The Bethany Bullet - Week of October 2, 2016

“Follow the Leader…Lead the Followers”

Text: 2 Timothy 1:1-14

The other day I heard someone lament that we now live in a “post-fact” world.  Worthy of a lamentation indeed!  How do you raise kids, guide grandchildren or govern society in a “post-fact” world? 

Certainly that is not the only problem.  When your faith is not merely fact informed but fact founded where does that leave you? 

Christianity is fact founded! 

Christ is Risen… (said it didn’t you) … He is Risen “indeed!” 

The very reply is assertion of fact. 

In fact, if Christ is not risen your faith is useless and you are still in your sins. 

That being said, your ability to learn, listen, deduce, understand or agree with the facts is not the author of your faith.  The Spirit of God is!

The Former of faith is the Spirit.

The Formation of faith is through the Word.

The forms through which faith is planted or informed is often family members, friends and fellow believers.

These facts are attested to by St. Paul in his second letter to Timothy, the first chapter.  The end result is a call to “fan into flame that faith.”  Such is the heart of “spiritual formation.”  An invitation, if you will, to daily action.  The action of raising to drown the old-creature and nurture the new-creation through study of the Word and time spent with fellow followers in reflection of who our God is and what He has done and how He desires to work in and through us to the glory of His name. 

-Pastor Kevin Kritzer