So, you believe, so you have faith!

 

So, you believe, so you have faith!

 

 

So, you believe, so you have faith!  Jan and I seem to hang out with people of faith; that is the new term going around these days.  Many will tell you they are believers!  As a person who made a living asking questions, the following seems appropriate: What is meant by “I am a believer”?  I think I know what you’re saying, but what are you a believer in?  What does being a person of faith mean? What are you putting faith in?

 

Believing and being a person of faith is the answer to living a victorious life.  Or is a victorious life found in what you believe or what you have faith in?  I am not trying to be tricky, but I hope this makes you think.  Each morning when I wake up and put my feet on the floor, I believe I am alive, and I have faith to believe I am alive in that I can do things that only people who are alive can do.  I can wiggle my lips and words form, I can smell the coffee, and with the same lips that allow words to form, I can drink the nectar of the morning gods.  What if you said, Prove to me you are alive, it would be easy, I would take you to a morgue and offer the guy on the first slab a great cup of coffee.  Would he drink it?  No, why, because dead guys do not like coffee, no, because he’s dead to coffee, and everything else, he has an earth suit, but no life.

 

Today on TV and in print, we have people saying “I am a person of faith”, well, what does that mean, Faith in what?  I could put faith in a great company like 3M, but they could be gone in a few years; it has happened to many companies much larger.  I could put my faith in a religion, but that also could be gone or change its views and ways of worship.  I could put my faith in myself, in my abilities and skills, but that is a very slippery slope.  What about the good old USA and its ability to keep me safe? We have seen great nations fall, and that is not a good place to place your faith.  Many people are putting their faith in their health or their finances, but both can be gone in a moment.  Therefore, it is not faith in faith that has value is it?  It would seem the object of our faith is of utmost importance.

 

The Bible has a lot to say about faith and belief!  I went looking in the book of Habakkuk.  You say what?  The prophet Habakkuk wrote the book of Habakkuk, and he is believed to have lived in the Chaldean period.  Many scholars fixed the time of the prophecy during the reign of Jehoiakim.  The main theme of the book is “The Mysteries of Providence”.  The book opens with the prophet in perplexity over the mystery of unpunished evil in the world.  Let us look in on some of the conversations going on between Habakkuk and God:  “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?  Or cry to you, 'Violence!' and you will not save?  Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?  (I could not help but think of today and the news of a young mother of 27 and her child not yet born being killed by they believe the dad.  Sorry!)  Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.  So, the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.  For the wicked surround the righteous; so, justice goes forth perverted.”  It sounds like Habakkuk has presented a good case in his time or ours.

 

Look with me to the Lord’s reply: “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded.  For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.  For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.”  You can read more of what God had to say if you desire, but in chapter 1:11, God ends this statement with, “Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

 

Habakkuk is a much better man than I, for he is asking God questions and has believed by faith that the “I AM” will answer and have dialogue with him.  So, we see in verse twelve that Habakkuk has a second complaint.  “Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One?  We shall not die.  O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.”  Habakkuk has much more to say, but look at God's answer in a vision to Habakkuk.  “And the Lord answered me: 'Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.  For still the vision awaits its appointed time; (Now that a problem in our time, we want it at the moment.) It hastens to the end – it will not lie.  If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.  Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”  

 

That is the key, “faith”, but not faith in faith, but faith in “O Lord my God, my Holy One.  The eternal God, the "I AM", the one who spoke it all into being, that’s whom you put faith in.  And who are the “righteous”?  The best definition of “righteous” is: “A person in right standing with God”.  A great example is found in Romans 4:3: “For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”  God speaks often in the Bible about “the righteous'; look at this example from Psalm 34:15, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.”  Jesus tells us that a righteous person will have fellowship with the Father and the Son.  Look at John 14:15-16: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”  I hope you read on to verse 20, it goes like this: “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”  Now that is a promise!

 

Often, I have read Scripture, and it’s like my grammar; I have little understanding of what to do with what I just read.  Often, I have not stopped to ask what a righteous person is, not my definition, but God’s.  So, the righteous is to live by faith!  We see the faith lived out by Habakkuk in chapter 3:17-18 “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no fold, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”  What did he say?  If Habakkuk were living today, it would go like this: if the World Bank fails, the stock markets of the world all fail, and the food supply withers away, and you could not find food at your local grocery store, he would still find joy in God.

 

So, faith is very important; in fact, the Scriptures tell us, “And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)  But it is not faith in faith that is very empty and has no value.  Learn from the prophet Habakkuk, who knew who he believed in because he talked with him, and because of that relationship, he also put his faith and trust in God.  This is one of many things Jesus said about faith.  “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.  And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.  I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:44-46)  My hope and prayer is that none who read this have placed their faith in what is seen.  The Living Bible paraphrases and puts it this way. “What is Faith?  It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen.  It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.”  (Hebrews 11:1)  

 

Often, while reading, something jumps off the page at me, and this paragraph is one of them.  “Is there any way that we can make life succeed on any other basis than faith in God’s will.  He will do it.  That’s the way it works.  But it takes time for God to work His I wills into us and supplant our own wills.” taken from “The Rest of the Gospel” by Dan Stone and David Gregory. To live a victorious life, we must first supplant our own I will " with God’s I will.  We must believe that God has told the truth and place our faith in Jesus only.  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6) So you believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, so you have faith in Jesus Christ to do all that he promised!

 

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

The Ancient of Days Reigns

 

 

 

Daniel 7:9-12

 

March 28, 2024

 

The Ancient of Days Reigns

 “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued and came out from before him;
a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.

“I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.  As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

John's vision in Revelation talks of two beasts. The first beast is a symbolic picture of the Antichrist, and the dragon is Satan (cf. Revelation 12:9).  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Note: Satan fell from Heaven, and the angels who followed him in the rebellion.)

The second Beast in Revelation is who I believe Daniel is referring to.  I believe that is the false Prophet.  Revelation 13:11-18, “Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon.  It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.  It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,  and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.  And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.  Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,  so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.  This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

Yesterday, we said it would be a hard time for those of us who would not worship the Beast, but it comes down to whom you believe and trust, and whom do you fear?  Many fear what man can do, but how they will be confronted with the man of lawlessness, who opposes all that is holy, and puts himself out as God.

You must pray for those who will go through the Tribulations, and this is the reason found in Revelation 14:9-11. ^“And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

 From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

 

Note: We have had many Antichrists since Jesus left Earth to sit at the right hand of the Father.  But the old Serpent will be the one referred to in Revelation that give the beast his power to rule.   The beast will receive a deadly wound and be healed of it (Revelation 13:3). He will exert authority over the whole world and demand worship (verses 7–8). He will wage war against God’s people, and he will prevail against them for a time (Revelation 13:7; Daniel 7:21). However, the beast’s time is short: according to Revelation 13:5 and Daniel 7:25, he will only be permitted absolute authority for forty-two months (three-and-a-half years).

We believe that the beast in Revelation is the Antichrist, the one who will “oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4). He is also called “the man of lawlessness” and “the man doomed to destruction” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). In Daniel’s vision, the Antichrist is the “little horn” that rises from the head of the terrifying beast (Daniel 7:8).

When the Lord returns in judgment, He will defeat the beast and destroy his empire (Revelation 19:19–20; cf. Daniel 7:11). The beast will be cast alive into the lake of fire. The identity of the individual who will become the beast of Revelation is not yet known. According to 2 Thessalonians 2:7, this man will be revealed only when God removes the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit from the earth. (All in green is taken from Got Questions)