Faith is believing that God is able. After placing my faith in Christ I started attending a church that in my estimation believed the Bible. I can recall the time that I did not want to attend church because I thought that it was all 'organized religion.' It was such a blessing though to be able to read the Bible and learn that Jesus is concerned about building His church. I must have read that passage in Matthew over and over again. I prayed that the Lord would show me His will in this matter of attending church. It was not long that a friend of mine (Phillip L.) invited me to attend his church. By this time I had read all of the N.T. and had a lot of questions about the religious machenery that I had forsaken. I had important questions that needed answer about the Trinity, Mary, the church, and so on. I was still reluctant to attend this church or any church for that matter. I had just gotten out of one so why even bother attending another one. I even thought that all Christian churches were the same. I expected to see a priest, I expected to partake in Communion. It was a shock when I first met the preacher. I recall shaking his hand and saying "hello, Father, my name is Billy", to which he replied "I am not a priest, I am a pastor, my name is Pastor G." I was welcomed in that church. Pastor G. preached the Bible, and some how I felt compelled to come forward. I had already been saved (trusting Christ alone for Salvation), but I just felt that I needed to make some decisions, and the altar call is what I needed. I came forward and some one took me aside and dealt with me (Gilbert P.), although he was much older than me, we become close friends and we both served the Lord. I can recall going to Pastor G.'s Bible Institute at night after high school classes. It was there I came to my spiritual teachers with a boat load of questions, and left with every one of them answered mostly with the Bible. In hearing the Word, my faith grew.

It truly is special to be able to read the Bible, and pray over it and see God answer and bless.

More about 'the dearest thing in my life is faith', later.

The dearest thing in my life is faith. Faith not merely in just anyhting, but faith that is rooted in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. It is when I exercied faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that many fundamental questions were answered. I grew up in a home that embraced a religious machenery of salvation by works, or even more specifically salvation through the sacraments. I could call it "sacaramental salvation." I am not posting this 'blog' to malign any man's religion, what gain is there in doing that? When I realized that salvation is based on a person (i.e. Jesus; see John 1:12) and not elements (e.g. bread or water) all of a sudden the "religion" shifted to a true relationship with God. Take for example baptism. In the Bible, sinners first repented of their sin, and trusted the Lord Jesus as Savior and then got baptized. Baptism is an obedient act in the part of a Christian, it was not a pre-requisit to obtain salvation, rather it was the outward manifestation of the death, burial and ressurection of the Lord, and a geniune step on the part of Christian to walk in newness of life. In essence baptism does not and cannot save, but rather 'believing' does, or faith in Jesus Christ.

I am not an advocate of a modern phenomena called 'easy prayerism' or 'easy believism' (the equivellent of 123 repeat this prayer and you'll be saved, let me bypass however true repentance, just tip your hat to Jesus). I do believe as the Scriptures teach that there is a simplicity to salvation. In essence faith in Christ, in His Person as the Divine Son of God, and in His work on the cross (death, burial and ressurection), that through repentance and faith a person can be brought to harmonious terms with God.

There are other reasons why faith is the dearest thing to me, I'll be glad to 'blog' about it some other time.