Friday, 14 December, 2018

Abraham Exemplifies Saving Faith

Posted on Wednesday, 11 February, 2015Sunday, 20 August, 2017 by Zheluo Cai

James 2: 20 – 24

What do we learn about saving faith from Abraham? Abraham’s obedience demonstrated that his faith was of a dynamic, active nature. It produced an obedience and a trust so great he was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac (Gen. 22). This action pointed back to and demonstrated the validity of God’s earlier statement that Abraham’s faith was accepted in place of righteousness (15:6). Thus by its very nature Abraham’s faith produced righteous works, so that works were an expression of his faith. In that sense Abraham was justified by works: God’s claim that he was righteous and any claim Abraham might have made to having faith were indicated by Abraham’s acts.

Thus the kind of faith that justifies a person before God is a faith that expresses itself in works. Any “faith” which is not accompanied by works is not a saving kind of faith.

Richards, L. O. (1991). The Bible reader’s companion (electronic ed., p. 872). Wheaton: Victor Books.

M43: The Orion Falls.
Image Credit & Copyright: Zhuoqun Wu, Chilescope Telescope 2. M43, part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, is the often imaged but rarely mentioned neighbour of the more famous M42. M42, which includes many bright stars from the Trapezium cluster, lies above the featured scene. M43 is itself a star-forming region and although laced with filaments of dark dust, is composed mostly of glowing hydrogen. The entire Orion field, located about 1600 light years away, is inundated with many intricate and picturesque filaments of dust. Opaque to visible light, dark dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by a strong outer wind of protons and electrons.

Armenia - Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions Thursday, 13 December, 2018
Exercise normal precautions in Armenia. Some areas have increased risk. Read the entire Travel Advisory. Do not travel to: The Nagorno-Karabakh region due to armed conflict. Read the Safety and Security section on the country information page. If you decide to travel to Armenia: Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive Alerts and make it easier […]

Sunflowers (Tournesols) is the name of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The first series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set, executed a year later in Arles, shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase. In the artist's mind, both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who acquired two of the Paris versions. On March 30, 1987, Japanese insurance magnate, Yasuo Goto, paid the equivalent of US $39,921,750 for van Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers at auction at Christie's London. The painting currently resides at Seiji Togo Yasuda Memorial Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.

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