Origin of Faith

I have written a few post on this blog that touched briefly on the origin of faith. You can find some brief faith talk in the comments of “Do Southern Baptist Believe in Predestination?” and “Faith is the key“. Please keep in mind as you read the babblings of this sinner that I am growing in the truth by the grace of God each day. I often look back at my posts and wonder why I wrote some of things I did, but it is also reassuring to read these posts as evidence of a growing relationship with a gracious redeemer. I hope that you will continue to read as I attempt to share with you what I believe is the true origin of faith and more specifically “faith in Christ”.

Lets start with the salvation equation:

Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

I think that pretty well sums up how individuals are saved (become a Christian). I think we can all agree that the above equation has a conversion prerequisite. We know people aren’t born believing and confessing. We know that there was obviously a time when they were not believing and confessing, which is why the act of believing and confessing Christ is so special when it happens. It represents a change of heart. There is a difference in the person. So I think it is safe to say that some type of conversion has happened in the individual’s heart to bring about believing and confessing. So why did they start believing and confessing? Why did they put their faith in Christ? One minute we have a sinner on the path to hell and the next minute we have a believing and confessing Christian on the path to righteousness and full of faith. Where did the faith come from?

Faith is possessed by Man and provided by God:

Faith is possessed by man, however he does not have the ability as a sinful creature to create it within himself (Romans 3:10-18). We read in Hebrews 12:2 that Jesus is “the author and perfecter of faith”. You will also read in in Acts 14:27 that God “opened a door of faith to the Gentiles”. These verses show that Faith comes from God. Paul makes this very clear to us in Romans 12:3.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.’

Paul said “Grace Given me” and “Faith God has given you”. Grace and Faith our given by God. Salvation is given by God. We see the words “Grace”, “Faith”, and “Saved” in Ephesians 2:8-9 where we see that these things are a gift from god, not of ourselves, so that no man may boast. It is important to understand that we are all children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-7). We are all of darkness and darkness cannot create light within itself. Light must shine into a dark space to light it up (John 1:1-5 , 1 John 2:8-11).

True mercy and grace can only exist in a state of complete helplessness. If salvation through faith was as simple as a choice, then we would be helping ourselves. Faith comes from God.

Update: February 2008

A quick update:

• We are still living in Kansas City
• I got promoted to Interim Director of Information Technology at my company. Now I got to get that “Interim” removed.
• The Lockman Foundation granted Bibleshark.com the right to use the New American Standard Bible and the Amplified Bible
• I actually completed my first Masters class in the MSIS program at Nova and I am on to the next one.
• Kassa and I spent our 11th Valentines Day together….yep…Still in Love
• We are leaving for a much needed vacation in San Francisco in 2 weeks
• I am reading 3 books simultaneously and slowly
  • The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
  • The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel
  • The Attributes of GOD by Arthur W. Pink
  • Next on the list: Southern Baptists and the Doctrine of Election by Robert B. Selph

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Opera Files Antitrust Suit Against Microsoft

I really hope this gains some ground. I know the dev geeks are all sick and tired of Microsoft strong-arming with IE. I have to admit that IE7 was a little better in regards to web standards and the ease of cross-browser compatibility. However, they are still throwing their weight around.

Opera Files EU Antitrust Suit Against Microsoft

Openswitch Review of Bibleshark.com

I wanted to write a short post to thank Ben over at Openswitch for his honest review of our phase 1 release of Bibleshark.com. Ben is truly a Christian Geek and thus we felt like he would be a great person to review the site. We do appreciate the time that he spent and his honest feedback.