Live by FAITH!

“Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”

-2 Corinthians 5:1, NIV

As believers, we must know that life here on earth is just like a small period compared to that in eternity. The truth is God just let us experience this life in flesh for the preparation of what is about to come. This earth is not really our home, just like what Paul said in the above verse when he compared this planet to a “tent”. Only our flesh is what belong to this world, for we came from dust, but our soul came from the breath of God, which shows that our real home is in God.

God entrusted us this life on earth to see if we would be obedient to Him. This serves as our test before we enter eternity. Now that answers why problems and temptations enters our life! All of these happened so that we would be prepared before the eternity comes. But only those people who would pass this test, I believe, would be the only ones who would be granted with eternal life. This means that we should not be relaxed in this life, and we must take this seriously. We must not think that this earth is our real home, for this planet will pass away.

What should we do so that we would not be attached from this world?

“Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.”

-2 Corinthians 5:6-7, NIV

It’s not that easy for a man to lose his attachment to this world, for his body came from it. But we must know that only our body came from this world. It is this world and our flesh that separates us from God. So if we want to come back to God again, where our soul came from, then we must stop living by the human standards. In human standards, we live by what we see. But by God’s standards, we live by believing in Him.

So if we don’t want to be attached from this world, then we must live by the spirit, and not by the flesh. We must live by faith, in Him who created us, and not by what we see, which only man has created. We must set our eyes with an eternity with God as our goal. Only by this, that we would remove our bond with this earthly tent.


Original link for the photo: http://thesaintmarcus.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/faithsign.jpg

Beware of the false gods!

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God.”

-2 Corinthians 4:4, NIV

Though there are many religions existing today that talks about Christ, we still cannot say if all their members are “real believers”. It could be because that the other gods that exists in our generation is blocking them from knowing the real and only living God. Being a member of a religion that believes in Christ doesn’t mean that you’re already a real believer. Most of the time, these religions only becomes a label to the people, for they believe more and follow on other gods more than the real God, Himself.

So what/who could be the god/s of this generation that blocks men from knowing the real God? For me, I believe that these gods could be in any form that a man idolizes. For example, a man who is hooked into pornography. This man spends all of his time and money watching porn. This man has now made pornography his god, for it blocks him and blinded him from knowing the real God. Another example is the love of money. A man who loves money disregards all of Christ’s teachings, especially on giving to the poor. His love for money blocks him from knowing the real God. There still are many other gods that exists in this generation, but these few examples gives us the picture on why many are blinded from the light of the gospel.

So with these many false gods that exists in this generation, is there anything we could do so that we would not be blinded by them?

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

-2 Corinthians 4:6, NIV

Now for us believers who were already taken out by God from the darkness into the light of the gospel of Christ, we must guard ourselves so that we would not be taken back by the gods of this generation. Now that our eyes are widely opened, we must not let ourselves be taken back to blindness. We must stand firm and be strong to our faith, set our eyes and our heart to the gospel of Christ.

Like what Paul has said on the verse above, this light of the knowledge of God’s glory that is displayed through Christ will keep us away from being pulled back into darkness. With this knowledge of Christ, by being consumed by the Word of God, we will always be on guard from every false god of this generation. Thanks be to God that He has given us the knowledge of Christ. Amen.


Original link for the photo: http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel//universe3zx/images/thumb/4/4f/Blindfold442.jpg/406px-Blindfold442.jpg