Is your belief enough?

Is your belief enough?
BQ: I studied with a young lady who said, "Well I believe and I go to church sometimes and I love God, I'm going to heaven." 

Q: Is your belief enough? If you're devout and you pray, is that enough?
A: Acts 10:2; 11:14, Jms 2:19

Cornelius was called, "a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually." Certainly that's better than many lukewarm Christians today, who go to church on occasion, but was it enough? It was not. We see that he was told, "and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household." 

You see, James says that "even the demons believe and shudder." Being devout, praying, believing, those are parts of the recipe for eternal life, but they don't grant eternal life by themselves. Do you know what does? Where is your eternity headed? Cornelius wasn't yet saved even with all his great traits--are you? How do you know? 
(PN94)
 

What SHOULD come from belief?

If you believe…
BQ: I like John 3:16 which says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 

Let me ask you a question. You're in a theater. An usher comes in and says, "There's a fire." You believe him. Yep, smells like smoke. Do you exit the building? Do you listen to the rest of what he says, instructing you to exit the building? Do you obey those instructions? Or do you nod happily and think, "Glad I'm not in danger now," and then go back to watching the movie? 

Q: What does belief lead to?
A: "Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith.  According to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith." (Rom 1:5; 16:25-26) 

"Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?" (Rom 6:16)

Sin is missing the mark God sets forth. If we truly believe that usher, we're going to obey and hit the mark he sets forth, which results in life. Look at John 3:16 again. The proper translation is "should not." It's conditional; it's qualified negation. If you believe that usher, you shouldn't perish, but you still can if you choose to do nothing. 
(PN121)
 

So you believe, but do you obey?

So you believe, but do you obey?
BQ: So you believe, but do you obey in what you do? This is important to consider.

Q: How much obedience do you show to God? Do you rely on your belief? Is your belief enough without good obedience? When is belief enough?

A:  We'll start off with James 2. "What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?" (14) You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. (19) You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. (24) For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (26)"

"As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, THEN you are truly disciples of Mine." (John 8:30-31)
The people believed in Jesus, but they had to do more than just that. They had to continue in His word. 

Faith is a necessary foundation. Now that we have the rock and have the foundation laid, let's build something wondrous that leads to eternal life. 
(PN136)

Sons of God

Sons of God.
BQ: Often I hear that we need to become sons of God by just believing in Jesus. The Bible addresses this. What do you think it says? We'll look at a verse and pay careful attention to the wording. 

A: "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name." (John 1:11-12)

Notice that believing and receiving do not make one a child of God. They open up that option, however, and that's why it says that we have the RIGHT to become children of God. There are still conditions to be met, or everyone would make it to heaven by default. 

Credit for the idea for this BQ goes to Brian Howard. 
(PN231)

Dumb as mud?

Dumb as mud?
BQ: One of my friends said, "you'd have to be dumb as mud to believe in God." Another person said, "science has made religion obsolete." Richard Dawkins claimed, "If children understand that beliefs should be substantiated with evidence, as opposed to tradition, authority, revelation or faith, they will automatically work out for themselves that they are atheists." Are these things true? Does becoming a scientist change one into an atheist? 

A: Francis Collins headed the human genome project and is the current director of the National Institutes of Health. During the HGP, science convinced him that his atheism was misguided, and proved to him that God was real. His predecessor, Jim Watson, who also worked on the project, remained an atheist. 

Both being top-level scientists, we can see that there is a divide, but it is not in their science, which was the same. It is theism vs atheism; there are scientists on both sides. As my former medical director once said, "Med school proved to me that there was a God, though it was trying to do the opposite." 

Saying that intelligent, well educated people cannot believe in God is nothing more than an Emperor's new clothes argument—surely you see them, right? But be careful, because it works both ways! Belief systems often come about as a result of peer pressure, but they shouldn't. 
(PN221)