“Do you have faith?” I hear that all the time. Or, “That guy is a man of faith”. Every time I hear these statements I want to scream out, “Faith in WHOM?” You see no one in this world will have a problem with you being a person of faith. The problem comes when you specify that you are a person of faith in Jesus of Nazareth. That is what the world does not want to hear.
Some however will agree with you and say something like this, “I too believe in Jesus.” Be careful when you hear this coming from the lips of one whose life does not match his profession. Too often people use the name of Jesus but, like a wax nose, make him into the Jesus they want him to be and not the Jesus that is revealed in the Scriptures.
This is what is happening all the way back in Genesis 31. In this chapter Jacob, a true follower of God, is making an agreement with Laban, his uncle. This is usually how people in that day resolved conflicts. Laban was a pagan and did not follow the one true God. In verse 53 Laban says, “The God of Abraham (Jacob’s grandfather) and the God of Nahor (Laban’s daddy), the God of their Father, judge between us.” What was he saying? He was saying, “We worship the same God. He has been the God that our fathers have followed. I know my dad and your grandfather did not live in the same way, but still they followed the same God in their own way.” That is what many will say today. What did Jacob say? “So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.” Jacob wanted there to be no mistake by whom he was swearing allegiance to so he swore by his father’s God.
It is the same today. People might use the same vocabulary but they do not always use the same dictionary. Be careful and be clear. You swear by the Jesus of Nazareth who was born of a virgin Mary, who suffered and died on a Roman cross, who was raised on the third day, and who is coming back one day in glory!
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