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Show BELIEFS THAT MATTER GOLDEN TEXT "Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child." I John 5:1 Lesson Text - John 20:30. 31; Acts 16:11-15; I Timothy 4:1B; I John 5:1-5 I ' Bible students will bo interest-led interest-led to learn what is in prospect I for thorn during the coming year. We have an amazing array of texts for the year, chosen from fo.rty-one books of the Bibl2, 1 covering many different topics. I : We arc to have three months up-! Ion Great Christian teachings about God, Christ, the Holy Spir-'it Spir-'it Man, -the Kingdom of God, the (life Eternal; three months upon The Literature of the Bible, a survey of the Bible in terms of the different types of literature found in it law, history, prophecy, pro-phecy, poetry, drama, biography, parables, gospels, letters, and apocalyptic literature; also a course in Old Testament history covering the captivity and return re-turn of the Jews from exile; and three months of biographical studies of Unheralded Bible Characters, such as Micaiah, Bcz-alel Bcz-alel and Ebcd-melcch. The first of the lessons is titled "Beliefs That Master," and is therefore, the foundation study for the lessons which follow. The beloved disciple, John, in giving his reason for writing his gospel, declared: "These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye may have life in His name," This reminds us also of Peter's great confession, confes-sion, "Thou art the Christ, the bon of the living God, and also Thomas' declaration, after being convinced of the reality of Jesus' resurrection, "My Lord and My God." Such belief in Jesus Christ is the foundation-tone foundation-tone of the Christian faith, i O'ften we have heard the careless care-less remark from people, "I don't know that I believe anything." Or, "It really doesn't make any difference what a person believes so long as he lives a good life." Of course, this is not true. Beliefs Be-liefs do matter. John believed that beliefs matter and matter greatly that they make all the difference in the world. The belief that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, brings with it a new life of such surpassing richness rich-ness and power that it alone is worthy to be called life. A writer has declared, "Vital belief begins by obeying the will of God in so far as we are able to comprehend it, by appropriating appropriat-ing the teachings of Jesus Christ to the extent that we understand them, by accepting and making our own the love that shines through the cross." Therefore, a real belief in Jesus Christ demands de-mands action. Paul preached the gospel to those gathered by the riverside and Lydia believed, accepted ac-cepted it and "gave heed." She put her belief into action by inviting in-viting Paul and his companions to makes her home their home and making it available as a place for religious worship. Contrast Lydia's response to the gospel with that of the Rich Young Ruler. He believed in Jesus but he was net willing to put his belief into action and the record tells us that "he went away sorrowful. He did not obey and, in the end, he probably forgot for-got the vision and recovered from his sorrow. Like Lydia's belief, obedience to the call of belief in Jesus has turned multitudes mul-titudes who might have lived out their lives in busy preoccupation with things into fellow-workers with God. A real sense of responsibility comes with beliefs that matter. The scientists who worked out the manufacture of the atomic bomb are deeply aware of the vast obligation which, knowledge has brought wiiK. i They feel they must lJ j every nerve to bake th realize the full meaning 0fW work. So Paul, in writLtheir young Timothy warns h2?8,J he has been given a knoSJi Tat of the utmost important the world His isthe a" the way of life for all ? 1 01 this secret must be shnr? the Christian today should1', So. to himself and realize Taff life must be worthy of h; his Jessed faith, so that other I JS be led to and not awiS - m the object of his belief. fro,tt One of the finest definite faith ever written i T iLT 0f Donald Hankey's, . "p-ii,!? betting your life there is J 5 ,,.s Such a definition remind-that remind-that faith in action "2? J -saving faith there is. Since f t' word believe comes from e Anglo-Saxon words S?9 "by-live," a belief is S-ng on which we are willin to Sg d' rih, 3-: what we believe must 2 difference and that difSfr- a is the test of whether weCS. believe or merely say We do |
