lunes, 12 de noviembre de 2007

I Have no faith, can you help me?

If you do not have faith I would help you learn so let´s come and see what the Bible says

In chapter 10 and 11 of the book of Acts, we see the conversion of Cornelius.

In verses 1 through 6 of chapter 10 says: "Now there was a certain man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man, and one that feared God, together with all his household, who often gave alms to the people, and making petition to God always. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming to him and saying to him, "Cornelius!" And looking intently at him and becoming fearful he said, "What is it, lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. He is staying as a guest with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is beside the sea."

In this passage, we see two things. The first thing is that for more righteous that we are, that is not enough to receive salvation. No matter how good we are, our works are not enough to give us salvation.

In verse 22 we see the testimony they given about Cornelius: "And they said, "Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and fearing God, having a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was given a revelation by a holy angel to send for you to his house, and to hear words from you."

It is not enough to be good in the eyes of others, we need to hear the words of salvation.

The second thing we see is that the Angels can not preach the gospel, not God entrusted this task to them but to us. That's why Jesus gave us the Great Commission in Mark 16:15-16: "And He said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all creation. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that does not believe shall be condemned."

In Acts 11:11-17 Peter tell to the council in Jerusalem what happened: "And behold, immediately three men stood before the house in which I was, having been sent from Caesarea to me. And the Spirit said to me to go with them, without wavering. Now these six brothers also went with me, and we entered into the house of the man. And he related to us how he had seen the angel in his house, standing and saying to him, 'Send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter, 'who will speak words to you by which you and all your household shall be saved.' "And when I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, as also on us in the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' "If then God has given to them the same gift as He gave to us, when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?""
Note that Cornelius needed to hear words, in order to be saved. And when he hear those words he received eternal life.

In this passage we see the three elements of salvation:

1. The messenger was Peter.
2. The message was preaching the gospel.
3. The listener was Cornelius and his house.

Hence we see that faith for salvation came by hearing the preaching of the Word, specifically in the area of salvation.

jueves, 1 de noviembre de 2007

I have no faith, can you help me? Part 2

I say then, by the grace that has been given to me, to everyone who is among you,
Not having the highest concept than it should have, but think of It wisely, according to the measure of faith that God distributed to each.
- Romans 12:3
God distributed to every believer far faith on the day he was born again.

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; And this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

The verse 9 in the Jerusalem Bible states: "For ye are saved by grace through faith; And this does not come from you, but it is a gift from God. "

God gave each believer far faith, when someone is born again at that moment faith comes to his heart.

Romans 10:8-17
8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we proclaim):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him shall not be put to shame."
12 For there is no difference between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord of all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For "whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved."
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear apart from a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, of those preaching the gospel of good things!"
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

El día que nos predicaron el evangelio la fe vino a nosotros para poder recibir la vida eterna; en ese momento, cuando recibimos a Jesús vino la fe a nosotros. The day that someone preached us the gospel, faith came to us to receive eternal life; at that time, when we receive Jesus faith came to us.

2 Thessalonians 3:2
2 And that we may be delivered from evil and wicked men; for not all have faith.

Clearly, not everyone has faith but only those who have received Jesus.

El asunto es que si ya tenemos la fe como podemos hacer para aumentarla. The question is that if we have faith what we can do to increase it.

In our passage from Romans, we see that there are three elements to the faith:

1. El que da el mensaje He who gives the message

2. El mensaje The message

3. El oyente The listener