How Can I Please God
"The word substance comes from a Latin prefix - Sub which means "under" and the verb "staré." Meaning "to stand." The word literally means "something upon which you stand" or "something to stand on." In other words, it is a foundation. Faith in God is foundational to pleasing God. Faith is something that is solid. The New Living translation says it this way, 'What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.' (Hebrews 11: 1, NLT)
"Faith sees the future as guaranteed in the present. This is important for you to understand. Faith is not believing something in spite of what you think is true. It is believing something because of what you know is real. Real faith is based on fact although it is different from fact.
"There is a difference between fact and faith. It is a fact that you are sitting in these chairs. It is a fact that I am standing here speaking to you, but it is only by faith that I believe any of you are listening to me. The Greek word behind that word substance literally means "a legal guarantee." In other words, faith is the legal guarantee that what God says is going to happen is going to happen. Faith does not say, "One day I'm going to get it." Faith says, "I already have it." Let me give you this illustration. As a Christian, I am not waiting to get into heaven to believe that heaven is there. By faith I know I am going to heaven as if I were already there."
Dr. Merritt's message are available on CD at Touching Lives.
$ 5.50
file types included: 
Keywords: faith, fact, hope, hebrews, salvation, assurance
Comments:
Login to post comments