Fortress of Faith- Pillars of Faith: Study Five

Pillar Two- God the Savior

 

Thank you for coming back for this next study.  Previously, we have learned about the first Pillar: God our Creator, and God our Father.  A couple weeks ago, we learned about God the Son.  Today, we learn about God our Savior.

 

When you think of a savior, what attributes come to mind?   Many of us probably associate a savior with a hero.  Someone who acts to save a life- a policeman, a firefighter, a soldier, a doctor, even a regular guy who happens to act to help someone in distress.  In our fiction world, heroes and saviors are essentially one and the same.  A superhero that saves the world from some supernatural force.  A team of heroes that take on evil villains.  There are plenty of examples in day to day life, both real and imagined, that play on the inherent human need to be saved, even if we do not realize that is what we are looking for.

 

Throughout the Old Testament, God promised His people that He would send a Savior.  From a human perspective, the Jews envisioned a Savior who would free them from earthly persecution and tyranny, who would reward them with their uncontested promised land, and would sit on the throne as their King.  Never did they imagine that God would send His Son to be their Savior, to save them from eternal damnation, to sit on an eternal throne.  Yet, according to Matthew 1 verses 18 through 23, we learn that Mary and Joseph were both told of the coming of Jesus who would be the saver of sins, who would be God among men.

 

Then when Jesus was born the humble birth in a manger, an angelic host proclaimed to nearby shepherds: "Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord..."  Luke 2 v 10-11

 

That Jesus is not just the Son of God but also the Savior that our Lord spoke of is not something to take lightly.  First, we must understand that Jesus had the ability, given from God, to save us all.  Second, we must understand that Jesus was WILLING to take on our sins in order to save us.

 

According to Romans 5 v 6-11, Christ's ability and willingness to die for us saves us from God's wrath.  We all know, as it is repeated throughout both the Old and New Testaments, that our God abhors sin. Sin frustrates Him, angers Him, and disappoints Him.  He gave us life.  He gave us free will.  But like any parent, as He directs us one way and we struggle against Him to go our own way, especially to the point that we knowingly break away from morality, He experiences all the same pains a human parent does when they walk through those trials with their child (of any age.) With our human tendency to simply continue to sin, He certainly feels a large amount of wrath at our willfulness, our stubbornness, and our blatant disrespect.  Wrath that He has rained down from Heaven throughout history, though now many, I am sure, would reason away with modern technology and "understanding" of science.

 

Not only does Christ's sacrifice save us from God's wrath, but according to John 1 v 29, Jesus also saves us from our sins.  This is repeated throughout the New Testament.  The book of Romans especially covers the wages of sin, and the price Jesus paid to pay those wages.  However, this does not mean that we can continue on in the sins we commit.  Rather, as new creations in Christ, we are encouraged to try to leave those sins in the past, to move on to a more Holy life, to try to be more Christ-like.

 

In Romans, we learn that the wages of sin is Death.  This Death is not dying and being non-existent.  No. Eternal death- in this case, eternal damnation.  Eternal suffering.  The wages of sin is to be separated from God for all eternity.  In John 11, Jesus very clearly addresses this with Martha upon learning of Lazarus' death.  He said to her,"I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?" Jesus very clearly identifies Himself as not only the Son of God, but also as the Savior of us all.  "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19 v 10

 

Throughout the rest of Jesus' life, he performed miracles, he spoke of love, peace, and humility.  He showed us that "righteousness" is not always "Godliness."  He lived a perfect example of living last, putting others first, striving to fulfill God's will no matter how hard.   Then, when the time came, He took up the Cross, not His Cross- OUR Cross, and He carried it upon His shoulders.  He took the lashings.  He suffered the humiliation.  He suffered the betrayal, the ridicule, and the torture.  He sacrificed His very life in order to fulfill God's promise of salvation to all mankind.   He paid those wages.  Then He rose victorious over death and damnation, and offers us each salvation, hope, love, and peace.

 

Hallelujah!

Fortress of Faith- Pillars of Faith: Study Four

Pillar Two- God the Son

 

 

Four pillars hold up our Faith.  The first pillar, God the Creator who is God our Father, is not alone in upholding the Faith we hold dear.  The second pillar is God the Son who is also God our Savior.  This week, we will learn more about God the Son. 

 

For thousands of years after God created all that we know to exist, after He proved Himself to be actively interested in the lives of His people, God realized it was time to fulfill His promise of salvation. 

We all know the Christmas story.  A virgin girl found herself pregnant.  During a period and in a culture where being pregnant out of wedlock meant being cast out or worse, that young woman and her skeptical fiancee were visited by angels and directed on what was truly happening.  Into their humble lives, they were about to welcome the Son of God made into human flesh with the promise that He would be the Savior their people had been waiting for.

