F.R.O.G. (Faith)

On my last post I wrote about ushering in Christ into our heart and lives. I spoke about the parade and how I watched people ushering in Santa Claus into their lives for the holiday season and how we should do that, and more, to usher in Christ. I gave you an acronym for it and called it F.R.O.G. Faith, Repentance, Obedience, and Gratitude. I am going to break down these four areas on this post and the following three. It is that important and it is good for us to hear over and over again. The first letter if F so we will begin with faith. I have written about faith before but God reveals more and more to me as I grow. So some of this you will have heard before and some of this will be new.
The basic premise behind faith is trust. Faith is the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true. Notice that does not in itself make the statement true. You just believe it to be true. There is a good or proper faith and then there is bad or improper faith. Faith in what is false and faith in what is truth. Both are faith, but one is saving faith and the other leads to wickedness and hell. Faith alone does not save us from an eternal hell. It must be a faith that believes that no one comes to the Father but through Jesus the son. It must be a faith that believes that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It must be a faith that believes that not by works can anyone enter into the kingdom but by the works of Christ Jesus and Him paying our penalty on the cross can we have eternal life. One could have all the faith in the world that if he does enough good deeds or just takes communion once a month that he will go to heaven. But that kind of faith will send you to hell. No matter how much you believe it is true it does not make it true.
Blind faith can be a fatal mistake.
Faith must be directly accompanied with knowledge. Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 says yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. If one did not know that that verse was in the Bible then they may believe that works can save them. So you can see that without knowledge, faith can be very dangerous and I believe that is why there are so many odd beliefs and faiths out there today. We have to test everything with the Word and if it does not line up then don’t put any faith in it. Romans 10:17 says So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
Now that we know the difference between good faith and bad faith, or at least how to identify it. Lets go a little further. Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Once you have identified what you should have faith in, you need to grab hold of it and not let go. Believe in it like your life depends on it. It is our faith (in the right things) that shields us from the enemy’s darts. Ephesians 6:16
So if we want to start ushering in Christ we need to work on our knowledge of the word so we know what to believe and know what to have faith in.
FAITH IS THE VICTORY

F.R.O.G.

Over the Christmas holiday my family and I had the “privilege” of attending the local Christmas parade. We sat, with the sun in our eyes and sweat dripping down our faces for over 30 minutes before the parade even began so that we could get a good seat. Then came the parade, which started with all of our elected officials kind of giving their stamp of approval of the parade. Next coming up the road are beauty queens and princesses all being driven in very expensive shiny automobiles. Then came the marching bands playing joyful Christmas music followed by some local churches trying to remind people of the real meaning of Christmas. Also there were some local benevolent type organizations and local businesses. Almost all facets of our community were represented in one manner or another all appearing to give their “stamp of approval” of the parade.
As I sat there watching all the floats go by enjoying some, not so much others, the end was almost there with the only thing left being the loud fire trucks and the Santa. We decided we would leave to avoid the traffic jam. As we walked away I turned around and I saw all the people waving, yelling and happy almost praising because Santa was finally there and I realized the entire parade was designed to usher Santa into our lives for the Christmas season. We (as a town) put out our very best people, cars, music, fire trucks etc. into ushering Santa into our lives. It got me to thinking. What would our town be like if we all ushered Christ into our lives like we usher Santa into our lives.
Of course you can’t usher Christ into your life the same way you would usher Santa. Santa is about materialism. Christ is about spiritualism. You have nothing to display or even to offer God that is worthy of Him “showing up” in your life. Even Paul who was living what seemed to be an almost perfect life for God had nothing to give that was worthy. He had to give up his position, his wealth, and his career.
So how do we usher in Christ? I’ve come up with an acronym, which will hopefully help us remember. We need to hop right out and do this so I’ve named it F.R.O.G..

Faith / Repentance / Obedience / Gratefulness

So for the next four posts I will go into these four areas in an attempt to learn and teach others how to usher Christ into our lives. I will expound on these areas as God leads me. Not to exhaust their meaning but so as to give us knowledge in these areas so that we can develop a proper relationship with Christ in every part of our lives.