Assignment 2

[burge...@gmail.com]

Hey guys,

 

It was SO AWESOME meeting with you for the first two groups.  I came away encouraged and most importantly CLEAR about the direction we're going to be heading over the next few weeks.  It was so clear the Lord wants us to understand that unless we believe A) we can't bear fruit apart from him and B) he is the one in complete control, then nothing else matters.  In your list of good/bad fruit all the good fruit you listed came from the Lord's Spirit and all the bad fruit came from us.  This may seem obvious, but I really want you to let the reality of that to sink in as you approach this next topic. 

 

Remember to not throw out all we talked about when approaching this next phase of the project and remember to MAKE THE BIBLE YOUR COMPLETE AUTHORITY when answering the question.  Here's what I got for you:

 

BELIEF and FAITH:  This week we're going to begin talking about our relationship with God, how this looks, and how it has to form the foundation of ministry leadership.  We will look at it through the lense of faith and belief, and form working, truth-based definitions for both of these concepts.  All of us will have all different definitions for these words; both practical and theological, and we will need to be willing to start from scratch and build a common understanding together in order to move forward.  This is something to think about (and maybe include in your answer) when approaching this assignment.  What are the things you've traditionally thought about these concepts, and what lenses do you bring to the table (whether bad or good) when defining them in your study and walk with God.  Read JOHN 5 and 6 for the context of building a new definition for these concepts. 

 

Write a 400 page reflection on both your traditional understanding and the biblical understanding of these concepts...through John 5 and 6.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you!  The two times next week are the same (Wednesday from 10-12 and Thursday from 1-3)

 

Will

[Will Burger]

And by 400 page I mean word. Ha!

Sent from my iPhone

[Emily Hitchcock Schloesser]

Belief and Faith are probably the two most central words that come with following
God, and while doing this assignment, I realize that I often overlook them, and
don’t really think about what they actually mean, let alone how important they are.
They’ve kind of just always been there, assumed to be part of Christianity. To me,
belief is the understanding of The Bible and Jesus’ life on earth to be true- Not that
these things are just historically correct, but that they are the absolute truth in your
life. Faith cannot exist without belief- Now faith is confidence in what we hope for
and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). Though the concepts of
belief and faith seem to be somewhat of the same thing, there is one vital
difference between them- action. Simply believing is not enough. Believing that
Jesus died for you on earth so that you may have eternal life in heaven is NOT the
same as banking your entire life on the promises in the Bible. Faith requires action,
and it is something you must have at every breath, because it is your guide. Belief
can sometimes be pushed to the back of our minds as a “nice idea” that we can live
our lives as we wish on earth, and then live eternally in Heaven’s perfection. Faith is
searching for The Kingdom here on earth every single day. After reading and
analyzing John 5 and 6 a few times, I think Jesus just states it simply- “Truly I am
the one He has sent, believe me and follow me, because I am the only way, the only
truth, and the only life”. John 6:40 sums this all up: “For my Father’s will is that
everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will
raise them up at the last day”. It is our job as followers of Jesus Christ to “believe in
the one He has sent” (John 6:29). Belief and faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to
life!

[Suzanne De La Paz]

Will,
I am planning on being at the Wednesday morning meeting.
Suzanne


My practical understanding of the words "belief" and "faith" are that they are knitted together. If I believe in Jesus, then I have complete trust without any question of his promises. Faith is recognizing that I need Jesus and it means that I will follow Him. You cannot have faith without belief.

My biblical understanding of belief and faith from reading John 5 and 6 highlighted a few things to me about faith/belief in Jesus:
1) Jesus says that the ONLY work that God wants from me is to "Believe in the one he has sent" (John 6:29)
2) Jesus says that "Anyone who believes has eternal life (John 6:47) and "..all who see the Son and believe in him should have eternal life." (John 6:40) "The Spirit alone gives eternal life." My "human effort accomplishes nothing" (John 6:63)
3) Jesus said that "some of you do not believe me" (John 6:63) and that "people can't come to me unless the Father gives them to me." (John 6:65)

This point #3 brought to my mind our group's conversation last week about being "chosen" for ministry leadership. It is my understanding from reading this scripture that the Lord is saying that if we do not believe and have faith in Him, then we cannot be "chosen" for His good works in leadership? The ones through which he wants to produce "good fruit?" Our human efforts will accomplish NOTHING of eternal value.

[Amy Jacobs]

This is hard to put into words that have not already been said… and well, just plain hard to put into words.

I’d have to say that I initially thought they meant pretty much the same thing. Now, I see they do not, and that one builds on the other and you need Both to get closer to the goal, Jesus. So:

The simple act of just acknowledging Jesus’ presence is crawling, or even just knowing the name of God, the name of His Son and knowing somewhere in your depths that it means something more than just a name or even a swear word.

Faith is the action, the movement of belief.

Belief is like learning how to stand before learning how to walk. You must strengthen your leg muscles through the movement of standing and with regular practice, otherwise walking will be impossible.

Faith is the walking. You have the muscles built through standing (and crawling), and now you are applying it in a very literal way through moving forward (and/or backwards). But, you are trusting in those early developments (being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. Hebrews 11:1), trusting that they will hold out as you are walking because if they don’t, you will not keep moving forward or even standing.

So, in the development of faith, one must first believe. Then in order to continue to grow, one must follow the example of another and, in the both the case of Belief and the case of Faith, that example would be Jesus because He is the only one who can do what God does; Jesus does as the Father does, and we do as Jesus does (John 5:19-23). If not, you’ll just be standing still in one place; or, you may even revert all the way back to crawling, and you’ll miss so much when you’re so very low to the ground.

[Rachel Larsen]

Faith and Belief get tossed around a lot in Christian contexts so I think it's cool that we're taking the time to define these words biblically.  I have a hard time understanding things without examples, so I'll build off of the John 5 passage to explain. 

Jesus is fascinating when He went to the man at Bethesda. First of all, He went up to one man at the entire mob of this place. He went to heal one guy who had been sitting there for 38 years and He really didn't talk to anyone else who was sick or paralyzed. Just that one. I think that's important and it could be intertwined with the purpose of this man and his belief in God and His ability to heal. He's been sitting at this pool, watching people get healed (I guess I don't know if people really got healed at this pool or not), but he stayed at this pool for some reason.  I think on some level this paralyzed man believed that people could be healed, but he couldn't practice this active faith that he would be healed if he got into the water someway, somehow and be healed. Jesus literally had to come in human form, this guy gets JUST Jesus, without His disciples, and he has this conversation with JESUS to be healed. That seems like an act of Jesus' mercy, not anything this man did. 

On the other hand, we see Jesus. He's this pure, complete, perfect picture of faith. He says, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In Fact, the Father will show him even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants...." 

Faith is an active participation in aligning our tangible, physical, practical, relational, life choices and actions to the will of the Father. It's "walking the walk" I guess you could say.  Jesus got all of His power, knowledge and strength from the Father which means God the Father does everything.  We are to be little vessels of nothing so that He can accomplish what He needs through us.  That's why the last line is so important; He gives life to those He raises from the dead.  Which (unfortunately & fortunately) means, we have to die to ourself to practice faith. 

Excited to talk more about this with y'all!