I am grateful - how about you?

"Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith." - Hebrews 13:7

I am very grateful for those amazing people who modelled Christianity for me over the years. This verse urges us to remember them and then to 'consider' (think on) their lives and finally, to imitate their faith. 

Someone once suggested that the definition of a Saint is "a person in whom Christ lives again." 

In some respects, our Christian role-models have been saints - Christ has lived on in their lives and through their example we have been taught about the ways of Jesus. And for their lives, I am extremely grateful!  

Exercise: Think about one person who has shaped your spiritual life. Give thanks to God for them today.

Philippians 1:3 - Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.

Living in Grace

D3LM3

What is Faith?

In answer to the question, What is Faith? there are thousands of responses. The Bible gives us many insights into the experience of faith, as well as examples of many faithful people. If I asked you the same question today, what would your response be?

What is faith?

Hebrews 11:1 gives us one of the clearest answers to this question. It says:

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." - NRSV

Putting this into contemporary language, J. Packer writes:

“Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God's own commitment, that the best is yet to come.” - J. I. Packer

Living in Grace

D3LM3

The Christian is ...

If we had to ask a group of people the following question, we would get a huge array of varying answers:

"Define who a Christian is?" 

I found the following insight from William Barclay to be quite helpful. He suggests:

“The Christian is the person who has ceased to do what they want to do and who has now begun to do what Christ wants them to do.” – William Barclay

Jesus would tend to agree with this. Jesus said:

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me." - Matthew 16:24

Thought: 

What would your answer to today's question be? 

A Christian is ...

Living in Grace

D3LM3