Our church celebrated its 39th anniversary today and we had the District Superintendent as our guest speaker. His message was entitled Faith-Works on a passage from the book of James. What impressed me was his mention of Abraham's faith in the Lord when he was tested to offer his son in sacrifice, an act which still bewilder me as a mom. But what matters is, God is faithful and when things around us looks impossible, He is the only answer.
Something the speaker said also caused me to think. He said, "God would only test the faithful." I am not yet fully convinced though I think it may just be true.
Maeghan
Picture by Jonathan Liedtke
Yes, that is very interesting...
ReplyDeleteOh duh, I think I get it. How could he test the unfaithful if there was no faith there to be tested?
ReplyDeleteVery funny, it looks like I'm having a conversation with myself.
ReplyDeleteJulia,
ReplyDeleteApologies :o) I was away for the weekend and had no internet connections.
You got a good point there I never did think of. But could he test the unfaithful in other ways? In ways to bring them back into the faith?
Oh, I was just trying to be funny - comment 2 & 3 were 1 minute apart and I knew you were gone.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if there is any faith to come out of the unfaithful to be tested, then he already knew it all along, but I suppose that gets right down to the difference between Calvinists & Armenians.
Maeghan,
ReplyDeleteThe story of Isaac, is interesting to me too. Here is my questions:
Did Isaac know? If he did, who had more faith Abraham or Isaac?
Who was Isaac's faith in? What God would do or in who He was (God that is)?
It was clear in the text that Abraham believed that he was coming down with his son alive from that mountain. He had faith that God would take care of the situation (Raise Isaac from the dead or provide an alternate sacrifice... like a ram). The two aren't necesarily exclusive.
"God would only test the faithful", that almost sounds like a redundancy. If someone is faithful, what would a test accomplish? Where would be the point in the test if the outcome is a given (because they are faithful).
I don't think this is right. I would have to say it is more accurate to say that God prepares us for the test. The outcome is determined by how well we prepared.
God Bless
Doug
Julia,
ReplyDeletebut I suppose that gets right down to the difference between Calvinists & Armenians.
Great minds think alike ;) with my current posts on this topic, though I'd only be scraping the surface.
Doug,
ReplyDeleteDid Isaac know? If he did, who had more faith Abraham or Isaac?
Good question. I have heard some preacher tackling this too but to me, the main figure is Abraham, not that Isaac is not important but the author draws us only to Abraham, whose faith is without question, simply astounding.
Who was Isaac's faith in? What God would do or in who He was (God that is)?
Isaac did not know what was happening. So his test of faith was while he was being tied up, and when Abraham explains it all to him. From how Genesis unfolds on, I believe he took it in faith.
It was clear in the text that Abraham believed that he was coming down with his son alive from that mountain. He had faith that God would take care of the situation (Raise Isaac from the dead or provide an alternate sacrifice... like a ram). The two aren't necesarily exclusive.
I agree, but we have to admit that with such belief, it is an amazing faith. Most of us would talk ourselves our of it. If we can't talk God out of it, we'd talk ourselves out of it. I think this happens quite often, eh?
"God would only test the faithful", that almost sounds like a redundancy. If someone is faithful, what would a test accomplish? Where would be the point in the test if the outcome is a given (because they are faithful).
Good point there. But what I think the speaker meant by faithful are those that believe in Him but could do with some firming up of faith, someone like me ;)