This is part 5 of 5 in the teaching series, "Walking God's Way" by Rebecca J. Brimmer, International President and CEO of Bridges for Peace. May you be blessed by reading this teaching letter.
Spirit-filled Living
The world we live in is full of temptations, sin masquerading as normal, acceptable behavior and opportunities to compromise abound. So, God, in His wisdom, has given us the Holy Spirit to lead us and give us power to be His representatives in the midst of an evil age. Those, who are filled with the Spirit, will show fruit in their lives. Paul tells us in this passage some of the ways in which a spirit-filled person will act. It is practical advice to help us to walk in Him on a daily basis.1) We are to encourage and edify one another singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
2) We are to have a joyful heart, out of which flows spontaneous praise in song to the Lord. I love to work at the Bridges for Peace International Headquarters in Jerusalem. I have wonderful co-workers who constantly have a song of praise in their hearts. It is very common for the sounds of praise and worship to float down the halls as one or another passes through.
3) We are to be thankful for all things. Even when unpleasant, painful things happen to us, we can be thankful that God is with us in the midst of them and recognize that He is able to even bring good out of disaster.
4) We are to submit to one another in the fear of God. There is no human being without weakness. Each of us is susceptible to temptation. The wise person recognizes his area of challenge and asks others to help him. We all need to be accountable to other believers. Within our trusted circle, we need to find those with whom we can be vulnerable and transparent. We need to humbly confess our sins one to another and submit to another in the fear of the Lord.
Faith and Action
I am thankful that my Jewish friends challenge me to think about the connection between faith and practice. They probably don’t realize it, but another Jewish man, James, said similar things!“…be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving yourselves...What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” (James 1:22, 2:14–20).
My father, Dr. David Allen Lewis, used to paraphrase James’ words and say, “belief without action is deception!” Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount is grounded firmly in Jewish thought. He insists; “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
God is calling us to be doers of His Word. Let’s choose to walk in love, light, and wisdom. Let us choose to walk in fellowship with God. Faith with works will allow God’s glory to shine throughout the world.
By Rev. Rebecca J. Brimmer
International President and CEO
By Rebecca J. Brimmer
International President and CEOPhotos
www.israelimages.com/Hanan Isachar
All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version unless otherwise noted.
© 2010
Bridges for Peace holds the copyright on this material. We encourage pastors, Bible teachers, and lay people to use these articles for preaching and teaching, and we hereby grant permission for a limited number of copies for such educational purposes. However, any other reproduction or transmittal of this material in any form—including reprinting, republishing, recording or use with any information storage and retrieval system—requires written permission from BFP International.
Bridges for Peace holds the copyright on this material. We encourage pastors, Bible teachers, and lay people to use these articles for preaching and teaching, and we hereby grant permission for a limited number of copies for such educational purposes. However, any other reproduction or transmittal of this material in any form—including reprinting, republishing, recording or use with any information storage and retrieval system—requires written permission from BFP International.
For the full version of this teaching letter please visit www.bridgesforpeace.com or click on the link provided
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