05 February 2023
Two-Minute Features | 12 February 2023

Trying to Have a Correct View of God (TMF:2025)

Friday, February 10, 2023
Peace to Live By: Trying to Have a Correct View of God (TMF:2025) - Daniel Litton
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       With God, he is rock solid. The truth is, is that God has our backs. He really cares about what we care about. He really wants what we want. It’s just, most of the time we are too blinded to see this. We just don’t believe it, no matter what angle someone presents it to us at. We just find that within ourselves, much to our own sheer blindedness, we don’t see God this way. Really, we can’t. We see a view of God such as this, a view of God as friend, a view of God as supporting, caring, encouraging, approving, promoting, aiding, helping, corroborative, we believe that if God is like this, this is a false view of God. We believe that this is Satan trying to deceive us, or that our minds have conjured up a magical view of God which doesn’t correlate with reality. And yet, if people look at the their own relationships with their children, they aren’t like they picture God. They act themselves better than they paint God acting, as interestingly confusing as that is.

The Example of Abraham, Part 3 (TMF:2024)

Thursday, February 09, 2023
Peace to Live By: The Example of Abraham, Part 3 (TMF:2024) - Daniel Litton
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       It was that Abraham’s faith, his belief in God, was shown to be real by his actions. It was his faith, his belief, that justified him. The action, though, of offering up Isaac to be sacrificed showed that his faith was real. We know that this action didn’t save Abraham because of the verse James cites in Genesis 15:6. This was before Isaac was even born that Abraham believed God that he would be. Therefore, it wasn’t the action at the makeshift alter that caused Abraham to become righteous. He was already righteous by the time this scene unfolds. It was belief in what God had said, not action, that made Abraham righteous. Let’s not miss that little plugin there in the verse where James notes that Abraham was called a friend of God. This is pretty important. God is our only true friend—friend that can be counted on one hundred percent of the time. A human friend can be counted on, and is oftentimes very trustworthy for us. There’s no guarantee, however.

The Example of Abraham, Part 2 (TMF:2023)

Wednesday, February 08, 2023
Peace to Live By: The Example of Abraham, Part 2 (TMF:2023) - Daniel Litton
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       James points to Abraham’s example here as the ultimate example of a person’s faith being demonstrated, really proven, through his or her actions. Abraham trusted God so much that even through he was probably trembling through the whole thing, he worked through it nonetheless. I’ve heard minister’s in the past state that Abraham must have come to the conclusion that God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead. Recall, it was through Isaac that the promise from God of a great nation was supposed to come. Without Isaac, this would be impossible. And, as the preachers have noted, Abraham carried right along with what God had told him to do. I probably would have myself assumed I’d heard from the other side, the bad side, and that Satan was telling me things to do which would mess things up. I’d figure this must be some kind of Joseph Smith moment. I think the issue comes in understanding this passage with the word “justified.” It wasn’t that Abraham was made right before God because of a work he did (namely, attempting to offer Isaac up on the alter to be sacrificed).

The Example of Abraham, Part 1 (TMF:2022)

Tuesday, February 07, 2023
Peace to Live By: The Example of Abraham, Part 1 (TMF:2022) - Daniel Litton
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       So what is James example here? He points to Abraham, as the Apostle Paul did in his writings. For whatever the reason, Abraham seems to be one of the go to people when the Biblical writers needed a reference. Really, though, that makes sense since this epistle is being written to Jewish believers. Abraham was a good example to them, and he certainly is to us in various areas. We all know the story where God asked Abraham to sacrifice his very son on an alter. This scene from the Old Testament undoubtedly is an image of what God himself is going to do through sending his own Son to the earth to die for our sins. God was what, in this example? He was testing Abraham’s faith. Now, why would God do that? He wanted to see if it was genuine like we are talking about here in James. God didn’t allow Abraham to harm his son. God’s not that type of God. Our God cares. James points to Abraham’s example here as the ultimate example of a person’s faith being demonstrated, really proven, through his or her actions.

Understanding Faith & Works Together, Part 4 (TMF:2021)

Monday, February 06, 2023
Peace to Live By: Understanding Faith & Works Together, Part 4 (TMF:2021) - Daniel Litton
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       It is doing stuff to stay true to rules. It is the works side, without any faith present. It isn’t surrendering, giving up control, but rather it is taking total control, thinking we know how to do it by our own effort. That won’t work either. That also is displeasing to God. In either of these examples then, the lazy person who just joins the gym but never goes, or the person who actually works out, but who just follows a strict regiment day after day without the desire—either of these people isn’t what God is looking for. He’s not looking for the pretenders, the posers. He’s also not looking for the legalistic, the rule-keepers. So, then, you might ask, “Who is God looking for?” Well, this is what James tells us here in our text—it is the example he provides of Abraham from the Old Testament. He brings Abraham into the picture here to show us a man who actually did what God wanted, who was actually pleasing to God with both his faith and his work operating together.