"Now faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

Last Sunday I said, "It's not just faith, faith is just the beginning." And, that is true. But in a day where "all it takes is a little faith" is thrown around like candy at a Fourth of July parade, we sometimes end up with wrong thinking about faith. Here are two simple thoughts on faith for you to dwell on and get into the Bible about:

We are not saved by faith. We are saved by the grace of God when we, through faith, believe in Jesus Christ as the risen Son of God and confess Him as Lord (Romans 10:9). We do not have a faith strong enough to save us. If we did, God wouldn't have had to do what He has done to save us. We place our faith in the One who died to save us, and through Jesus, God extends His grace to us, calling us His own (Ephesians 2:1-10). That is powerful.
Real, true faith is accompanied by action. James 2:14-26 is crystal clear. We are not saved by what we do, but what we do must be driven by our salvation. "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." James 2:17. Faith is not real without action, but action alone cannot save. We believe by faith in Jesus and our actions reveal our belief.

This Sunday "add to faith" will answer, "What is faith? Do I have faith? What is it in? Go back and read 2 Peter 1:3-15 again and also check out Hebrews 11 this week! See you Sunday!

Grace & Peace,
John
(You can reach Pastor John at jwhite@thevillagemi.com)