Practical Faith

Today, let’s look at the alternative to sanctification: what if we are “only justified”?  What of those who “get saved,” but then don’t really do anything else?  Aren’t they still saved? 

The life of walking with Jesus, learning from Him, listening to Him, practicing obedience, learning to live by the power of His Spirit – it’s a lifelong process known as sanctification. It's hard work, but so worth it!

So here we are, in this in-between time. For those of us who have trusted in the saving work of Jesus on our behalf, we live between new birth – and earthly death. And some days, it is so hard.  And other days, it is more amazing than we ever dreamed possible! What’s going on? Why does it feel like this? What's happening in the Christian's life between salvation and heaven?

Salvation is so much more than just forgiveness from sin and the hope of heaven.  Salvation through Jesus certainly includes those wonderful things – but it also includes so much more!

Do you want so badly to be wholly devoted to Jesus?  And yet, you constantly feel like you are at war with temptation and sinful desires?  I know I do.  What can we do about it?  How can we close the gap between who we are and who we want to be?

In the previous episode, I challenged our younger listeners to get to know God NOW, as early as you can! On today’s episode, I want to talk about how to do that. How do you get to know God, personally?

There is a repeated theme all throughout the Bible that I don’t want you to miss.  And this is it: don’t wait until you’re all grown-up to get to know God personally, for yourself.  Don’t wait until you are an adult to become a passionate and fully-devoted follower of Jesus!  You don’t have to wait!

God knows each one of us, personally and individually.  You are not distant from, unknown to, or forgotten by God; You are remembered & personally known by Him. He holds you very close in His heart!

The Almighty God and Creator of the universe is not a cold, distant, and impersonal God.  He could have kept Himself hidden from humanity if He wanted to, but instead, He has made Himself known to the world! – most perfectly through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son Jesus, and then in the Holy record of the Christian Scriptures known as The Bible.

There is a huge difference between actually knowing God vs. only knowing information about God.  But God is knowable! He has made Himself known to humanity in a variety of wonderful ways, and we can know God...

Things for us drastically change when the real-but-distant God becomes close, personal, and known to us in a relational, friendship kind-of-way... 

Today, we will wrap up this series on fasting and its role in the life of a Christ-follower with just a few suggestions for you to consider and a few precautions for you to be aware of as well:

Four things happen when we fast with prayer: 

Fasting is never a stand-alone activity. If you were to search out every instance of fasting in the Bible, you would find that fasting is always accompanied by prayer, or some other means of connecting oneself more deeply with God.

Recently on “Practical Faith,” we defined what fasting is and looked at why it is practiced.  Today, let’s look at what fasting is NOT:

Today we are looking into examples of people who fasted in the Bible to discover why God’s people fasted in the past and what that means for us about fasting today.

Today on “Practical Faith,” we begin our series on fasting and prayer, and our goal for today’s episode is to answer the question: “What is fasting?”

Spiritual activities like prayer and fasting are a "means of grace" – that is, they are ways, channels, avenues – through which God’s gracious goodness can flow into our lives. 

Today PF, I want to tell you a love story. This is a real-life story of two God-loving people who, even through mistakes, sought to listen to and honor God as best they could in their daily decisions and found true romance through sacrificial love.

My hope is that these words would give you fresh lenses for seeing all that Jesus is, and has been, and could be, in your life through faith.

Over these next two episodes of “Practical Faith,” I want to share with you a bit of my own personal testimony of faith in Jesus...

As a working parent, you only get so much focused time with your kids each day.  However, you are the only Mom or Dad your children will ever have.  They need you, they need your undivided attention, and certain moments are more significant in their day than others.

Nothing compares to the depth and richness of authentic Christ-centered community.  Those who have experienced it know it’s unmatched value.  They also know that it does not come without loyal, mutual investments of time, energy, and emotion among its participants.

Turning from a life lived apart from faith in Jesus and toward a life of believing He is who the Bible says He is – that is just the beginning!  That’s just the first step...

As far as historical documents go, the Christian Scriptures by far surpass the nearest reliable historical documentation in both quantity and quality.  No other records in the history of humanity come anywhere close to the number of real, certifiable manuscripts of the Christian Bible.