http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/i-believe/
A compilation
Audio length: 10:40
Download Audio (14.6MB)
I believe in the Father of all who knits together life, made in His very own image, in the secret quiet of our beings.
I believe in Jesus Christ, the One with no earthly Father, with the dust of this earth between His toes, and with our names etched onto the palm of His hands, right beneath the nail scars … Who now sits at the Father’s right hand making endless intercession on our behalf. I believe in the stone rolled away, in the Body being raised, in the first fruits of the dead … and us all following soon, very soon.
I believe in the Cross as our only Hope, our only Claim, our only Savior, and our only Foundation. I believe that in the pounding surf of life we have only one thing to cling to: the feet of our Lord Jesus, hanging on that tree, His lifeblood flowing down, washing us whiter than snow. It’s all by His staggering grace, lest any man should boast.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, moving, whispering, indwelling our very being. I believe in living by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, and producing fruit in the Spirit … in the Spirit who helps us in our weakness with groanings that can’t be expressed in words.
I believe in the infallibility of the Bible, God’s Word—a sure Word, a pure Word, the only secure Word. I believe the words on those pages are breathed from the very throne room of heaven, are the love letter penned from the heart of God; a beacon of light for stumbling feet to find sure footing on a dark path.
I believe there is more than believing. There is living what I believe.—Ann Voskamp
Passion for God
We love God with our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. We seek a close personal relationship with Jesus, and to grow in emulating His attributes and living His love.
We desire to know and understand the truth of God’s Word, the essence of His divine nature. We value the foundational principles of the written Word, hearing from God, and following His guidance. We put our faith into action and reach out to weary and troubled hearts, the disadvantaged, downtrodden, and needy, as unto Jesus.—From TFI’s core values
No matter what
No matter what, God is still sovereign. No matter what, God still knows my name, angels still respond to His call, and the hearts of rulers still bend at His bidding. No matter what, the death of Jesus still saves souls, the Spirit of God still indwells saints; heaven is still only heartbeats away, the grave is still temporary housing. God is still faithful; He is not caught off guard. He uses everything for His glory and His ultimate good. He uses tragedy to accomplish His will, and His will is right, holy and perfect. Sorrow may come with the night, but joy always comes with the morning.
In changing times you must lay hold of the unchanging hand of God … We want everything to stay the same, but it’s not going to stay the same. But God does. In the midst of the difficult times, rehearse and recite the unchanging characteristics of God.—Max Lucado
A personal response
God is life, rich and overflowing life, and he is also love. His eternal will is to draw us all into his life, into his love.
God seeks constantly to lift us out of our petty selves into the domain of his love. That is why he stepped out of himself and opened his heart to us. Incredibly, we insignificant beings are the objects of his concern! Out of the incomprehensible love of his heart, he loves each one of us quite personally.
God wants us to know his heart, to accept his word, to affirm his will and carry it out. He also longs for us to respond personally to him, by worshiping him in the freeing spirit of consecration that grasps the essential and then puts it into living practice.—Eberhard Arnold
The end in Himself
There are people who welcome Jesus into their lives as a stepping stone to forgiveness and going to heaven. Salvation is what they are seeking. Though salvation in Jesus Christ is wonderfully true, that is not the main objective of the Gospel. Others welcome Christ as a stepping stone to divine intervention as the only answer to the desperate state their lives are in. But Jesus is not a stepping stone to anything. He is the end in Himself.
The reward for welcoming Jesus into our lives is not being forgiven, not going to heaven, and not divine intervention, but the reward is Jesus Himself. He does not come as a band-aid in our time of need, but He comes to enter every aspect and phase of our lives to be in us all that we need. God is not to be defined as a miracle-working God as though that were His very nature, because He is also a non-miracle-working God. Many people have made desperate pleas in times of illness, tragedy and loss, but there has been no miraculous intervention. We cannot blame God for being subject to all the perils of life, but we can experience His peace and strength in the midst of them.
