Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Faith in God
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Matthew 24:12-13
The Bible shows us the damage caused when God's people do not believe how special we are to Him. How do we keep our love from going cold? We must go to the source to replenish it. Where is that source? Where does real love come from? The answer is found in I John 4:19: "We love Him because He first loved us." The next verse, Matthew 24:13, reinforces this thought: "But he who endures to the end shall be saved." Jesus sets up a contrast. Verse 12 describes people without faith in God's love for us growing cold and not enduring. In verse 13, "but" suggests that those with faith in His love will endure and be saved. What happened over the past decade or so is nothing compared to what is ahead for some of us. The time of Jacob's trouble will be terrible. Many will face famine, pestilence, and persecution. Friends and family may turn on us. Church members will die. When all this happens, there may be no physical evidence to see how much God loves us. How will we endure those times? We will, but only if we absolutely believe in how special we are to God, how much He loves us. That is the faith we will need to endure any trial.
Pat Higgins
Faith to Face Our Trials
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Hebrews 1:3
Jesus has been exalted to sit at the Father's right side in heaven. By the power of the Father, He rose from the dead to work with the Father on Their plan to complete the creation of mankind in God's image. No plan of Theirs has ever failed by even the smallest degree. Yet few use their faith in Jesus' work. Most make no effort to seek His help in producing the fruit that glorifies God. Conclusion: Humanity shows it cannot be bothered with such a triviality as prayer.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Why Hebrews Was Written (Part Ten): Christianity's Claims
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Hebrews 4:1-2
Israel failed because they did not accept what they heard in faith. Therefore they did not submit in obedience to God. They never came to love Him or to know Him. Those with the greatest faith are the ones who know God best because they are continually working to develop their relationship with Him by talking with Him, letting Him talk to us through study, yielding to Him, and living in conformity to His way. That is what Enoch did, which is why he stood out. There is something interesting about Enoch that might be noteworthy to us living in the end time. On the heels of the fact that he walked with God, the writer adds that "God took him, and he was not." Could this be an indicator of who will be taken to the Place of Safety? Enoch was taken away from trouble that he should not see the kind of violent death that otherwise would have come upon him. God rescued him from it and placed him in another area, and he lived out his life in peace, dying a normal death. Is faith important to Passover? It may be that it is the single most important aspect to Passover, because everything else is built upon, founded upon, and anchored to our faith in God and the depth of our relationship with Him. Israel knew that God existed, but that knowledge never carried through into their daily life in living trust. It was "business as usual," even though they were separated from Egypt, and thus it is clear why Israel failed. There is a direct connection between knowing God and submitting to Him, because to know Him is to love Him, and we submit to those we love.
John W. Ritenbaugh
A Pre-Passover Look
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1 Peter 1:20-21
There is no hope in this world. If we are looking for things to be resolved by the leaders of this world, it will never happen. If we are looking for hope from our own abilities to be clever, to think quickly, to say the right things, to skills that we have developed, to education that we have received, to friends in the world, whatever we might put hope in, we will be terribly disappointed because not one of them will be able to save us from what is coming. Our hope has to be in God. It is hope that buttresses faith. Faith is the foundation; we believe. But because we see something worth driving toward, a worthy goal, it is hope that motivates us to act on what we believe.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Don't Be a Prudent Agnostic
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1 John 4:18
In some ways, love and fear are opposites, enemies. Love's closest companion and ally is confidence. When we are completely confident, we do not fear that we can do what is required of us. Our problem is that we have not perfected love in us, and so, we fear.
Staff
Standing Up for God
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