Sustaining Our Faith

March 3, 2024 Background Scripture: Jude Lesson Passage: Jude 17 - 25 In this brief letter, Jude delivers some potent encouragement and advice to Christians of all generations. Jude wrote practical advice on how we are to maintain our spirituality in a very practical manner. Our spirituality truly begins, ends, and is sustained with prayer. Prayer must become a continuous part of a Christian's life. We should pray about everything. Implied in this is that we know what prayer is. Prayer is a conversation a person has with God. Prayer is not a memorized speech, nor is it a collection of cliches. Prayer is a sincere conversation between a person and the Divine. Because of a conversation's bidirectional nature, we should expect God's response. However, it is not a conversation between peers. Recall the conversations we had with our parents, or any adult, when we were children. We saw ourselves as being submissive to them. We did not dictate what their response should be nor how much time they were allowed before responding. We were grateful they were willing to listen to us. Their response was indicative of them listening to us. We didn't always understand or like the response we received. But we accepted it as the response to our conversation. The better the relationship we had with the adult, the easier the conversation was. We did not have to introduce ourselves to our parents because they already knew who we were. The conversation was a little different with strangers. Our initial faith in God through Jesus Christ established our relationship as children of God. Through the study of God's word and experiencing life as a Christian, we come to know God more personally. The relationship is further enhanced as we talk with God more often and more freely. As we encounter difficulties in life, we learn to spend more time talking with God and seeking to know more about Him. Jude referred to some of those difficulties when he wrote about ungodly people who cause divisions through flattery words. They are one reason Christians should pray. We must steadfastly depend on and look for mercy from Jesus Christ who has made eternal life available for us. And we must never forget that Christianity is not a cult that calls for us to be physically and socially separate from others. How then could we evangelize the loss for Christ? Our faith should give us compassion for others. Especially those who are being consumed because of their sin. We did not save ourselves. We cannot sustain ourselves spiritually as children of God. For God is the One who keeps us from stumbling back into perdition. God is the One who continuously washes us with the water of His word that we may be purified in His presence. God is the One who will one day present us before His presence without sin or anything that could possible separate us from Him. We are children of God through our faith in Jesus Christ. God delights in His children. This is the encouragement we need to have a continuous conversation with God. Through the ups and downs of life, our relationship with God is continuously refreshed through prayer. The more we pray, the more we desire to pray. The more we understand the nature of prayer, the more we depend on prayer to strengthen our faith in God. Life in this world is challenging. Our faith is challenged by situations we encounter in life. It is through our faith that God has assured us of eternal life. It is through our faith that God causes us to live life in this world more abundantly. Jesus Christ is the expression of God's wisdom. Through Jesus, we receive all we need to live in this world as children of God. Through faith we know these things, and our faith is sustained through prayer. Robert C. Hudson February 23, 2024

Faith in the Fiery Furnace

February 11, 2024 Background Scripture: Daniel 3:1 - 30 Lesson Passage: Daniel 3:19 - 28 The prospect of imminent death can be a delineator of one's character. We are not always sure that we know ourselves very well when we are confronted with what appears to be imminent death. It's not difficult to answer the question, "Do you feel strongly about your personal convictions?" But our opinion changes quickly when asked if we are willing to die for our conviction. The prospect of being wrong makes those convictions much softer. Children of God must be absolutely convinced of our personal relationship with God. Our eternal destination is based solely on our personal relationship with God. That relationship cannot be unstable in the face of imminent death. Otherwise, our conviction about God is reduced to our opinion rather than a reality wrought by our faith. Many people have been martyred over the years because they stood up for their religious convictions. Some seem justified and others more cultic and not so justified. Again, children of God must know that their personal relationship with God is not based on their opinions or feelings. We must confess with our mouths that Jesus is our Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead. Our confession must be because God's word declares this to be so. Our faith comes from hearing and believing this declaration from God's word. If everything is taken from a child of God, the one thing that must remain is one's faith in God. Anything less than this is an opinion. Jesus said that the Jewish statement of faith is based on two declarations: The Lord God is one God; and He should be loved with all one's heart, soul, and mind. And the second is that one should love one's neighbor as oneself. Our lesson today has three Jewish young men who embraced the Jewish confession of faith. They were captives who had been deported to Babylon. They were placed in the predicament of either denying their religious conviction as to their personal relationship with God or to face death by incineration. I believe we can learn from their behavior when they were confronted with this ugly choice. First, it seems that they were not hesitant in responding to the choice before them. I believe their response was deliberate but not impulsive. They were so certain of their conviction that no time delay was necessary. Oftentimes, procrastination works against us. Procrastination can allow doubt to surface and fester. They had to be certain of their conviction prior to being put in that predicament. Secondly, they did not presumptuously obligate God to do what they thought was best. Their statement was, "our God is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up." They believed that God would deliver them from the king's hand. Either they would be delivered from the fiery furnace or through death in the fiery furnace. Either way, they would be delivered from the king's hand without abandoning their personal conviction about their relationship with God. Faith in God is a personal conviction that does not change in the face of imminent death. The lesson topic is, "Faith in the Fiery Furnace". Their faith existed before the fiery furnace. Their faith continued in the fiery furnace. And their faith remained after they were delivered out of the fiery furnace. Robert C. Hudson February 1, 2024