Paul says in Philippians 3:10, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings…” Christ is Himself the end purpose of the Christian life, and His intent is that we come to know and experience Him. He said, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”1 Eternal life is not something that begins when we get to heaven, but it begins here on earth the moment we accept Jesus into our lives. When we make Him Lord and not just Savior, we come to know Him not in propositional facts, but experientially, and He becomes our life.—Charles Price
Eyes on the goal
You’ve got to keep your eyes ahead on the goal, like Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. By faith they looked ahead, they looked forward. They weren’t satisfied with being a citizen of this world; they looked for a country made by God, a heavenly country, a heavenly city.
They were willing to go through all the trials and tribulations and be strangers and pilgrims and people without a country because they knew they had one coming. And they knew it was worth fighting for, living and dying for.
Even the benefits on the way are worth it. What soldier gets paid that well? Who gets a hundred times everything he gives up to join the army? God’s soldier is going to get a hundred times what he gave up.2 What more could he ask than that?
A hundred times the salary he got before, a hundred times the health, the blessings, the love—a hundred times as much as everything he had before. What more could he ask than that? Plus heaven! All this and heaven too!
Isn’t that worth fighting for? Don’t you think even the love of our Savior, the love of our Commander in Chief, and just because you love Him is worth fighting for?
He fought and bled and died for you on the cross to save you, and He won the battle for you. You should be willing to enter into His battles just in gratitude for the fact that He saved you—to go through a few little battles with the Devil to fight for the cause of Christ and for His kingdom and His love and to try to save others.
Jesus was willing to die for us to save us, and He wants us to be willing to die to self for Him to save others. “No greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”3 Our sufferings aren’t even worthy to be compared with the blessings that we already have, much less the glory we’re going to enjoy.4—David Brandt Berg
Published on Anchor May 2015. Read by Debra Lee.
1 John 17:3 NIV.
2 Matthew 19:29.
3 John 15:13.
4 Romans 8:18.
A compilation
Audio length: 10:40
Download Audio (14.6MB)
I believe in the Father of all who knits together life, made in His very own image, in the secret quiet of our beings.
I believe in Jesus Christ, the One with no earthly Father, with the dust of this earth between His toes, and with our names etched onto the palm of His hands, right beneath the nail scars … Who now sits at the Father’s right hand making endless intercession on our behalf. I believe in the stone rolled away, in the Body being raised, in the first fruits of the dead … and us all following soon, very soon.
I believe in the Cross as our only Hope, our only Claim, our only Savior, and our only Foundation. I believe that in the pounding surf of life we have only one thing to cling to: the feet of our Lord Jesus, hanging on that tree, His lifeblood flowing down, washing us whiter than snow. It’s all by His staggering grace, lest any man should boast.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, moving, whispering, indwelling our very being. I believe in living by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, and producing fruit in the Spirit … in the Spirit who helps us in our weakness with groanings that can’t be expressed in words.
I believe in the infallibility of the Bible, God’s Word—a sure Word, a pure Word, the only secure Word. I believe the words on those pages are breathed from the very throne room of heaven, are the love letter penned from the heart of God; a beacon of light for stumbling feet to find sure footing on a dark path.
I believe there is more than believing. There is living what I believe.—Ann Voskamp
Passion for God
We love God with our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. We seek a close personal relationship with Jesus, and to grow in emulating His attributes and living His love.
We desire to know and understand the truth of God’s Word, the essence of His divine nature. We value the foundational principles of the written Word, hearing from God, and following His guidance. We put our faith into action and reach out to weary and troubled hearts, the disadvantaged, downtrodden, and needy, as unto Jesus.—From TFI’s core values
No matter what
No matter what, God is still sovereign. No matter what, God still knows my name, angels still respond to His call, and the hearts of rulers still bend at His bidding. No matter what, the death of Jesus still saves souls, the Spirit of God still indwells saints; heaven is still only heartbeats away, the grave is still temporary housing. God is still faithful; He is not caught off guard. He uses everything for His glory and His ultimate good. He uses tragedy to accomplish His will, and His will is right, holy and perfect. Sorrow may come with the night, but joy always comes with the morning.
