There's Something Different About This Faith

One of the main reasons I am sending out 2 emails to everyone this week is to make sure that everyone who was expecting a 2020 tax summary from All Things New has received one. The vast majority of these letters went out via email this past Tuesday and the rest were placed in the mail that same day. Please let me know if you have not received one and were expecting one. Remember if you gave to ATN through Facebook, then Facebook, rather than ATN, will have your tax receipt for that gift. We can, however, look up those donations if needed.

The last time I was in Haiti, I wrote something at the top of my quiet time notebook that I wanted to write about in this blog. I wrote, "There's something different about this faith." I was reading 1 Peter and I noticed that the faith described in these verses is entirely different than the faith I often see in my own life. 

1 Peter speaks of a faith that:

 - Shields believers by GOD's power. (This is a faith that protects us from the world, from evil, and gives us joy in the midst of hardship)

 - Is of greater worth than gold.

 - Fills believers with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

This is a faith that calls us to do far more than merely attend church. This type of faith calls us to deeper sacrifice than merely giving a portion of our income to GOD. This type of faith leads us to do much more than just move to another country to help take care of children. It calls for more sacrifice than missing a football game or 2. You cannot create a lifestyle and then conform this type of faith to it. You cannot say that you have this type of faith without it being abundantly clear to everyone that has ever known you.

This type of faith calls us to both live our lives in "reverent fear" and "inexpressible and glorious joy" and it calls us to do that simultaneously. How do you mix joy and fear into 1 incredible faith?

 - Our fear comes from knowing that the person who knows everything about us is also the very person that could destroy our lives and eternity.

 - Our inexpressible and glorious joy comes from knowing that the same person who holds our lives and eternity in His hands loves us completely and unconditionally.

The deck is stacked in our favor because the GOD of the universe in whom our faith is found is also the GOD of our souls who would do anything, including dying on the Cross, to show His love for us. 

I want my faith to look like I believe that. I want this type of different faith that leads me to the Cross and changes everything about me.