13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
“Saying More Then We Know”
“The genius of the poet is that he says more than he knows.”
The genius of faith is that it says more than it knows - always!
God is unsearchable and incomprehensible; grace goes beyond human understanding and logic. Faith is believing more then we can ever know.
Peter was saying more then he knew when he confessed Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The words came strangely to his lips from beyond his own understanding. It is so also with us, as Luther wrote long ago: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in my Lord Jesus Christ or come to him...”
Faith is not having all the answers to the riddle of life; not never having to doubt again; or be perplexed about things; or afraid; or confused; or ever having to feel lost again. It is not a magical formula which takes away all the hurt, pain, and fear out of life.
Faith is the God given capacity to hope when all looks hopeless; laugh when much is heavy; dance when there is little reason to dance; pray when God seems far away and not tuned in. It is the God given capacity to list all the reasons why there is no God, and yet...and yet believe in God!
“Faith is a power and passion in authority among the power and passions of life.
P. T. Forsythe
It is the sure and certain hope that God is for is, not against us. No matter what!
“What If...
What if what is really important is not what we think about Jesus but what Jesus thinks about us? What if what is really important is that we let Jesus tell us who God is and who we are in God’s eyes, and let God love us with a love which will not let us go, let us down, let us off - ever!
What if the main point of it all is not that we love God but that God loves us!
How incredible this truth is!
Faith is not our doing! It is God’s doing in us.
It is more important to be doing the works of God then to be talking about them.
Our challenge is not to figure out who is saved and who isn’t. Our challenge is to let the great and precious promises of God not only live in our hearts but live in our world through us. To be who we say we are - the people of God who live by grace and want to pass it on.
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