On Fire through Faith by Ben Prather

On Fire through Faith

I want to talk about faith with you, I have an idea that I think will help you approach it and gather a better understanding of what it is, what it isn't, and what it leads to.

From the Austrian Alps to America's Grand Canyon there is a new demand from sightseers to see these historic places of wonder from a unique viewpoint. They are called "sky walks" and essentially they are large glass extension that allows the viewing public to see their particular monument from a new perspective. Rather than look from the Sears Tower at the surrounding skyline of Chicago, the viewing public can now get an appreciation for their immediate surroundings by being able to look down. For instance, the sky walk in Arizona extends a glass walkway immediately over the edge of the Grand Canyon, allowing visitors to feel the depth of the canyon floor while suspended mid air into the sky.

I had the opportunity to experience one of these engineering masterpieces while in the CN Tower in Toronto (think Space Needle). While strolling around in the top floor of the tower I noticed a crowd gathering around one section of the floor. People were taking turns trying out this mind boggling creation. As I approached this glass floor my entire body was filled with an uncomfortable feeling of fear, I became hesitant to even take one step out on the glass. In essence, it was going to take faith to walk across that glass floor! It was from this experience that I have a better appreciation of faith.

Faith & Comfort

You may hear many people describing their faith as a great comfort to them and I am sure it is but before we come to faith in anything we begin in discomfort. It was true on the sky walk and it is true in our spiritual life. When we honestly reflect on God, who He is and who we are in relation to Him we ought to be uncomfortable. Much like standing on that sky walk, the realization of being suspended thousands of feet in the air with only a layer of glass between you and gravity is a frightening thing- before we come to faith in Christ as our savior we must realize that we are at odds with a perfect, and holy God who will and must destroy evil. God cannot ignore or condone sin because his nature is morally perfect. This is an uncomfortable place to be, if you honestly look at your life you will see how much you have chosen not submit yourself to this perfect being in order to believe anything that suits your own self-centered life-style. Before we gain the comforts of faith we must first address the problem or discomfort of our situation.

-how have you complained against your creator
-how much you have distrusted where he has placed you
-how much faith are willing to put into God's hands to guide you life?

STOP (and think)

Knowing vs Believing

You see, I knew that the sky walk was safe; I had just watched a whole crowd of people walk across it, lay on it, take funny pictures of themselves over it and yet I was still hesitant. Why? The reason is because there is a difference between knowing the truth and believing in the truth.

All throughout Jesus' ministry people had the opportunity to see miracles and yet they still could not put their faith in Him. They still were not willing to allow Him to guide their life. You can know all there is to know about Jesus and the Bible but that does not translate into saving faith, I imagine the devil knows more Bible verses than any of us! So knowledge does not save, it helps to understand but it does not equate into walking out on that glass floor and believing you are saved.

"For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes... This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life." Romans 1: 16-17

Paul tells us that only faith can save us, the Good News shows us both how righteous God is in His plan for us to be saved and also how we may be made fit for eternal life. By trusting Christ, our relationship with God is made right. "from start to finish," God declares us to be right with Him because of faith and faith alone. As we trust God, we are saved; we find life both now and forever.

DROP (on your knees)

Faith leads to...

"So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. Faith that doesnt show itself by good deeds is no faith at all - it is dead and useless... Do you still think it's enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror! Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless?" James 2: 17,19-20

If you say, "I believe in God, I know there is our savior therefore I am saved" I must caution you, you are moving too quickly. Let us start with faith, it is not one more thing we ought to do - if it were, then, again, we are only saving ourselves. Faith is a gift God gives us because HE is saving us; it is God's grace, not our faith, that saves us. In his mercy, he saves us, he tells us we can have a relationship with his Son and even more astounding is that He helps us become like him... Holy.

Once we have an appreciation for what God has done for us but giving us a savior we are more motivated to live for Him. When you appreciate all that Jesus has done for you and is continually doing for you each day God's commandments will change from Him telling us "you must do this" to "I promise you, you will do this." That is what faith is all about, it is a force that changes us into His likeness. Not in a methodical way of, "I'm going to keep the rules" but in a loving way that says "I want to honor this awesome God who loves me so much." Think about it this way, we don't keep God's laws to be saved; rather we do all these things because we're saved.

ROLL (get rolling already!)