How to increase faith. Are you anchored or just drifting? скачать в хорошем качестве

How to increase faith. Are you anchored or just drifting?

There are many metaphors, pictures that are used to describe the church and one of them is the picture of the church as a boat on the water. In so many ways, it is an appropriate picture of the church through the ages sailing through the seas of history sometimes it is calm sometimes hostile and stormy. The church to whom Hebrews was written was facing a stormy time there were waves of persecution all around them and hanging over them threatening to swamp them and toss them into the sea. Many in the church were in danger of being blown off course drifting away from the truth of Jesus Christ going back to old habits and practices. So to anchor them the writer of Hebrews has called them to fix their eyes on Jesus. He has held high the place and position of Jesus Christ describing His ultimate supremacy above the prophets above the Law even above the Angels. This all-encompassing superiority of Jesus Christ is designed to be an anchor to hold them to their faith and He is our anchor us as well. We live in a time when persecution against the truth of God’s Word is as great as it has ever been. It is a time that Paul warned would come: For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. (1 Timothy 4:3) They will reject the truth and chase after myths. (1 Timothy 4:4) To a world like this one with the supremacy of Christ ringing in our ears the writer of Hebrews sounds his own warning with these words: Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. (Hebrews 2:1) Growing up, I used to go fishing with Dad and my brothers in a small tinny a small boat with an outboard motor. We’d only fish in tidal rivers or in the bay. Often, we would think that we were anchored to a spot with our lines out but after a while we would look up and notice that things were not as they should be. The anchor hadn’t held, and unaware, we were drifting towards danger. Warning to the church This is the kind of warning is given to the church make sure that your anchor is secure make sure that you are not drifting. Make sure that your anchor is uncompromisingly Jesus Christ and the Vision and Mission that He has given the church to love God love others and make disciples. Make sure that you are grounded on the truth of God’s Word and not just knowing the truth putting it into practice. Warning to Christians The image doesn’t just fit the church as a whole it is a warning that is pointed directly at us as individuals also. It is a perfect example of why we need to be well connected to a church whose anchor is firmly established. It is a reminder about why we must be growing in personal relationship with Jesus in a way that connects us with others where we are honest and accountable. The drifting we are speaking of is pointing to the sin that so easily creeps into our lives when we fail to pay attention. It isn’t even necessarily deliberate, but that through neglect or laziness or distractions we only discover once the winds of the storm begin to pick up, that our foundation in Christ has come loose and the things of God have been left behind. In the book of Revelation, Jesus uses a different expression to a church that seems to be all good on the surface. He says to them. ‘Yet I hold this against you; you have lost your first love.’ (Rev 2:4) And to another church He says: ‘You are neither hot nor cold… but since you are lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth!’ (Rev 3:15-6). People ask, and maybe even you have at times; ‘can I be a Christian without going to church?’ This kind of question sounds reasonable, but I’m afraid it shows a great misunderstanding about what the church is all about. Firstly, part of belonging to the church, and being anchored in a local church context is because God has called and equipped us for that purpose. We are in the body to build up the body we all have gifts and if we are not connected then the church is lacking those gifts. But secondly, we belong to the church body for another important reason, and maybe the best way to address that is to ask another question: ‘How long can a body part function healthily without being sustained and connected to the body to which it belongs?” ‘How long can you remain in Christ without remaining connected where there is a strong foundation. Where God’s Word is taught, and you are accountable to a Christ cantered gathering of believers?’ C.S. Lewis once asked: ‘If you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith, I wonder how many would tourn out to be reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?’ Read the full transcript at: https://oakleighbaptist.org/how-to-in...