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DAVID'S EMAIL BIBLE STUDY:
A.
BACKGROUND
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Mother Teresa was recently made a SAINT. The Catholic Church evaluates the holiness of a person's life, and then authenticates miracles attributed to her intervention after her death. Perhaps the greatest miracle was her willingness to accept God's "deeper call" to live among the poorest of the poor in Calcutta/Kolkata, India. After giving up everything to become a nun and a missionary, God asked for even more from her. That willingness put her on the path to sainthood. Two years before her death she wrote the book, A Simple Path, outlining six steps to a fully Christian life, with each step laying the foundation for the next: silence, prayer, faith, love, service, and peace
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B.
TODAY, FAITH... "The Apostles said to Jesus 'Lord, increase our faith' (Luke 17:5)... faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of God (Romans 10:17)... the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:6)... faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1)... faith without works is dead (James 2:17)... we are justified through faith (Romans 5:1)"
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C. SUMMARY...
Faith permeates the Bible but these verses provide a summary. Even Jesus' disciples wanted more of it. Preaching and worship and Biblical teaching are the foundation of faith. Faith is elusive because by definition it is not scientifically and visually verifiable. But we see the results of faith in loving acts. God's grace is given to us in response to our living faith.
D.
KEY POINTS:
1. 500 Years of FAITH... 2017 is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's REFORMATION. The reformation was the effort to REFORM Christianity, led by protesters, that gave rise to Protestantism. Among the points of protest was the priority given to faith. We can tie ourselves into semantic knots but here's my attempt to clarify the age old debate of faith vs works. We can't "good works" our way into heaven. But our faith will motivate our good works. We are "saved" not by our own effort but by God's effort in Jesus Christ. Christ' effort is our key to God's unconditional love: GRACE. Our part is to have faith in God's grace. Happy 500th Anniversary.
2. MOTHER TERESA sees faith as the foundation of all she and her Sisters do. They put their entire faith/trust/confidence in Jesus. That liberates them from fear of failure, or worry of any kind about resources or results. Faith puts them in partnership with Jesus, and that empowers them to go all out. The practice of faith strengthens us both in faith and in practical matters. For Mother Teresa there is no division between faith or action. Faith fuels action. With heaven assured, (faith in the unseen) we are free to be bold in living our faith in real ways. 3. The LEAP of FAITH. The Danish theologian, Kierkegaard, wrote about "the leap of faith." We can only prove so much. But to live out a fully Christ-like life we have to go beyond that provable, and take the "leap of faith." Am I remembering correctly that in Statistics 101 they taught extrapolation? If you know certain things to be true you can assure other things to be true. That's Christianity. We take what we know and add what we dare to believe, and allow that to take us deeper, fuller, and bolder in the unknown. Now that's exhilarating!!
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