Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God." (Mark 11:22 NRSV Bible)
In the final analysis, believing is not enough. Faith is a better word, a more characteristic Biblical word. Jesus again and again exhorted His disciples to "have faith." Faith is belief plus action. A homely illustration occurred to me years ago. I may visit a pond in midwinter and ask a bystander if the ice is thick enough to hold me. The bystander may tell me that it is; and I may believe him. And then go home, having done nothing further. That is belief. Faith means strapping on the skates and getting out on the ice. The difference is this: you hold a belief; a faith holds you. Real believing isn't easy. It takes effort.

Now, the Apostles' Creed was not written by the apostles, but it summarizes the apostolic faith. In the beginning, the creed was only a short sentence which, like a snowball rolling downhill, gained in size as it came rolling down the centuries, reaching its present form sometime in the 14th century or thereabouts. In the beginning, the first creed may simply have been three words: "Jesus is Lord."

To us that simple statement doesn't say very much. We've heard it all of our lives in church, and it sounds harmless enough. But let me tell you that when this sentence was first uttered in the first and second centuries, it was spoken against the background of the pagan world's proclamations of other lords. Those who dared to confess the new creed were telling the world that a new age had dawned.

It might appear that Caesar is Lord, that Baal is Lord, that Zeus is Lord, or whoever, but Christians were those who believed that the true "Lord" appeared and His name was Jesus! And many of them died for that faith! This is the faith that "isn't easy."

It cost something to hold it back then, and I have a hunch that it costs something to really hold it today. If it doesn't cost us anything, we can only wonder whether we've really got it.

Dear God, may my faith grow to hold me in serving you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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