Hi Phil,

Lesson one is fantastic.  I loved it.  My brain is a bit scrambled 
and, as you can see, I am pushing myself just a bit to get somewhat caught up.


IN HIS MATCHLESS NAME,

purple Mari



At 10:00 PM 5/13/2007, you wrote:
>The Force Of Faith
>
>
>By Phil Scovell
>
>
>
>
>
>
>                           INTRODUCTION
>
>                             Luke 17:5
>
>And the Apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
>
>      The Greek word for "increase" in this verse means (add to,
>join to, gather to, or to collect).
>
>
>ILLUSTRATION.
>
>      My mother-in-law, she has been in Heaven for many years now,
>use to raise over 25,000 chickens a year on the Iowa farm on which
>my wife was raised as a child.  Most of the chickens were
>purchased as chicks, raised to a certain age, and then sold.  On
>the other hand, Mildred kept hundreds around for sitting hens.
>That means, therefore, she had lots of eggs to gather each day.
>She used a single basket.  That's right.  A single basket that
>would hold at least 150 eggs.  She would gather that many before
>transferring the eggs to cartons and repeating the process.  I can
>hear someone saying, "That sounds risky."  Not as far as Mildred
>was concerned.
>
>      I thought of this one day when considering faith.  Perhaps
>the most earthy definition of faith I could think of would be
>"Putting all your eggs in one basket; God's."  Indeed, such is the
>nature of faith.  It is in one basket and if that basket isn't
>God's, your faith is misplaced.
>
>
>DISCIPLESHIP.
>
>We are no different than the disciples.  We all want our
>businesses to prosper, our children and grandchildren to live
>right and Godly, and we want to pay our bills on time.  We don't
>want to be sick, contract cancer or any other deadly disease, and
>we desire a long healthy life.  If you are normal, you likely
>could add about a thousand more such things to this list.  So, if
>we break it down to one request we could make of God and be
>assured Jesus would grant that one wish, then I am certain we all
>would ask the same of our Lord as did His disciples; "Increase our
>faith."
>
>      There is only one problem with the request the disciples made
>of the Lord; He did not increase there faith.  If you recall, when
>they came and asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he did so.  Now,
>when they want their faith increased, the Lord launched off into a
>story about comparing a tiny mustard seed to a giant mountain.
>I'm sure the disciples were as confused as I was upon reading the
>context of this story.
>
>      When it comes to faith, we have a problem.  At least, we as
>Christians have a problem.  Most likely, because our Lord used
>terms in His ministry such as "Great faith," and "Little faith,"
>and "No faith," the teaching of faith by Charismatics and
>Pentecostals has been, therefore, reduced to faith in degrees, or
>stages, or measurements of strength, or levels, or plateaus upon
>which we climb higher and higher until we reach God.  almost
>sounds like the Tower of Babel there for a minute.  I've even
>heard sermon illustrations used to explain how faith was like
>lifting weights.  The more you practice and exercise, the stronger
>you get.
>
>      This also puts me in mind of something very similar to how
>faith works.  It is, unfortunately, just another erroneous
>Biblical teaching on faith which explains that faith works by
>practicing and practicing and practicing.  For example, you aren't
>aloud to start out with the big things such as death or the dying,
>or cancer or brain tumors, and especially big things like
>blindness or mental illnesses or mental retardation.  Are all
>those the same thing, perhaps?  Being blind myself, I know that
>one is wrong.  Anyhow, you begin with little things such as a hang
>nail.  Of course, if you leave it alone, the hang nail is going to
>eventually heal itself but perhaps you get credit for praying
>about it.  Next comes headaches.  Let's practice on those
>migraines, or maybe we should just go for the stress or sinus
>headaches.  Migraines is a pretty big leap of faith for most of
>us right off the bat.  Once you have graduated from these "lower
>levels" of faith, you will be ready for the big time.  There's
>only one little problem with this false teaching.  It's wrong!
>How do I know?  Let's say you just learned you have a brain tumor
>the size of a grapefruit in the center of your head and it is
>growing an inch every month.  They give you two months to live.
>Before then, you will lose all control of your entire body.  Even
>your eye lids will be too weak to remain opened near the end.
>Question.  How are you going to get all that faith practicing done
>before you die?  No, you see, Jesus wasn't talking about degrees
>or levels or stages of faith.  He was talking about what people
>believed.  Even His own disciple got it wrong.  They wanted Jesus
>to add to their faith by gathering more and more things of a
>spiritual nature together, such as miracles, raising of the dead,
>opening of blind eyes, and casting out of demons, in order that
>their faith, not His, could do great things.  Admirable but
>misplaced.
>
>      Here is a strange verse in the Bible worth your
>consideration.  It is Matthew 13:58.
>
>"And he did not many mighty works there because of their
>unbelief."
>
>      doesn't that bother you just a little?  It does me, or it
>did, until I realized what was being taught.  I'm not teaching on
>the interpretation of this verse at the moment but in relationship
>to faith, I thought it was a brain puzzler and worth your time to
>at least ponder in light of our study under present
>consideration.  Need I point out, it does not say that Jesus did
>few miracles there because of their lack of faith?  Think about
>it.  Oh, by the way.  "mighty works" in the Greek is the word for
>miracles.
>
>      Let me take you a step further by pointing out another
>interesting fact.  The word used by the King James translators for
>"faith" is used 244 times throughout the entire New Testament.  In
>John's Gospel, however, it is never used a single time.  How could
>that be possible?  John was the disciple whom Jesus loved.  John
>wrote in great detail on eight different miracles which Jesus did.
>Furthermore, John concludes his Gospel record by confessing that
>if he had taken the time to write about everything Jesus did,
>including all of his miracles, the world could not even contain
>the volumes of books.  Wow!  what a library that would be.
>That's a lot of miracles in three and a half years.  Yet, John
>said it was true and he was an eye witness.  So, did John just
>forget the word "faith" was something he should have used when
>talking about Jesus and our Lord's miraculous works?  I don't
>think so.  Unless, of course, you don't believe all Scripture is
>inspired of God.  No, John was not being negligent, he was proving
>a point.  Although the word "faith" never once appears in His
>Gospel account, the word "believe," or various forms of it, are
>used 100 times.  I wonder what believing has to do with faith?
>Are they the same thing, as some suggest, or do they have
>different meanings?
>
>
>
>                              OUTLINE
>
>
>      Here will be the outline I will be following in lessons to
>come.
>
>I.    The Origin Of Faith.
>II.   The Operation Of Faith.
>III.  The Opposite Of Faith.
>IV.   The Object Of Your Faith.
>V.    The Open Door Of Faith.
>
>end Of Lesson One.
>
>
>It Sounds Like God To Me.
>www.SafePlaceFellowship.com
>