Articles
Check The Foundation of Your Faith
Barbara L. Klika, MSW, Undershepherd, Life Coach
September 2017
Written for Wisconsin Christian Newspaper
Last month, I left you with the question of what the path back to His righteousness looks like for us today. The hour is late and the need is urgent so I write boldly. First, it involves an assessment of the foundation of our faith. Becoming a believer in Messiah Yeshua/Jesus Christ is so much more than just knowledge or intellectual assent! It is more than becoming a member of a church body or imitating what other believers do. All of these things are centered in our flesh and in our mind, will and emotions which is our soul. As Messiah Yeshua told Nicodemus, it is being born from above, not going again into your mother’s womb in a physical sense. That which is flesh is only flesh, but that which is of spirit is spirit. One cannot either see or enter into the Kingdom of Heaven without being born anew of the spirit. (John 3:3-6)
If one professes belief because of flesh based motivation, such as feeling sorry for the trials Yeshua went through, or because it is what our family has always done, or perhaps out of a desire to be identified with a prestigious church, it is not an experience of being born from above, but of a modification of the soul understanding. There is no authority or spiritual power in it. Some people use the term “carnal Christian.” (Carnal being of Latin derivative, meaning flesh.)
Anyone who has seriously studied His Word and chosen to walk after Him likely knows how high the standard is set and how difficult, impossible really, it is to meet that standard just in the strength of our flesh/soul.
Yet our God is not cruel that He would set a standard that is impossible for us to reach. (Deuteronomy 30:11-12) He made a way through the obedience of Messiah Yeshua to not only show the way, but to BE the way back to Him.
If we try, under only our soulish motivation, to walk after Messiah, we will fail. Some of us are quite stubborn and determined that we CAN do it! Or perhaps we are thinking that it is too small a matter, that we shouldn’t “bother God” with our concerns, but rather buck up and make it so ourselves. Some get through this effort rather quickly, and see that it can’t be done without His indwelling Presence, but many try to go it alone their whole lives. In my Lutheran background and where I stand today, I know there are those who do walk after Messiah through the indwelling Presence of His Spirit. I also have seen far too many who are content in knowing that they are outwardly doing just what their relatives have always done, content with a form of Godliness, but without His power and authority.
Examine your belief prayerfully and intently. What is the foundation?
sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL
CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the
testimony of two or three witnesses. Hebrews 10:26-28
Check_the_foundation_of_your_faith_sept_17_WCN.pdf