In changing times you must lay hold of the unchanging hand of God … We want everything to stay the same, but it’s not going to stay the same. But God does. In the midst of the difficult times, rehearse and recite the unchanging characteristics of God.—Max Lucado
A personal response
God is life, rich and overflowing life, and he is also love. His eternal will is to draw us all into his life, into his love.
God seeks constantly to lift us out of our petty selves into the domain of his love. That is why he stepped out of himself and opened his heart to us. Incredibly, we insignificant beings are the objects of his concern! Out of the incomprehensible love of his heart, he loves each one of us quite personally.
God wants us to know his heart, to accept his word, to affirm his will and carry it out. He also longs for us to respond personally to him, by worshiping him in the freeing spirit of consecration that grasps the essential and then puts it into living practice.—Eberhard Arnold
The end in Himself
There are people who welcome Jesus into their lives as a stepping stone to forgiveness and going to heaven. Salvation is what they are seeking. Though salvation in Jesus Christ is wonderfully true, that is not the main objective of the Gospel. Others welcome Christ as a stepping stone to divine intervention as the only answer to the desperate state their lives are in. But Jesus is not a stepping stone to anything. He is the end in Himself.
The reward for welcoming Jesus into our lives is not being forgiven, not going to heaven, and not divine intervention, but the reward is Jesus Himself. He does not come as a band-aid in our time of need, but He comes to enter every aspect and phase of our lives to be in us all that we need. God is not to be defined as a miracle-working God as though that were His very nature, because He is also a non-miracle-working God. Many people have made desperate pleas in times of illness, tragedy and loss, but there has been no miraculous intervention. We cannot blame God for being subject to all the perils of life, but we can experience His peace and strength in the midst of them.
Paul says in Philippians 3:10, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings…” Christ is Himself the end purpose of the Christian life, and His intent is that we come to know and experience Him. He said, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”1 Eternal life is not something that begins when we get to heaven, but it begins here on earth the moment we accept Jesus into our lives. When we make Him Lord and not just Savior, we come to know Him not in propositional facts, but experientially, and He becomes our life.—Charles Price
Eyes on the goal
You’ve got to keep your eyes ahead on the goal, like Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. By faith they looked ahead, they looked forward. They weren’t satisfied with being a citizen of this world; they looked for a country made by God, a heavenly country, a heavenly city.
They were willing to go through all the trials and tribulations and be strangers and pilgrims and people without a country because they knew they had one coming. And they knew it was worth fighting for, living and dying for.
Even the benefits on the way are worth it. What soldier gets paid that well? Who gets a hundred times everything he gives up to join the army? God’s soldier is going to get a hundred times what he gave up.2 What more could he ask than that?
A hundred times the salary he got before, a hundred times the health, the blessings, the love—a hundred times as much as everything he had before. What more could he ask than that? Plus heaven! All this and heaven too!
Isn’t that worth fighting for? Don’t you think even the love of our Savior, the love of our Commander in Chief, and just because you love Him is worth fighting for?
He fought and bled and died for you on the cross to save you, and He won the battle for you. You should be willing to enter into His battles just in gratitude for the fact that He saved you—to go through a few little battles with the Devil to fight for the cause of Christ and for His kingdom and His love and to try to save others.
Jesus was willing to die for us to save us, and He wants us to be willing to die to self for Him to save others. “No greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”3 Our sufferings aren’t even worthy to be compared with the blessings that we already have, much less the glory we’re going to enjoy.4—David Brandt Berg
Published on Anchor May 2015. Read by Debra Lee.
1 John 17:3 NIV.
2 Matthew 19:29.
3 John 15:13.
4 Romans 8:18.
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