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By: Gary Hutchens Peter portrays the devil as “a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Pet. 5:8). Upon reading that verse of scripture we naturally envision the mighty king of the jungle stalking prey, ready to kill with swift and awesome violence and then rip open and hungrily devour its victim. But such an image does not necessarily fit the way the devil works to bring a soul to destruction.
By: Gary Hutchens Beginning in early 2020, the Covid pandemic changed the social, economic, business, professional and religious landscape of our nation. For a period of time virtually everything other than the food and health care industries was shut down, including churches. New variants of the original virus have continued to hinder the settling of our culture back into some semblance of normalcy.
By: Gary Hutchens It’s easy to recognize that God has blessed us. Even most people facing serious difficulties in their lives would quickly admit to being blessed by God. Some are slower to identify God’s blessings in their lives, while others readily see them and continually thank God for them. Unfortunately, while few would deny that they have been blessed by God, a great many people fail to recognize the most wonderful blessing of all.
By: Gary Hutchens How does a person get faith? Why does one person have stronger faith than someone else? Why is the faith of some people so weak as compared to the faith of others? Where does faith come from?
By: Gary Hutchens Faith... Ask twenty different people to describe it, and you’ll likely get twenty different descriptions. To some people, faith simply means belief. That belief can be in virtually anything or anybody. For some, the term has a spiritual connotation first and foremost. For others, faith is simply a generic concept that can be applied to most anything.
By: Gary Hutchens When a person develops true faith, based upon the truths he learns from God’s word (Rom. 10:17), he will naturally make up his mind to live in faithfulness. Jesus instructed, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). Faithfulness exhibits faith that is being lived. To live faithfully (synonymous to living in faithfulness) is to live by the teachings of the faith. Faithfulness is the outward expression, the active demonstration, the power of one’s faith. Faith without faithfulness is “dead” (Jas. 2:14- 26)!
By: Gary Hutchens Probably, the most comprehensive definition of faith given in scripture is found in the Hebrews letter: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). The phrases “things hoped for” and “things not seen” have confused many people who misunderstand what is meant by those words. They see faith in God as being a blind belief without any objective basis. So, they declare such blind, baseless faith to be the believer’s only substance and evidence of what they hope for. In other words, they see Christian faith as an empty dream!
By: Gary Hutchens Real faith, as taught in the New Testament, is not primarily an emotional feeling. Nor is it a belief devoid of facts. New Testament faith, by definition, is based on real evidence. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1). Strong terms denoting a position of belief reached as a result of examining facts and proof.
By: Gary Hutchens The apostle Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,” (Eph. 2:8). In his letter to Timothy he wrote, “and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). Clearly, faith is central to salvation, but understanding the scriptures that teach about Christ is how faith in Christ develops within an individual (Rom. 10:17). What is Saving Faith?
By: Gary Hutchens People talk about faith in a number of different ways. On the surface, most of those references sound good. However, when you observe the lives of many of those same people, it becomes obvious that what they say is not consistent with what the scriptures teach true faith to be. There is a lot of confusion on the subject. In trying to come to a better understanding of what true faith is, we need to understand what true faith is not.
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