FOLLOWING THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM !

FOLLOWING THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM ! It's God's gift to His children and it can't be earned. I can understand this to some degree through my relationship with my son will. He can't earn my BLESSING. He already have it. He have it because he's my child, and nothing can change that. I sat down with him one day when he was about 16 years old and told him that straight out. He'd done some things he wasn't too proud of and I'd being put out with him about them. He knew I was aggravated and, as a result, he has misgivings about where he stood with me. When the Lord showed me how he was feeling (and corrected me for being hard on him instead of standing love and mercy to him, as I should have) I went to him and cleared things up. I said, "Son, you listen to me and never forget what I'm about to say. If you committed the most heinous crime in the history of mankind and they threw you so deep into prison that you couldn't see the light of day, you'd still never get rid of me. If you get yourself into trouble I'll pray for you and help you in every way I can. I will never leave you nor forsake you even to the end of the world. You'll never get away from me because I'm yours and you're mine. We're not just father and son, we are brothers in Christ." That's kind of a relationship isn't something you can earn. It's a blood covenant relationship. It has served us well, too. Today, Deneric and I are the best of friends. He's a good man. He's maturing in The Lord, works hard and does what's right in his service for the ministry. But he doesn't do those things to earn my BLESSING. He does them knowing he already has it. As God's children, we ought to be the same way. We should do what's right, do it because it's right and then do it right--- but not in an effort to earn our Father's BLESSING. We should do it in the joy and love, knowing that we're already BLESSED. That's the way Abraham lived. He walked in THE BLESSING by simple faith, not by keeping a list of religious rules and regulations. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath therefore to glory; but not before God. For what saith the Scriptures ? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckon or given of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.... For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promises made of none effect (Romans 4:2 through 14). Although I'm very much in favor of obeying God's commands (more about that later), the fact is, if someone just keeps rules with out faith, their rule-keeping doesn't do any good. No one can keep God's commandments without faith, anyway. They might be able to obey a few of them for a while and be nice when everyone is looking, but if they're not living by faith, they'll fail before sundown. That's why religion doesn't work. "Why, Brother Lewis, how can you say that ? Because I tried it ! And Christianity is a religion !" No, a religion has been made out of it, but true Christianity is God and His family--- a family made up of people who are saved, made righteous and BLESSED through faith, that lives, not by a set of religious rules, but by the love of God and the same kind of faith Abraham had. (Galatians 3:8 through 11) says it this way: The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be BLESSED. So then they which be of faith are BLESSED with faithful Abraham... For, The just shall live by faith. Christianity is built on a relationship with The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit !