Faith'

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Faith is a noun. This means faith is a person, place, or thing. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. Perhaps we can think of Christ Himself as being our Faith.

(5/22/2005) We Christians use the term "faith" a great deal. Sometimes what we think is faith is not faith at all but our own effort to believe, or some kind of emotional experience.

Genuine faith is of Christ and comes down from Heaven. It cannot be worked up by human effort. It is of Divine substance.

When their boat was tossed about by the storm, Christ being asleep on a pillow, the disciples were terrified. They had faith in the storm, not in Christ. It was easier for Christ to calm the storm than to calm His disciples. Such always is the case!

How many times we place our faith in money, or our own abilities, instead of in Christ. Often we do not look to the Lord until we have tried everything else—and perhaps not even then.

We should not place our faith in anything or any person except the Lord. It may require years before we are able to look to the Lord for all that concerns us.

At night Dianne spoke on trust. She emphasized that we need to start teaching our children at an early age to trust the Lord.

For example, we might promise a child something and then forget to fulfil our promise. When the child reminds us of our promise, we can say, "Mommy (or Daddy) often make mistakes and forget. But the Lord Jesus never forgets what He has promised. In this manner the child learns we are not perfect but Christ is. We are teaching him or her to depend on the Lord.

Dianne is a great believer in repenting when we have hurt someone, even a child. She believes in discipline, but also openness in the family so that when a family member does something hurtful, he or she will repent to the injured individual. There is nothing wrong with telling a child we made a mistake!

I enjoyed particularly what Dianne said about submission. Submission has been discussed a good deal, the idea being that the wife must obey her husband at all times.

I have been a pastor long enough to know that sometimes women refuse to submit to their husbands, and the result is a disorderly household that leads finally to deception.

On the other hand, I have seen instances where the husband was commanding his wife to do things that were not God’s will, and attempting to beat her down verbally until she yielded. This obviously is an abomination.

The true relationship between a husband and wife exists when the husband loves his wife through Christ and the wife obeys her husband through Christ. When any relationship we have does not operate through Christ it will prove to be faulty and trouble may result.

She added a side note about those who work with children or young people encouraging the young person to look on the worker as their parent rather than to their true parents. Apparently this is becoming common in our day. Dianne regards this usurping of the role of the parent as being a perversion.

Those who work with youth must keep in mind that their job is to reconcile the youth to their parents rather than seeking to draw the affection to themselves. This is easy for a youth leader to do; because sometimes parents are harsh, and the youth leader can put himself or herself forth as someone who really cares for the child and wants the child to have fun and not be frustrated in any manner.

Since the last words of the Old Testament warn the fathers to turn their hearts to their children, and the children to their fathers, the youth worker (or other leader) who entices the child or young person in order to supplant the true parent is under a curse.