From the very beginning of His life on earth, Angels first declared Him to be the Son of God.  Throughout His life among us, people gathered around Him, at first skeptical, but later admitting they too knew Him to be the Son of God, for no other man could have done or said what He did.

In Luke 2 verses 41 to 50, Jesus was a young boy on the cusp of becoming a teenager.  He found Himself in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast along with Mary and Joseph.  When it was time to go home, His earthly family left him behind without realizing it.  When they did realize He was missing and turned back to search for Him, they found Him in the Temple where He was learning from and sharing His thoughts with the teachers there.  Of course, as a distraught mother, Mary rebuked Him for the worry she felt over His disappearance.  In reply, Jesus said to her,"...Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"  This was Jesus' first recorded admission that He was the Son of God.

Later, as an adult, Jesus visited with John the Baptist.  John instead wanted to be baptized by Jesus, but finally relented and baptised Jesus.  As Jesus came out of the water, God Himself declared,"This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased."  Matthew 3 v 13-17

What is the significance of Jesus being the Son of God?   

Why does it matter that Jesus Himself, God the Father, Jesus' disciples, new believers, and even the unbelievers acknowledged Him to be the Son of God?

As Christians, we believe in right and wrong, heaven and hell, good and evil.   We believe that there is life after death.  What many of us struggle with is the reality of a place we have not seen, and the reality of salvation.  All doubts in our Faith stem from society's take on our God, our Savior, our Spirit, and our Word.  Because of these society induced doubts, the significance of Jesus as the Son of God is amplified.  If He is not the Son of God, then He truly is just a fantastic teacher, prophet, and one heck of a magician and illusionist. 

However, when you weigh all His words, all His actions, and all his teachings, we find that He never sought to uplift Himself.  He never asked for anything more from His followers except that they listen, believe, and follow.  He did not ask them for their earthly possessions.  On the contrary, He asked them to leave those things behind.  He did not ask anyone to fight for Him.  On the contrary, He healed the man Peter injured in the attempt to resist arrest.  He did not provoke His followers to riot as He hung on the cross.  On the contrary, He prayed to GOD, His Father, to forgive us.

If Jesus were simply human, the miracles He performed time and again throughout His short life among us are nothing more than coincidental chances of luck.   But because He is the Son of God, He has the power to not just heal, but to CURE.  He has the power to not just preserve life, but GIVE life.  He has the power to not just look over our sins, but to FORGIVE them.  Most importantly, He has the power to love us, like His Father, completely without condition and without expectations.

So if its so important to keep in mind that Jesus truly was the Son of God, why must we also acknowledge His humanity?

Many of us, as parents or child care workers, realize on a daily basis how hard it is to relate to children of any age.  From infant, to toddler, to child, to tween, to teen, we adults forget what it is like to walk through certain struggles.  Even as adults, as we move from one chapter of life to another, we forget the struggles we walked through and then have a hard time understanding what our neighbors are going through even as they walk through something similar.  In a perfect world, we would retain all that knowledge and experience and treat our fellow man better and raise our children with more patience and unconditional love.

In that way, Jesus, as the Son of God, was a perfect being.  However, how does God save His children if He has a hard time understanding the struggles they face?  When Jesus became human, even in His perfection, He felt the emotions we feel.   He was tempted by wealth, by power, by earthly things.  He struggled to do what He knew was expected of Him by His Father.  He even felt anger when He saw His faith being watered down and marketed.   His time among us drew Him closer to us, drew His empathy, drew His compassion, and committed Him to His role as Savior.

His humanity and His deity in combination are what make all  He accomplished so completely perfect.  His actions, His character, His words, and His faithfulness were so incredible that even the soldiers who crucified Him admitted."Surely he was the Son of God!" Matthew 27 v 50-54

Do you have a hard time imagining a perfect human being?   Take a few minutes to imagine what the perfect person would be like.  What attributes would they have?  Would they be someone well liked?  Or would they be someone met with criticism?

Do you find it hard to imagine how Jesus could balance His divinity and His humanity?  Take a moment to compare the struggles we face as humans to live a life free from sin.   Do you think Jesus had it easier or harder than we do?

Read the following passages to learn more about Jesus as the Son of God:
Matthew 14 v 29-37
Matthew 16 v 13-17
Matthew 17 v 1-7
John 3 v 16
Hebrews 1 v 1-3
Phil 2 v 6-11
 

Fortress of Faith- Study Three: Pillars of Faith

Pillar One- God the Father

 

When we think of "father," no doubt we have many different preconceptions associated with the person who fits that role in our lives. 

