The Nicene Creed, or Symbol of Faith, was written by the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 A.D., with additions by the first Council of Constantinople (381 A.D.): We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit He became incarnate from the virgin Mary and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic (universal) and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. There are two kinds of confession mentioned in the Bible. One is to confess your past sins for God to forgive and cleanse you (1 John 1:9). The other is to confess (speak out of your mouth) the word of God as a type of meditation to build faith (Proverbs 18:21, Psalm 39:3). Speak the following out of your mouth and receive grace and strength to walk clean of heart before Him. Actively expect His grace to work in your life. You will appreciate that you did when you stand before Him at the end of time. Your heart is the only place on earth where faith can grow. “I am dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ my Lord.” Romans 6:11 “Sin shall not have dominion over me, for I am not under the law but under grace.” Romans 6:14 “I have been made free from sin, and have become a servant of God. I have fruit leading me to holiness, and in the end, everlasting life.” Romans 6:22 “There is therefore no condemnation applied to me because I am in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2 “I keep my body under control and I bring it into subjection.” 1 Corinthians 9:27 “I am crucified in Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the body, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I will not frustrate or make void the grace of God.” Galatians 2:20-21 ‘Because I walk in the Spirit, I will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16 “God has raised me together with Him and made me sit together with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6 “I am confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in me will continue it until the return of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 Keep your heart clean by controlling the words of your mouth. Jesus said that it is not what goes in a man that defiles him, but rather it is what comes out of him, that is, the words of his mouth (Matthew 15:18). Make your mouth agree with what the Bible says, not with what the world makes you feel. God said that we won the victory over the evil one. How could that be?! Faith Is the Victory that Overcomes the World, even our faith. Take the word of God and overcome the world in the Name of Christ. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, power, kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah have come. The one accusing our brothers and sisters, the one accusing them day and night in the presence of our God, has been thrown out. They won the victory over him because of the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life so much that they refused to give it up. Be glad for this reason, heavens and those who live in them. How horrible it is for the earth and the sea because the Devil has come down to them with fierce anger, knowing that he has little time left.” Rev 12:10, 11, 12 God’s Word Translation We are the ‘they’ in this verse. We the Church, won the victory, and once the Church is raptured out of the world, it will get really really bad. The victory is not accomplished by our own might, but rather, it is the authority of God, and the power of God that works through us, it does the work. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Ephesians 6:10 When will we wake up to the full potential of faith that has been granted to us? When will we unapologetically walk in the fullness of the Life of Christ that is in us? When will we sufficiently give away our lives to walk in the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit? When will we defy the world’s system, and the lifelessness of religion to walk as Christ did on earth? When, oh when? Over and over, the scriptures tell us that we are victors through Jesus Christ. It is faith in His name that enables us to overcome the evil of this world. Dear children, you belong to God. So you have won the victory over these people, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4 God’s Word Translation To love God means that we obey his commandments. Obeying his commandments isn’t difficult because everyone who has been born from God has won the victory over the world. Our faith is what wins the victory over the world. Who wins the victory over the world? Isn’t it the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:3, 4, 5 God’s Word Translation How triumphant and powerful would a people be that are completely washed in the Blood of the Lamb, who walk in continued faith and the outspoken testimony of the work of God, and have no concern for what may happen to them? Faith Is the Victory That Overcomes the WorldFaith is one of the most basic and fundamental doctrines of the New Testament. The requirement for faith is clear, comprehensive, and absolute. Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Hebrews 6:1, 2 Without faith there can be no salvation – John 3:18, 36 Romans 4:16; 5:1, 2 Ephesians 2:8, 9 1 Peter 1:5, 9 Without faith we cannot stand victoriously in spiritual warfare against the enemy – Ephesians 6:16 (faith is our shield) 1 Peter 5:9 1 John 5:4 Without faith we cannot worship God – Hebrews 3:19; 11:7 Without faith we cannot know the blessings of answered prayer – Mark 11:22-24 James 1:6, 7 Without faith, we cannot even profit from the Word of God – Hebrews 4:2 Without faith, God’s promise of healing is made void to us – Matthew 8:13; 9:28-30 Luke 17:19 Acts 3:16; 14:9 James 5:14-16 Without faith, we cannot minister deliverance – Matthew 17:19, 20 Without faith, we cannot enter into God’s rest – Hebrews 3:18; 4:2, 3, 6 Without faith, we cannot inherit the many promises of God – Hebrews 6:12; 11:33 Without faith, we cannot operate in the gifts of the Spirit – Romans 12:6 Without a consistent life of faith, we cannot know the joy of our salvation – Romans 15:13 Acts 16:34 1 Peter 1:8 Without faith, it is impossible to please Him – Hebrews 11:6 The following is a note from The Dake Annotated Reference Bible: The sixth chapter of Deuteronomy opens with these words: Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. (Deuteronomy 6:1-2) Keyed to the word prolonged is the following note from page 235 – How to Live Long (Deuteronomy 6:2). The word prolong with its various endings is used 25 times, nearly always of life on earth being extended if certain conditions are met. Ten Conditions of Long Life:1. Live free from idolatry (Deuteronomy 4:25-26)
