Together for the Gospel's Power

TAKE A WALK IN THE STREETS AGAIN IN YOUR MIND
AMERICA…REALLY BEAUTIFUL? SO MANY UNKIND
THE HOMES WITH PAIN, AND VARIED WITH NEED,
EDUCATION, BUSINESS, AND GOVERNMENT GREED
BIO-ETHICS, SAME-SEX UNIONS, GUNS AND DEATH
PASTORS AND PORNOGRAPHY, KIDS AND METH

IS JESUS REALLY RULING? REIGNING? WHERE IS HIS CHURCH?
I THINK SO….I SURELY HOPE SO… WE’RE ALL IN A LURCH.
IS THERE ANYTHING TO TRUST AT THE END OF THE DAY?
WHERE CAN I GO, WHERE CAN I TURN, WHAT CAN I SAY?

Jesus is addressing faith in John 14:12-following, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, He who believes in Me the works that I do, He will do also….” What is faith? Is it being positive about life? Is it an ability that faith itself has? Maybe it’s a quality that triggers the can-do work of God? What is this thing, faith?

Faith is the instrument, the means that God has appointed by which He places the gift of salvation and its fruit into our hands. More than a placement into our hands; it is the reality and security of being united to Jesus Christ. It is being in Him, and He being in us!

What is this salvation? What fruit? It’s the saving person and the saving fruit of the person and work of Jesus Christ. By the means of faith, He gives us Jesus Christ. It’s Christ being ours and at the same time Christ quickening us to abandoned fleshly works.

In having Jesus, our God provides the Holy Spirit (vss. 17-18), by Whom and through Whom there is fruitfulness. Please note the fruit as displayed in the Book of Acts.

Why fret over the world and its fruit? Our Master told us, Let not your heart be troubled. Let us go from faith to faith: asking, claiming, yielding, repenting, trusting and stepping out.

G. Mark Sumpter