Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “From Furnace to Palace”. Another in-depth look at the three “worthies” who defied the king’s order. And the miraculous rescue they experienced. So many different topics we could look at in this lesson… topics all of us have looked-at over the past. But I really like the lesson for January 23, “The Secret of Such a Faith”. The quarterly states it very well, “… true faith, as manifested by Daniel’s friends, is measured by the quality of our relationship with God and its resulting absolute confidence in God”. That’s not a bad definition. We are not to have faith in some “plan of salvation”. We are not to have faith in Christ’s “merits”. We are to have faith in a Person. And this faith comes only as we experience a relationship with that Divine Person.
Faith, trust, belief must center on a person. And this faith cannot come by some proclamation, declaration or command. It must come as we get to know and to love our Savior and God. It’s really a simple concept. Faith, based on a sustained and growing love-relationship with our “Father”, our “Brother”, our “Husband”. You cannot have such a faith with a stranger. So if we do not get to know Him…… then can you really have “faith”? And as stated before, there are three main ways of getting to “know” God.
1. Bible Study = God speaking to you. In His “Written Word” we are to see and get to experience the “Living Word” in action. This is the primary purpose of Bible Study. To see our God in action in varied circumstances over a long period of time. And seeing Him in action leads us to love and revere Him.
2. Prayer = you speaking to God. Talking to Him about anything… all… everything. Sharing your life, your innermost thoughts, your problems, your pain. In conjunction with Bible study, this constitutes a dialogue between you and our Father.
3. Obedience = going places and doing things with God. Yes. Obedience. The Bible writers never disparaged obedience. They just wrote that obedience (works) is not the way to righteousness. Faith is the way to righteousness. We are the ones who think obedience is the way to righteousness. Obedience is merely walking with God through life. Relating to Him who alone can make us righteous… as we trust Him (faith) more and more. Obedience is experiencing the things of God first-hand.
Here is an interesting comment on faith by EGW; “Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power” (Desire of Ages pg. 347). Don’t you just love those phrases? “Covenant relation”, “confiding trust”, “receive Christ”. These are relational terms. God has done everything for us to restore our broken relationship. A relationship that was first broken in Eden. There is only one thing left. For us to reciprocate the offer. To relate to Him. He will not force this. He will woo us. But in the end, nothing will happen if it is but a one-sided relationship. We must reciprocate for there to be a relationship. Let us so do this each and every day is my prayer for us all.
With brotherly love,
Jim