2. Keep commandments (Deuteronomy 4:40; 6:2; 11:8-9; 32:46-47)
3. Honor parents (Deuteronomy 5:16; Ephesians 6:2)
4. Walk in God’s ways (Deuteronomy 5:33)
5. Fear God (Deuteronomy 6:2; Pr. 10:27; Ecclesiastes 8:13)
6. Humility and obedience (Deuteronomy 17:20)
7. Kindness to animals (Deuteronomy 22:6-7)
8. Faithfulness to God (Deuteronomy 30:18)
9. Having understanding and knowledge (Proverbs 28:2)
10. Hatred of covetousness (Proverbs 28:16) Faith is an essential aspect of the Christian walk, but so is hope. Hope supports the obtaining of faith, but it also operates on its own merit. Hope and faith working together are indispensable to receiving the will and goodness of God. We are to walk in faith for the things for which we have faith, and we are to maintain an attitude of hope for those things for which we do not yet have faith. In life, most things fall into the latter category. Hope is believing in God’s general will and goodness. Faith is the ability to know and believe God’s specific will and goodness. The Bible encourages us to walk in hope and to hope for our desires. With this, God is able, one by one, and at the proper time, to elevate each hope with faith, so that it can be received. You have to first know what you can have (hope) before you are able to know what you do have (faith). A hope is a desire whose fulfillment is promised in scripture.A desire becomes a hope once a plausible reason for its fulfillment is found. For a Christian, this means that a promise for the desire must be found in the Bible. Simply stated, a hope is a desire whose fulfillment is promised in scripture. We may desire healing, but it takes the reading of a scripture such as, ‘by His stripes we are healed’, before we can have true Bible hope for healing. This hope sustains us and motivates us to seek God till we receive the full reality of the desire, what the Bible refers to as the ‘full assurance of hope’. Without the knowledge of His will and promise there can be no hope. Therefore remember that formerly you…were…strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2:11, 12 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4 Once the full assurance of His will comes alive in our heart, hope receives the necessary foundation of what is called faith. This is the sovereign witness of God’s will upon our hope, and it is evidence of His approval. Hebrews 11:1 says that. ‘Now faith is the (foundational) reality of things hoped for, the evidence of things not (yet) seen’. If we then act on this faith, through continued belief and patience, we will receive our original desire. In the process, we grow in God and He receives the glory. This is the ongoing process of hope and faith. This is also God’s work of salvation in the heart of man. Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. Hebrews 11:1 Holman Christian Standard Bible Walk in Hope – Walk in FaithAlso read: What Is Bible Hope? – The Importance Of Hope – Dennis Burke 
The following is a note from The Dake Annotated Reference Bible. As Israel was preparing to enter the promised land, God gave them the following promise, based on their obedience: And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. (Deuteronomy 7:15) Keyed to the words sickness and disease are the following notes from page 207 – Sickness and Disease (Deuteronomy 7:15): “Sickness” is from the Heb. choliy, translated sickness (v. 15; 28:59, 61; 1 Ki. 17:17; 2 Ki. 13:14; 2 Chr. 21:15, 19; Ps. 41:3; Eccl. 5:17; Isa. 38:9, 12; Hos. 5:13), sick (Isa. 1:5), disease (2 Ki. 1:2; 8:8-9; 2 Chr. 16:12; 21:18; Eccl. 6:2), and grief (Isa. 53:3-4; Jer. 6:7; 10:19). Cp. Ex. 15:25; 23:25; 1 Ki. 8:37; 2 Chr. 6:28; 21:15. The root word is chalah, to be worn, weak, sick; to grieve, make sick, or be diseased. It is translated diseased (1 Ki. 15:23; Ezek. 34:4, 21); sick (Gen. 48:1; 1 Sam. 19:14; 30:13; 2 Sam. 13:2-6; 1 Ki. 14:1, 5; 17:17; 2 Ki. 1:2; 8:7, 29; 13:14; 20:1, 12; 2 Chr. 22:6; 32:24; Neh. 2:2; Ps. 35:13; Pr. 13:12; 23:35; Song 2:5; 5:8; Isa. 33:24; 38:1, 9; 39:1; Ezek. 34:4, 16; Dan. 8:27; Hos. 7:5; Mic. 6:13; Mal. 1:8, 13); weak (Judg. 16:7, 11, 17; Isa. 14:10); wounded (1 Ki. 22:34; 2 Chr. 18:33; 35:23); infirmity (Ps. 77:10); and pain (Jer. 12:13). It is also translated sorry (1 Sam. 22:8); travail (Jer. 4:31); grief (Isa. 17:11; 53:10); grieved (Isa. 57:10; Amos 6:6); and grievous (Jer. 10:19; 14:17; 30:12; Nah. 3:19). These latter uses imply something of a sickness of soul, which would naturally be expressed in prayer. Hence chalah is also translated besought (Ex. 32:11; 1 Ki. 13:6; 2 Ki. 13:4; 2 Chr. 33:12; Jer. 26:19); intreat (1 Ki. 13:6; Ps. 45:12; 119:58; Pr. 19:6); beseech (Mal. 1:9); supplication (1 Sam. 13:12); pray (Zech. 7:2; 8:21, 22); and prayer (Dan. 9:13). The Heb. machalah – translated diseases (Ex. 15:26; 2 Chr. 21:15), sickness (Ex. 23:25; 1 Ki. 8:37; 2 Chr. 6:28), and infirmity (Pr. 18:14)–is also from the root chalah. The word for “diseases” in Dt. 7:15 is the Heb. madveh, used only here and in Dt. 28:60. All sicknesses and diseases are but progressive forms of death, and are the wages of sin–the results of the invisible sentence of the righteous judgment of God. They are called “evil” here because they come from evil, sin, and the fall of man, and are propagated by satanic powers (Lk. 13:16; Jn. 10:10; Acts 10:38).  Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662), was a child prodigy, and one of the greatest French mathematicians of his time. He was also a physicist, inventor, philosopher, and most importantly Christian author. Pascal’s earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum.
