| Daily
Thought – April 27, 2004 |
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| LIVING THE SOLUTION WITH DAILY INSPIRATION |
Since this
is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the
Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it
as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts,
but work out its implications in every detail of our
lives.
(Galatians 5:25, the Message)
There are two facets to the Christian
life: one is the factual, analytical, scientific, and
the other is the relational or experiential. For over
a hundred years now our churches have asked these kinds
of questions:
Do you believe in God as the one and only God?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ was His son?
Do you believe that Jesus was born of a virgin birth?
Do you believe that He died for you and rose again three
days later?
Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior?
And as you answered each or these questions “Yes” you
would then be told welcome into the family of God.
But there is a problem with asking just these questions.
Llet’s look at them again:
Do you believe in God as the one and only God? So does
the Devil and all of his followers.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ was His son? So does
the Devil and all of his followers, in fact they go
beyond belief - they know!
Do you believe that Jesus was born of a virgin birth?
The Devil knows.
Do you believe that He died for you and rose again three
days later? The Devil knows.
Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior? The
Devil knows.
Believing is not enough; even our ardent adversary goes
beyond belief - he knows.
We have lost something crucial to the Christian faith;
how does what we believe effect our daily lives, our
very existence?
The questions should be asked like this:
How does your belief in God affect how you deal with
other people in your life: your parents, your kids,
your business clients, and others?.
What impact does your faith, that Jesus died for you
and rose again on the third day, have on your behavior?
And how has having an intimate personal relationship
with Jesus changed you?
Belief (faith) without works (loving God from your heart
with passion, living life as an adventure with God with
passion and risk, seeing others as God sees them and
reaching out to them with love, compassion and understanding)
is dead.
The Christian life is about knowledge but it is also
about relationship. It requires both; it is dead with
just one or the other.
So the question is asked again:
How does your faith work out its implications in every
detail of your life?
Live it with Passion
Pete Reinbold
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Scripture
taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.Copyright
© 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All
rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission
of International Bible Society.
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered
trademarks of International Bible Society. Use of either
trademark for the offering of goods or services requires
the prior written consent of International Bible Society.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy
Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used
by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton,
IL 60189, USA. All rights reserved. |
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