 

What characteristics do we ascribe to men we consider to be "good" fathers? 

 

Do we think they must be strong, handsome, fearless, masculine, tough? 

 

Do we think they should be men who demand respect and honor? 

 

Have our experiences with our human father left us full of love or empty and wanting?

 

No doubt, we each have a little different idea of what makes a good father.  However, our God, our Heavenly Father, has set the bar for fathers.  He has been an example of the perfect Father, as well as offering us insights into the characteristics that drive His actions in our lives.

 

First, we must acknowledge that God is not just our Creator.  He did not just say "do it," and it was done.  He is omnipotent and omniscient and a million other things that make Him God.  However, He did not just make us to then leave us to our own designs.  Our Lord created us with the intention of having a relationship with us.  He created us with the intention of watching us grow, of leading us on our way, of reveling in our successes, weeping with us in our sadness, and carrying us through our struggles.  Our God the Creator did not create us and then leave us alone.  

 

Jesus acknowledges this fact when He instructs us how to pray.

 

“This, then, is how you should pray:

‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name', " 

~Matthew 6 v 9

 

Throughout Jesus' life among us, he repeatedly spoke of His Father in Heaven.  As young as a pre-teen boy who wandered off to be found among the adult men in the temple, Jesus described His own relationship with God as a Father-Son relationship.  However, in the prayer Jesus gives us, He makes it clear, that we too are children of God the Father.  We too have an opportunity to have that Father-child relationship.

 

Second, God our Father is not an absentee father.  The Bible is testament through its myriad of recollections that our Father is present in the movement of this life.  Psalms 121 v 5-8 speak of our God as one who watches over us, who cares about the lives we live, and the struggles we might face.  Psalm 85 v 5 and 1 Thessalonians 4 v 9 both speak of how our Father teaches us; He specifically teaches us how to love as He loved us.  Because of His love for us, the Bible also tells us that He sometimes disciplines us (Psalm 3 v 11-12), just as we would expect a human father to discipline his own child out of love.  The Bible goes on to speak of the presence of our Father, saying that He remains close to the broken-hearted (Psalm 34 v 18).  From cover to cover of our Bible, we can find evidence of a loving, but just God (Nahum 1 v 3)- acting just as a Father concerned for His children acts.

 

Third, God our Father has all the attributes of the Perfect Father.  He is a prime example of what fathers should strive to be.  Our Father is strong, but loving (Psalm 62 v 11-12).  He is slow to anger, compassionate, and merciful (Psalm 103 v 8-13).  He is forgiving and good (Psalm 86 v 5).  Plus, He is not just our Father, but He is also open to adopting.  Psalm 68 v 5 says that He is Father to the fatherless.  Of course, this means two things- He is Father to all the literal orphans and left-behind children this world has seen and will ever see, and He is Father even to those who never call upon His name and join the Christian family. 

 

Finally, our Father does not expect nor demand perfection.  Though many people today shrug off Christianity condemning us all as hypocrites, because they mistakenly believe we must strive to be perfect to meet standards of perfection, which of course, we cannot come close to living up to.  No, He does not demand perfection, as most human father's do not of their own children.  On the contrary, He expects us to TRY our best.  He expects us to do the BEST that we are capable of.  He expects us to use the GIFTS He has given us.  Do our human father's not expect the same things from their children?   No, He does not expect perfection, and knowing that we are imperfect, He offers us forgiveness, mercy, grace, hope, and SALVATION.

 

Have you come to know our God to be your Father?

 

Would you say that you have a relationship with our Father?  What does that relationship look like?

 

Did you have preconceived notions of a harsh God, a distant God, one who does not truly care about you and your life?   Has that changed?  Would you like that to change?

 

This week, I challenge you to read the verses included in the text of this study.  Think on the ones that stand out to you the most.  Consider why they stand out to you.  Then practice praying to our Father as though you were speaking to your human father.  Consider if God the Father were physically in front of you, what would you say to Him?  What do you think He might say to you?

 

 God bless you!

Fortress of Faith- Study Two: Pillars of Faith

God our Creator

As we move forward in science and technology, it appears on one hand that we are discovering the secrets to the universe, but just as quickly as we learn the way something in nature works, we also discover that we have no idea why finding instead that a million other questions are left unanswered.

In modern-day Christianity, we now see more and more science spilling into explanations of the miraculous.  Sometimes that science allows us to see just how miraculous the miracle of creation is, but more often then not, the science is a poorly veiled attempt to draw our focus away from our Creator, to demean His abilities and ultimately His love for us.