On 23 November 1654, Pascal had an intense religious vision and immediately recorded the experience in a brief note to himself, which began, “Fire, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars…” and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: “I will not forget thy word. Amen.” Pascal’s most influential theological work, referred to posthumously as the Pensées (“Thoughts”), was not completed until after his death. It was to have been a sustained and coherent examination and defense of the Christian faith. The first version of the detached notes appeared in print as, “Thoughts of M. Pascal on religion, and on some other subjects”, and soon became a classic. Thoughts, by Blaise PascalOut of this work came what is known as “Pascal’s Wager” (or Pascal’s Gambit). It is a formal suggestion that even if the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a rational person should wager as though God exists, because living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose. The Wager was set out in note 233 of “Thoughts”, and goes as follows: 1. “God is, or He is not”
2. A Game is being played… where heads or tails will turn up.
3. According to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.
4. You must wager. It is not optional.
5. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
6. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. (…) There is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite. And so our proposition is of infinite force, when there is the finite to stake in a game where there are equal risks of gain and of loss, and the infinite to gain. Pascal’s Wager was groundbreaking because it charted new territory in probability theory, was one of the first attempts to make use of the concept of infinity, and marked the first formal use of decision theory. Read about Sir Isaac Newton, dark matter, and my prayer equation.. Terrorism is nothing more than an organized approach to the spreading of terror. And terror is the fear of personal destruction in one way or another. Fear does not necessarily mean danger, it simply means fear. We associate fear with danger because that is how our body interacts with our God-given impulse for self-preservation. When we go into a dark room, we might sense fear, especially if we are apprehensive about the dark, but that does not mean that there actually is a danger. It only means that there is an unknown, and that unknown can breed fear – fear of the unknown. To fight the fear of the unknown, counteract it with faith-based on the known – the known will of God. Deliverance and protection are two benefits covered by our salvation (see, Salvation – What’s It Actually Good For?).  The United States Department of Defense defines terrorism as “the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.” Within this definition, there are three key elements-violence, fear, and intimidation-and each element produces terror in its victims. The FBI uses this: “Terrorism is the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” The U.S. Department of State defines “terrorism” to be “premeditated politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.
Less specific and considerably less verbose, the British Government definition of 1974 is, “…the use of violence for political ends, and includes any use of violence for the purpose of putting the public, or any section of the public, in fear.” We are told to fear God, but this fear is not one of random terror but rather is one based on a realization that He is the One controlling the universe. We must be very concerned on how we respond to Him and how He in turn views us. A random fear of harm is not of God. Find out His will for your peace and protection with the following scripture lists: Scriptures Against Fear – Scriptures Against Terror – Scriptures On Fighting the Enemy – Scriptures On God’s Protection – Scriptures To Fear Not – Scriptures To Strengthen Your Faith – Scriptures On God’s Favor Faith is the noun form, and believe is the verb form of the same Greek word. Believe then is the action side of faith, but you cannot act in faith until you have faith. Faith is the ability to believe, but that ability must be acted upon for it to work. Believing is the action of faith. Just having faith is not enough. James tells us that faith without corresponding actions is lifeless and dead. You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; James 2:22 New American Standard Bible You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; James 2:22 English Standard Version You can’t have strength without a muscle, and you can’t drive without a car. You can have a muscle and not lift a weight, and you can have a car and not drive it. Having them gives you the choice of using them. If you did not have them, you would have no choice. Without having faith in the heart, we are not able to choose to believe. Believing is only an option once you have faith in the heart. And faith only comes by hearing from God. Many times we try to believe before we have faith. We may even fool ourselves into thinking we have faith and that we are believing. We call this condition mental assent. It means that we are only mentally ‘assenting’, or agreeing, to the promise of God and not fully believing it in the heart. Faith is of the heart and faith comes from God. The Bible says that faith comes from God (Romans 10:17). It comes when the word on a certain subject comes alive in our heart. Now, if it comes, then there must be a time before it comes. One moment one does not have faith and the next moment they do have faith. You have faith or you don’t; it’s that simple. When one has received faith, James 2:22 says that, they must act on that faith by believing, if not it will become nonproductive. Believing requires faith, and faith requires the action of believing. You can’t believe until you have faith, and you must believe once you do have faith. | |
