{{2016_06_21_t1.jpg}} {{2016_06_21_t2.jpg}} {{2016_06_21_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2016_06_21|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_viii|| Topics Collection viii ]] ======Genuine Faith ...====== Tuesday, June 21, 2016. When do you trust a friend? True friendship will not believe that the friend did give up the friendship, even if it appears to be the case. True friendship believes in the friend to be a friend, what ever happens. Then, anything can be seen as a support of the friendship! It will only grow, what ever happens. Friends are faithful! {{2016_06_21.jpg }} **Genuine ...** When is our faith genuine? It is genuine if it is pure. It is genuine if it is patient. It is genuine if it is full of passion, full of love, full of truth. Christian faith is about community with the Lord through the holy spirit. It is about a life filled with him. How do you describe it best? I am tempted to say: you need to experience it, it is just fantastic. How would you describe a symphony to someone who does not know it? If he knows other music, you can use this as a comparison. If he does not know any other symphony, it is difficult. Of course we know human love. We know human truth. We know human spirit. And we can use images from our world, from our childhood, from our environment. Jesus does this. But still, God is different. He is better, deeper, clearer, brighter, ... There is so much in and behind Christin faith. Sometimes people think it is just an opinion. Or they think it is about ideals or ethics. It touches ethics, of course. But it is about much more, about the living God, about Jesus Christ, about the holy spirit. It is about our life, about what we are, what we think and feel and do. It is about everything in this creation. How could it be less? {{ 2016_06_21_2.jpg}} **Trials ...** We live in a world which to a large extent is separated from God. They do not know him, his love, his purity, his truth. But those who know him can focus on him. They can take from his purity and his light, every day, every hour, every minute. Listen to the first letter which Peter wrote to the church: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1) Why are we tested? It is just a part of the life in this world. We live in faith, not in sight. We see a lot, yes. There is evidence and insight enough to build faith, to come to faith, to live in faith, to be full of faith. But it remains faith, it cannot be different. Trust always needs this risk, this jump into the unknown. How could you live without trust? You would loose all what life is worth! This is one of the reasons why faith is the door to heaven. Heaven is made out of faith, out of love, out of trust -- it is its main material! (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_viii|... more texts]]