Genesis chapters one and two clearly lay out the narration of God creating not just our world, but all that we comprehend to be real in this universe.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..."  According to Scripture, God spent several days creating all we know, not millenia, there are no gaps in time.  If there were gaps in time as some insist, when God inspired Moses to write Genesis, he would have directed him to say "-the first period."  No, over and over the time of creation spanned "-the first day," "-the second day," and so on.  Still, science, and those even among the Christian community cannot fathom such a monumental task occurring, so our Creator is put into a neat little box with a label on it saying He can't literally create a universe, a planet, ecosystems complete with plants and animals, and people in one week.  Yet, He did.   Scripture clearly states God created all that we see around us in a miraculous manner, to include us.  (Job 38 goes in depth on His handiwork versus our arrogance in thinking we can understand creation.)

Romans 1 v 20 says "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

As Christians, we should be able to see Him in the world around us.  We should be able to see the divine architect's plan as we learn about the amazingly perfect balance nature has.  We should be able to see the miraculous when we learn about the human body with its incredible cells, chemical makeup, and inter-working systems that work together in perfect harmony so that we  not just live, but we also reason.  We should be able to see all that science has learned as proof of His existence, not as a reason to doubt.  We should see Him in creation, but even more so, when we look at ourselves, we should see He is OUR Creator.

Genesis 1:26 says that God created us in His image.  Now, we will not know until we meet Him in Heaven exactly what that means.  Does that mean our bodily appearance reflects the physical build of our Creator?  Does it really matter?  What does matter is that He thought as an artist.  He hand-crafted us in a manner pleasing to Him, and He breathed life into us, and He thought we (according to verse 31) that we were pretty cool.

Psalm 139, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, speaks of His relationship with us as our Creator.  According to David, who wrote this Psalm, our Creator has an intimate relationship with us.  He knows us inside and out, knowing what we wish to say before we do. 

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139 v 13-16

I encourage you, as you go about the rest of your week, take a moment to wonder at creation.  Take a minute to truly consider the balance of our ecosystems.  Take a minute to truly look at the veins in a leaf, and consider how it moves nutrients that are absorbed by the sun and changed in the fiber of the leaf.  The look at yourself in the mirror.  Try to count the hairs on your head.  Try to fathom how your body's systems work together, automatically.   Try to really line that up with the "scientific" explanation of a big bang versus the well-planned execution of a divine plan.

You, my friend, are a miracle living among the miraculous! 

God bless!

Fortress of Faith- Study One: Pillars of Faith

This "Fortress of Faith" Series is meant to take us back to the roots of our Christian faith, and apply that basis to our lives as women who play a part in our modern Military.  In "Fortress of Faith: Foundation of Love," we were reminded that everything we believe, the essence of our Faith, the truth that surrounds our God is all based on this concept of love- the love He has for us, and the love He encourages us to have for each other.

In the next ten weeks, "Fortress of Faith: Pillars of Faith," we will look more deeply at what our Christian Faith is built upon.  We will spend several weeks on the following rough outline (forgive me, I am writing this study as we go):

Week one- Introduction (today)

Week two- Pillar One: God the Creator

Week three- Pillar One: God the Father

Week four-  Pillar Two: God the Son

Week five- Pillar Two: God the Savior

Week six- Pillar three: God the Spirit

Week seven- Pillar three: God the Intercessor

Week eight- Pillar four:  the Word of God

Week nine- Pillar four:  the Holy Bible

Week ten- Conclusion

Ladies, we are standing on the firm foundation of His love.  We know deep in our hearts that our God, our Savior, and our Holy Spirit guide us from an aspect of love.  We know deep in our hearts that our faith is built on a love so deep and so genuine we cannot fully comprehend its value.  We know deep in our hearts that our faith in rooted deeply in love.

However, love without God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God has no strength, has no power, has no direction, and cannot stand or be built upon.

My prayer is to take this journey with you as we rediscover the pillars upon which our faith takes shape.  My prayer is that we rediscover the many facets of our Lord and His Word, and that we reawaken a passion to gather our faith closer to us as well as a desire to share our faith with those we come into contact with us as we move from place to place.

I hope you will join me next week.  In the meantime, please think on the following:

Do you have a relationship with our God?

What does that relationship mean to you?

Do you regard the Son of God as your Savior?

Do you have conversations with the Spirit?

Do you dwell in the Word of God and accept it as the His true guidance for us?

Finally, I ask that you pray this week.  Please pray for me as I work on this study, and please pray for the readers who might follow this study.  Please pray for yourself, that He opens your hearts and minds to whatever He might wish to teach you through this study.

God bless you!