September 17, 2008

Faith

This is a repost on Faith, which I wrote before on my other blog months ago, but I thought I could use the reminder, so I'm posting it again here. (Also, if any are interested, check out the new reftagger info on my last post. You may like it? Also, please pray for me as I study Romans 5:1-11 this week/weekend. This is such an important passage, and those I'm teaching are so important to me as well. Thanks, grace to all looking to Jesus!).

"By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward." (Hebrews 11:24-26 ESV).

Faith is a strange and alien thing to a blind and fallen world. Faith sees Christ as worth the cost of separation, mistreatment, reproach, and loss of worldly wealth here and now, for something far more rewarding in the future. To the eye of faith, Christ is worth it. No faith is like no sight - it sees no worth in Christ as the only true and lasting treasure.

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith..." (Philippians 3:7-9 ESV).

Oh Lord, grant me such faith, and let all those who hope in you rejoice! Amen.

2 comments:

cj said...

Thank you so much for reposting this!

Also, that "Reftagger" thing is cool!

-cj

Penn Tomassetti said...

CJ,
You're welcome. I'm glad you read it. The reftagger is easy to use, give it a try if you like to list tons of Scripture refs (like I do ;).