Wednesday 25 August 2010

A Model of a Faithful Friend

Hi,
As usual, I'm behind on intended blog posts.

Anyway.

Below are a set of verses that shows how Barnabas modeled a faithful. It's from one of my sermons a few weeks ago. Let me know what you think.

· Acts 4:32-37. A friend always gives when there is a need.

· Acts 9:26-28. A friend stands up for you.

· Acts 11:22-26. A friend thinks of you.

· Acts 13:2 & 42. A friend does not seek first place.

· Galatians 2:11-13. A friend isn’t perfect.

· Acts 15:36-41. A friend forgives. (1 Corinthians 9:6, 2 timothy 4:11)

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Faith is a Doing Word

I was never good at English in school, great at maths and science, but never English. However, there is one thing I remember being taught. Nouns are naming words (like chair, car and albatross) and verbs are doing words (run, walk, sleep, etc). Apparently, this is no longer true, but I wouldn't know because I'm no good at English.

Anyway, what I want to propose is that faith is often misunderstood as being a naming word, when it is really a doing word. To start with, look at Hebrews 11, all the examples of faith are doing examples. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please God,..." Also, look at James 2:17,18:

17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

 18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
      Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

James is clearly saying that faith is a doing word.

If you need more, think about Jesus' story of the sheep and the goats. The difference is in what they do. The sheep do faith, the goats do not.

There are many more examples I could give you to support this idea that faith is a doing word, and not a naming word. (That is that faith is not something you have it's something you do.) However, as well as being really bad at English, I also hate writing. So I will leave it there, unless someone wants to disagree with me!