Faith, Hope and Love

This book by Dr. Christensen is a Trilogy of his earlier books on those same three topics. FAITH: I suspect we all go through life wondering, what is faith? From the time we are just infants we have to believe for and have faith for all sorts of things. Will mother remember to feed me? Will I get picked up out of my crib today? To all sorts of things from that moment on. As we get instruction about God and our relationship with God, we then get to be a bit like the original disciples who made the statement to Jesus about increasing our faith. In Romans 10:8 we see the statement, "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is the word of faith that we preach". But what is faith? In talking about it in the spiritual or religious realm, we are talking about having faith in God. If we say we have faith in God, are we really saying we can lay our lives down for God? To have complete faith in what he says, he will do? Total dependence on God just as when we were babies, we had total dependence on our mothers or fathers. So, now, if we have confessed Jesus as our Lord and Savior, are we willing to be obedient to His every command? Is that where faith begins? HOPE: Our hope is in fervently and completely trusting our Lord. In the 3rd Psalm, King David is fleeing from Absalom, his son who is out to slay him. Now, that is one serious circumstance which I am sure all of us can agree would cause discouragement and despair. David makes a number of statements in that Psalm which can give us hope, when it seems there is no hope. LOVE: The Bible has a great deal to say about Love and if we were to review the message and ministry of Jesus Christ, we would find the central theme has to do with love. It basically has to do with loving God and then loving your neighbor as yourself. Sounds easy doesn't? But it will likely take your whole life in your attempt to fulfill that command of the Lord.