing. And it is going to be a hard thing because it is going to require for many people a change of heart and a change in the way that they live. And secondly, after we have established within ourselves a deep conviction of being in love with God before all else is to love one another as you love yourself. Once we have the love of God first in our lives, we than can love ourselves, totally and completely, because we have built a relationship with the only perfect being. We will have God’s perfect love within our heart, our mind, our soul and with all our strength, we give ourselves to God. And knowing that we are loved by God, we can then love ourselves and love others based upon God’s perfect love. And this love will change you in ways that you cannot imagine. But for most people, their concept of what God is and what God wants from them is flawed because they love themselves more than they love God. Christian faith is not built upon self-love it is built upon God love. Up on the mountain when Jesus was transfigured, Peter, James and John went up on the mountain with Jesus, two of the most important figures in the Jewish faith also were present, Moses and Elijah. What do you know about Moses and Elijah? As Christians, we should know their stories, as they are part of the Good News that Jesus taught. We will not go into their stories here and now, but you can look Moses beginning in Exodus where Moses is introduced, then Numbers, and Deuteronomy. For Elijah’s story look to 1 Kings17 through 2 Kings 2. When Moses and Elijah appeared on the mountain with Jesus, Peter, not understanding, spoke out about building 3 shelters, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. And as he was speaking, God covers them with a cloud and speaks: “This is My Son, Whom I love; with Him I AM well pleased. Listen to Him!” (Luke 9:28-36) Here is where our faith is to be: In Jesus Christ. God removed the old covenant (given through Moses and the prophet Elijah was foretold to come before the day of the Lord by Malachi) with a cloud and all that remained was Jesus, the new covenant. That is why God tells us here to listen to Him. And the only way in which we can learn about Jesus is through reading the Bible. Jesus referred to the Old or Jewish Scriptures. We cannot understand the whole of Jesus unless we know what is all of the Scriptures. The very words that Jesus spoke above, are taken from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (Deuteronomy 11:13-21, Numbers 15:37-49) and Leviticus 19:18. They are part of the ‘Shema Yisrael’, ‘Hear, O Israel,’ a prayer that has remained to this day spoken by the Jewish people. Being a Christian means that we believe in Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior. No works make us a Christian but our lives are to be lived out as Jesus taught. Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval. Then they asked Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent”(John 6:26-29). That is what our work is, to believe in Jesus, as Lord and Savior and the only way we can live His story out in our lives is to learn His story. We labor for food that spoils instead of living out in our lives the work that was given to us. The way of the Lord is this: Jesus answered, “I AM the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”(John 14:6). Jesus is the only way in which we are saved, and by that we are Christians. We are to preach the Word, in season and out of season. And when we preach the Word, it also means that we preach the truth. And some truth is painful and many people do not want to hear the truth. Jesus requires us to become like a little child and learn from Him. “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Mark 10:15). We are to become like little children and learn, not to have any preconceived ideas, but to learn and to grow becoming mature from the Word of God. The hardest role though as a Christian once we have thoroughly examined ourselves, is plucking the plank out of our own eyes in order to help others examine their lives. It makes people uncomfortable to examine their lives or so it they are not comfortable pointing out in others, what they need to change because they are not following the way of the Lord. Many people do not grow in their faith, in their relationship with God. They do their church obligation and figure that’s all they have to do. But our faith is to be alive, living throughout all that we do and say, a constant growing, learning and living out of our faith in our lives. During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One Who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. In fact, though be this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:7-14). Are you are solid food or are you still being fed milk? What are you working towards or for? On what do you base your standards of what is good and what is bad? Can you with complete honesty say that God is first in your life? Have you read God’s Word yourself, letting it become part of your daily life, filling you with His wisdom, understanding, mercy, grace and love? Do you praise God in all your circumstances, not just the good things? Do you admit to your sins and ask God for His forgiveness? “I will praise You, O Lord. Although You were angry with me, Your angry has turned away and You have comforted me. Surely God is my Salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my Salvation” (Isaiah 12:1-2). In order to be saved, we must repent of our sins and sin no more. We can’t say we believe in Jesus and not change from who we were. If we believe in Jesus then we must change for we cannot believe in Jesus and then not do what He says. We must become little children and trust that God our parent will teach us the right things that we need to know for life. When we grow into complete faith in God and trust Him no matter what our circumstance are and are not afraid, we will have all that we need. Jesus was obedient to the Father to show us that is what we must do: Obey the Father. Jesus submitted to death, death on a cross, to become our salvation. We did nothing to earn this. But because of God’s amazing love, He forgave us, because He desires us to willing give our lives to Him and to follow His will for our lives. Far too often though, people don’t want to take the extra steps it takes to live out our faith in our lives. Following Jesus does not mean we go to meetings, plan functions, or go to church, but we are to live out the faith in our lives, bringing the Good News of Jesus wherever we are. If you have been a Christian for over 10 years, you should certainly be teaching others about Jesus. We need to know the Scriptures in order to teach others, and we need to have a growing relationship with God. By now we should be on solid food, knowing the Word. Faith in God means that we continually have a personal and trust filled relationship with God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus was actively involved bringing the Good News, even though He knew the end would come with His death on the cross. Our faith is based upon our life in Christ. That is how we are Christians, by living out our lives as Christ did. He was not afraid to tell people that they have to repent of their sins or something worse will happen to them. He was not afraid to be with the sick, the diseased, and the sinners, those who needed to know that they must change their lives. His family and hometown didn’t believe in Him. He threw out the moneychangers in the temple. He turned water into wine. He raised the dead. He knew we needed to learn that only through Him are we saved. He didn’t tell us that we are saved through rules, or churches, but only through Him. Jesus said: “I AM the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). And that is why we are called Christians. We are defined by our faith in Christ Jesus and we are saved by His death and resurrection. Are you living your life as Christ lived His, in obedience to the Father? Do you have faith enough to believe that God can do all things when He gives you direction, even if it doesn’t seem possible in the flesh? Are you living your faith in Christ in all that you do? Is God first in your life, before your family, your work, your friends, your car, or any other thing? How do you show God’s love to others? Are you free in Christ? “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Mark 11:22-26 |
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