Jesus Fellowship: Do you have FAITH? 11/15/15

Day 318

Today's Song:

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https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/Heb.11

Hebrews 11:1-19

Faith in Action
11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[c] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

Supplied Life Devotional by Bill Freeman

Organic, life oneness November 15th

“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect into one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” JOHN 17:23
The organic oneness between believers is revealed in the Lord’s prayer in John 17. In verse 21 He prayed, “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” Here the Lord is praying for the oneness of all who would believe on Him through the apostles’ word (John 17:20). In His prayer to the Father He specifies the nature of the believers’ oneness — “That they also may be one in Us” or “That they also may be in Us.” (The latter translation is according to some of the oldest Greek manuscripts.)
In verse 22 the Lord continues praying, “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.” This part of the prayer again specifies the nature of the believers’ oneness — it is a oneness that is directly related to the oneness between the Father and the Son. Furthermore, in verse 23 He utters exactly how we are one. In other words, to be “one just as We are one” means in reality “I in them, and You in Me.” This is how we are one — one in the oneness of the Father and the Son! This oneness is the Son Himself indwelling us (“I in them”), and thereby bringing in His oneness with the Father (“You in Me”). This is an organic, life-oneness. It is this oneness entering into us as the gift of eternal life (John 17:2-3) that causes us to be made perfect into one.
According to the Greek text, the word “perfect” in John 17:23 is a perfect passive participle and may be translated more literally, “that they may be in a state of perfection.” This means that when eternal life enters into us in the Person of the Son of God, a perfect state of oneness enters into us. It is simply the “I in them, and You in Me” that creates and establishes the oneness of believers with Christ, the Head, and all the members of His Body. It is being grafted into an organic oneness (John 15:4-5). In this way the church is Christ — by an organic, life union with the Head, who is supplying every part of Himself with His life (Eph. 5:28-30).

Pray Until Something Happens (PUSH)

Anna, Ariana, Ariel, Georgie, Linnette, Wes, and Zoe.