Skip to main content

A Morning View By the Patio

Have you ever questioned your faith? 
You know that you believe, but wonder if you really believe? 
Everyone sees something within you that you cannot see and perhaps even experience? 

Faith in the middle of our lives is so vital yet often so difficult to practice. Faith also means trusting in something which doesn't always mean it makes sense in our logical intellectual world. It is also a vital part of pleasing God. Faith lets God know that we understand that we do not always understand. Faith is also easy to talk about and so difficult to do. 

“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”    - Hebrews 11:6 NLT 


The next scripture seems to show how acting out a simple faith can be easy to do. What we fail to remember is that an unclean woman touching the robe of Jesus could have actually resulted in her death. It was forbidden for a woman to touch a man and if you add in the fact that she was unclean it was an abomination. Yet her faith made her whole. 


I am not sure I have such faith. Yes I have a faith in Jesus Christ, but do I really have faith? If so why do I not always live like it?


"A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.


“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.”


But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed. “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”   - Luke 8::43-48 NLT 


Do you really have enough faith in Christ to practice it or do you just profess faith in Christ? I know I struggle, how about you?


Peace,

PB

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Morning View From the Porch at Lakeside

I typically am not a big breakfast eater. Every year at Lakeside for Annual Conference there is a group of men who invite me to breakfast at The Patio. Every year I go one time and enjoy talking and joking with this group and every year I order the same breakfast, a plain toasted bagel with cream cheese and a glass of water. It is tradition, you know! I often get asked why I do not order something different? My answer is, "if something is good and satisfies my hunger, why should I order something different? Besides, I like a plain toasted bagel with cream cheese!"  I wonder why some people have a salvation experience with Jesus Christ but wander away from the most amazing relationship possible with the Creator of all? They seem to have a taste for many different flavors of seeking to fulfill their Spirit hole in their lives. Often people bounce from one religious experience to another without a deep connection and commitment. They order something different from the menu each ...

A Morning View By the Patio

When I was a young boy we lived in the country and I had to become very creative in how I played. Much of the time I was alone and hd to create imaginary situations so that there were "others" around me. I would also "become" someone else and emulate everything they did. I would know them, study them and learn all I possibly could about them and then become them. One of the people I "became" was Wilt the "Stilt" Chamberlain. At the time he was a famous Los Angeles Laker NBA star. I always wanted to become Wilt. I practiced his famous hook shot, watched him play on TV and learned all of his moves. I had some of the most amazing NBA battles all alone in my uneven gravel driveway. In my mind I was Wilt the "Stilt" Chamberlain. There were a few drawbacks in becoming Wilt. First, my skin pigment was as white as could be. Wilt was African American and I was never going to become Wilt. Second, Wilt was over 7 feet tall. At my peak of vertica...

A Morning View From the Patio

I have been gently encouraged by someone who was nudged by the Lord to make a list for the next week of positive characteristics which make me who I am.   Today I begin with compassion. I truly strive to be compassionate with everyone I encounter. I desire to reach out and care when others are struggling. Even if I encounter someone who has hurt me in the past or I may not connect with, I try to put aside differences and find a way to share compassion with them. After all, Jesus was compassionate all the way to death. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Peace, PB