"Your Faith Will Show Evidence!"
By Rob Bailes
When I was in my late 20's I was taking a class so that I would be able to move up to a Paramedic position with a local volunteer rescue squad. I liked being able to help others through this service and had been taking the classes to get to a full time position with the County. One of the requirements of becoming a Paramedic was that we must spend so many hours as a volunteer in the emergency room to get a better understanding of what the procedures and prodicals are in the ER. Working as a volunteer in the ER is not something that we looked forward to, but it had to be done or else you couldn't become certified.
It was about seven o'clock when we were informed that someone was on the way with a code blue. It was a man in his late fifties and had suffered a heart attack. The rescue squad was performing CPR on him when they brought him into the ER and they took him into a room where they continued until the doctor came, at which time they tried shocking him twice with no change. They verified that he had been laying in the shower when he was found and that he had no pulse. Then the doctor asked how long the had been performing CPR and they verified 20 plus minutes. They the doctor looked into the man's eyes and saw that his eyes had begun to change. When a person dies and their spirit leaves the body, the eyes actually begin to glaze over and there is a certain look that comes over them. The signs of life are all we have to go by when we finally declare someone void of life. You know when someone is dead when they no longer have a pulse, when they no longer respond to our voice or touch, when their body is motionless, when their eyes do not respond to light and when their lungs no longer struggled to take another breath. It was at that moment of death that all of the evidence of life vanished in an instant! The spirit was no longer present showing the evidence of life.
Just as this man had been so alive and full of all of these things that are signs of life, we too have signs in our life to prove that our faith is real and alive. You see, it is spelled out for us all in the gospel of James that we will know when our faith is alive! James compares the body without the spirit to our faith without the works or deeds that prove it is alive and exists within our hearts.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Let me ask you an obvious question, but don't laugh; think about this for a minute. How would you know if your husband or wife were alive? How would you be able to tell if a newborn baby was alive and healthy? How can we tell if our child is alive when they lay sleeping? Aren't there signs that give us the comfort that they are alive and well?
It is the same when our Heavenly Father looks down on us as His adopted children in the family of God. He sees our signs of life! The life that gives him a peace of knowing we are alive in Him through our Faith. It is our faith that causes us to live a life that is glorifying to Him.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Christ is the hope that lies within all who believe in Him and who accept His grace and mercy so freely given, that allows our lost state of sin to be covered with His purity and blessings. When faith is alive in you and I; just as the answers to my questions seemed so obvious; the evidence will also be obvious to all who see us and they will know that our lives shine forth with that hope that they long to find as well. Take a moment and search your heart and your life for the signs of faith alive in you.
This is a time for us to not only focus on our heart; but also on our actions and deeds to see if we would be declared dead or alive in our faith in Christ.
If you find yourself without the evidence of faith alive, I urge you to take the time today to accept your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into your life and to repent to Him for whatever is holding you back from the blessings of faith alive in you! He will freely forgive without conditions, without hesitation, with open arms! God loves us and gave His on begotten Son that we might have life and not just life, but to have life even more abundantly!
John 10:7-11
7 Then said Jesus unto them again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
10 The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep."
Our world will be a totally different place, if we all would be able to say, like Paul in 1Corinthians 15:10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. "
By Rob Bailes
When I was in my late 20's I was taking a class so that I would be able to move up to a Paramedic position with a local volunteer rescue squad. I liked being able to help others through this service and had been taking the classes to get to a full time position with the County. One of the requirements of becoming a Paramedic was that we must spend so many hours as a volunteer in the emergency room to get a better understanding of what the procedures and prodicals are in the ER. Working as a volunteer in the ER is not something that we looked forward to, but it had to be done or else you couldn't become certified.
It was about seven o'clock when we were informed that someone was on the way with a code blue. It was a man in his late fifties and had suffered a heart attack. The rescue squad was performing CPR on him when they brought him into the ER and they took him into a room where they continued until the doctor came, at which time they tried shocking him twice with no change. They verified that he had been laying in the shower when he was found and that he had no pulse. Then the doctor asked how long the had been performing CPR and they verified 20 plus minutes. They the doctor looked into the man's eyes and saw that his eyes had begun to change. When a person dies and their spirit leaves the body, the eyes actually begin to glaze over and there is a certain look that comes over them. The signs of life are all we have to go by when we finally declare someone void of life. You know when someone is dead when they no longer have a pulse, when they no longer respond to our voice or touch, when their body is motionless, when their eyes do not respond to light and when their lungs no longer struggled to take another breath. It was at that moment of death that all of the evidence of life vanished in an instant! The spirit was no longer present showing the evidence of life.
Just as this man had been so alive and full of all of these things that are signs of life, we too have signs in our life to prove that our faith is real and alive. You see, it is spelled out for us all in the gospel of James that we will know when our faith is alive! James compares the body without the spirit to our faith without the works or deeds that prove it is alive and exists within our hearts.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Let me ask you an obvious question, but don't laugh; think about this for a minute. How would you know if your husband or wife were alive? How would you be able to tell if a newborn baby was alive and healthy? How can we tell if our child is alive when they lay sleeping? Aren't there signs that give us the comfort that they are alive and well?
It is the same when our Heavenly Father looks down on us as His adopted children in the family of God. He sees our signs of life! The life that gives him a peace of knowing we are alive in Him through our Faith. It is our faith that causes us to live a life that is glorifying to Him.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Christ is the hope that lies within all who believe in Him and who accept His grace and mercy so freely given, that allows our lost state of sin to be covered with His purity and blessings. When faith is alive in you and I; just as the answers to my questions seemed so obvious; the evidence will also be obvious to all who see us and they will know that our lives shine forth with that hope that they long to find as well. Take a moment and search your heart and your life for the signs of faith alive in you.
This is a time for us to not only focus on our heart; but also on our actions and deeds to see if we would be declared dead or alive in our faith in Christ.
If you find yourself without the evidence of faith alive, I urge you to take the time today to accept your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into your life and to repent to Him for whatever is holding you back from the blessings of faith alive in you! He will freely forgive without conditions, without hesitation, with open arms! God loves us and gave His on begotten Son that we might have life and not just life, but to have life even more abundantly!
John 10:7-11
7 Then said Jesus unto them again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
10 The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep."
Our world will be a totally different place, if we all would be able to say, like Paul in 1Corinthians 15:10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. "
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