A person of Faith

Colossians 1:3-7

What happens to you when you meet or are exposed to a person of faith?  I’m not talking about someone who has faith in him or herself, nor am I talking about someone who has faith in the government, or a political party.  What I am referring to is a person whose faith is vested in Christ Jesus. 

My observation of such a person is that they are secure in the middle of the worst of storms.  They seem to see what can be in the life of a person who others see as a person without hope.  They do their neighbors no harm; in fact they bless them by their service and actions. 

Have you met Jesus?  That’s a great question and it comes with an answer; yes, each and every time you have encountered a person of faith in Christ Jesus.  It was Christ living life out in them.  This person’s life has been changed by association with Jesus, and they have placed faith in His ability to keep his promises, as seen in John 3:15, and John 5:24.  They have crossed over from death to life, and that new life is too wonderful, it must be shared with others.  When you meet Jesus he turns on the light, and the darkness that has kept you in fear must depart, as seen in John 12:46.  You may be saying I’m so weary of this fear and uncertainty but I’ve tried religion, and it did not work, this is what Jesus is saying to you, stop trying, and “Confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.”  (Romans 10:9)  (Emphasis added.)

When you meet a person of faith, they will have a spirit like Caleb in Joshua 14:12.  “So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will help me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord has said.”  Caleb knew all about the enormous people, they were huge in size, they had big cities, and they were well armed, he had seen this with his own eyes.  But Caleb believed God, he believed that God would do all that He had promised some forty years before, and he acted on that faith.

Such a man was Epaphras, and such a person you can be.  Epaphras would have not made history if he had not met Jesus, none of these things would have been said of him.  Jesus has promised to change the darkness in your life to light, to free the chains that have kept you in a prison of fear and failure, and if you do not have faith ask, and He will give you all that you need to trust in Him.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice