the construction of faith
Sunday, October 28, 2007
well, hello.. good morning actually, i just woke up and am about to head to Macs, but
before that, i need to clear my head, and this seems to be a very pleasant avenue eh!
I was struck by the issue of building faith, aka faith building, and its something we all must work on, regardless of the amount that God places in you at the start. i cannot help but think that its a very strange building process, because the first few bricks are not laid by the person himself...
well, the first block placed is surely by God, and this chief cornerstone is called Christ Jesus(Eph 2:20) . afterall, how else can we know Him except through the very allowance of Him letting us get to know Him?
and many many times, God would seem to be silent after the first block is laid. The Chief cornerstone then allows His co-labourers(Romans 8:17) to take over. I mean, very few people wakes up one morning and says :" hey maybe today i will try to believe Jesus" and then heads on to Church right?
no, in the normal circumstances, non-christians are brought to Church because, their christian friends care for them and want to see them saved. This is a very common 'ritual', afterall, its how tons of people got saved in the Bible. who knows why God doesn't build the whole faith of that person Himself. All i know is He relies heavily on His Co-labourers.
which brings me to this point ; what exactly are His co-labourers building? you can have a really fanciful cornerstone, but if the rest of the structure is badly build, the person's faith will crumble man.
its not very fair if you think about it.. we are responsible for the building of other people's faith, and hence we have a part to play in other people's lives. and if we dont play the part well, other people loses their salvation! my gosh, that is a HEAVY HEAVY burden to bear when i think about it.
and yet God wants us to be responsible for other peoples lives..its called accountability, and He assures us we are not alone as we look out for other people(Matt 28:20).
Of course, after the christian matures, he must build his own faith Himself, so.. do your QT yah? lol. dont rely it all on the Pastors.
but at this juncture, i want to appeal to you to take up not just responsibility in cell (as you all are doing) but also take up responsibility in the lives of other people. esp, the new comers. its not possible for them to fit in by themselves, you need to build and strengthen their faith for them(to a certain extent) at this point. i will go so far as to say that they cannot do it themselves, they dont have the cability. You cannot push the job just to Cindy and I, its not going to work.. you need to be the host, and i assure you its going to worth it..painfully troublesome, but it will worth it.
so think about it, ways to build the faith of one another, esp any new comers who decides to stay, and really do it.
Will you help build your friends faith for them?
