{{2015_11_17_t1.jpg}} {{2015_11_17_t2.jpg}} {{2015_11_17_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2015_11_17|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_vii|| Topics Collection vii ]] ======Faith Steps I: Status Report ...====== Tuesday, Nov 17, 2015. What is the status of your faith today? Where are you with faith? Let us take a moment and think about faith, and about where we are with our own personal faith! And let us think towards faith steps, and perhaps do some, move forward in faith and with faith ... {{2015_11_17.jpg }} **Where am I? ...** I might be far from faith, thinking that God does not exist and that all religion is an illusion. Today, we have a significant portion of contemporaries which follow the religion of atheism - which they usually would not call a religion. Being an atheist, with some of them strong fighters for their faith, this is a particular status with respect to faith. But I can also be far from faith when I follow ideas which do not fit God. There are people who follow the ideal of "good life" and think that they will come into heaven because of what they do and how they live. When you compare this attitude to the faith which we find in the bible, you quickly see that it does not fit together, that the apostles and Jesus himself even oppose this attitude. Justification in the bible is by faith only, not by idealistic lifestyle. Some people think that there is a God, but they do not know God. Others think they know how or who God is - different religions have their own idea, and even within Christianity we might find some differences of our perception and ideas of who God is. On the other hand, we find a broad joint understanding of the grace of Christ in almost all Christian churches (even if church life itself and the role of the church is debated heatedly). {{ 2015_11_17_2.jpg}} **Grace in my heart ...** Did the grace of God reach your heart already? Is the grace of God, which comes in Christ Jesus, in my own heart? That is a very important question, the question of "do I have Christian faith following the New Testament"? All other faith will not help you, that is the Christian message. The faith which is based on the grace of God in Christ will save you, it will bring you new life and open you the door to God and his kingdom. The apostle John writes: 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6, 40) So it is good with starting to investigate our own faith. I should investigate my personal faith and see if I stand on solid ground. The only solid ground I know is the grace of God in Christ Jesus. When I believe in him, when I build my life on him, when I trust and know that he alone saves me, I am on save ground. Giving my life into his hands is the best I can do. Following him is good, leading to blessing for myself and my whole environment. Faith needs to be faith in Christ, nothing else. Here is our source and our destination. Where does your faith stand? (RWEP) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_vii|... more texts]]