7-11-2026 Practicing a Religion or Living in Faith  

At the church I attend, for a while now, we have been talking about realigning our lives with God, through the Holy Ghost, so we make the right decisions for the crossroads we face, understanding our relationship with the Lord then applying what we learn into our lives so we can better serve the Lord.

Today, how many people do we think are living in faith or just practicing a religion?  It makes a difference.  Israel thought they were doing the right thing by keeping the Law, but take note that Jesus had to reprimand them for knowing the Law but not living by it (Matt. 23:1-7).

On 5-30-2026, I posted on the blog “Religion vs Faith.  Father has given me a couple of ‘tweaks’ since then. 

In that entry I gave definitions for religion and faith along with a couple of their associated words.  Please refer back to that 5-3-2026 entry to review the definitions for here, I’ll start with the conclusions

So very basically, religion is believing in a set of rules while religious is putting those rules into practice.

Faith and faithful bring into ‘not just knowing’ the principles and putting those principles into practice but truly believing in what we profess with all our heart, mind and spirit that which is  true (Matt. 22:37).  That is we truly understand who God is and what we believe and accept Him and His statutes, without any doubt.

In a cult, people allow someone else to form their belief system and either don’t know or don’t care about checking it out to see if what is being said is true or not.  They practice a ‘religion’, a set of concepts and rules which they really (usually) don’t understand.

We all have our own concepts of what these words mean, but hopefully, this list will bring us to a better understanding of how we can discover what we are reading in the scriptures or hearing from other people.  All helping us to follow the pathway God, the Creator of all things, which He has intended for us.  That is discovering the difference between just knowing about rites and rituals, but living in their truth from our heart (Job 42:5).

Today, how Many Christians are just abiding in a set of rules versus truly living in faith.  Out of about 8 billion people in the world less than 1/3 profess to be Christian.  Out of the approximately 265 billion Christians how many truly are abiding in God’s guidelines?

At church, we’ve been talking about Awakening our Spiritual Senses, Understanding the Times we are in, Removing Veils and being ready to move into the Next Season.  In some form or fashion, we have been doing this for a year.

Father tells us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments (John 14:15).  The first and greatest commandment is to love God above all else land then love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31) because, upon these two commandments rests the law and what motivated the prophets (Matt. 22:37-40).  We show our faith by keeping God’s law and God’s law is to love – as God loves us.  God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten son to stand in for us, on the cross, for the judgements we deserve (John 3:16).  This enables us to live eternally with Him as faith in (Jesus) cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:4-7). 

I’ve known Christians who have worked themselves ‘ragged’ doing things in the church, yet we may find some who labor in the church will find themselves left out.  Some will ask “Lord “Haven’t we prophesied, in your name cast out devils and done many wonderful works?”  And Jesus’s reply will be “I never knew you, depart you who work iniquity” “(Matt. 7:21-23).  Why?  Doing the commandments of men make the works of God of no effect.  We discover many will honor God with their lips but their heart will be far from Him (Matt. 15:1-9).

Jesus told His disciples to ‘beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees’.  The disciples came to understand that Jesus was talking about what those men preached (Matt. 16:6-12).  That is beware of men who use the Law, not to help men to grow in the Lord, but to hold control over men for their own purposes.  And these things are why Jesus tells us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matt. 10:16).   We need to know what we are up against but remember to always be humble (gentle) our job is to bring souls to Jesus Christ – in love, not to squash them with our knowledge. 

We need the Holy Ghost in us (John 14:16-18).  The Holy Ghost will give us what to say when we need it (John 16:13-16).  Jesus commands us to receive the Holy Ghost (John 20:21-22) for then we shall have power - to be witness and to able to do the things that Jesus did (Acts 1:7-8 & John 14:12-14).  Father will reveal things to us through His Spirit (HG).  The Holy Ghost will teach us what to say as He compares Spiritual things to spiritual things because through Him (HG) we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinth. 2:10-16).  So we trust in the Lord with all our heart and not with our own understanding and acknowledge Him in all our ways and He will direct our path (Prov.3:5-6).

OF course, for all this to matter, we need to have received Jesus into our heart as Lord and Savior (Rom. 10:9).  We need to acknowledge that Jesus took ‘my place’ on the cross so I might have life and healing in living for Him (1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 3:18).

Jesus taught and preached the kingdom of God to His disciples (Luke 3:23, so we can understand our relationship with the living God (Acts 1:3).  That Relationship is that The Father is in Jesus, Jesus is in the Father and Jesus is in us and we in Jesus (John 14:11, 20). 

The power of God is in us through the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:8), and that is the same power with which Jesus operated (God commanded and the Holy Ghost [breath] carried God’s Words into action – Gen. 1:1-31).  We can do those things which Jesus did (John 14:12-4)!  (Where is our faith?)

The Holy Ghost was given to the apostles and disciples in the upper room (Acts 2:1-4) yet we may receive the HG at the same time when we receive Jesus as with Cornelius (Acts 10:44-48) or as with Phillip and the Samarians After they had received Jesus, Peter and John came up to the Samaritans so they might be baptized in the HG (Acts 8:5-17).

Father gives Jesus the works to do and Jesus gives us those works to do.  Jesus says that as we keep His Commandments, we can ask Father anything in His name and He (Jesus) will do it enabling us to do what Jesus, Himself, did (John 14:11-17).  All because Jesus has returned to the Father, yet, He will come back for us (John 14:3)! PTL!

So we need faith to truly understand religion so we can accomplish what Jesus has set before us.  It isn’t just knowing what to do, but reaching down into the power (thru the HG) to go and ‘git ‘er done!

The difference between religion and faith comes into reality through our relationship with the Lord.  If we love Jesus, we are going to do His works.  If we don’t do His works do we truly love Jesus or do we just love the praises of man?  Do we do the works to show that the love of Jesus abides in us (via the Holy Ghost)?    Do we just follow a set of rules set forth by man?  Do we truly embrace God’s love by living the lifestyle Father has set before us and then learning how to do it? 

Allowing Father’s love to operate in us and through us in the Holy Ghost enables us to sharpen our Spiritual senses so we can recognize the times we are in and remove the veil hindering us so we can reach and fulfill the tasks Father may have laid before us.

Paul tells us not to quench the Holy Ghost (1 Thess. 5:19). Are we allowing the HG to awaken our Spiritual senses so we can understand the times we are in, so we can remove the Veils, so we can move so we can walk closer with the Lord so we can accomplish what Father has planned for us?

Amen

6-27-2026 God is with us

He shall be called Emmanuel, God is with us – Emmanouel G1694) and His name shall be called Jesus (Matt. 1:20-25)          

The name "Jesus" originates from the Hebrew and Aramaic name “Yeshua” (a variant of Yehoshua). Meaning "Yahweh is salvation" or "the Lord saves", this name encapsulates identity and divine purpose. Across linguistic and historical shifts, the name evolved into its modern English form:

Hebrew/Aramaic: Yeshua (ישוע)

Koine Greek: Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς)

Latin: Iesus

English: Jesus 

Joseph was of David’s lineage (Matt. 1:6-15) . (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_(name))

Mary was a cousin to Elisabeth (Luke 1:36) and Elisabeth is identified as a daughter of Aaron (Luke 1:5) implying that Mary was also a descendant (a cousin to Elisabeth) of Aaron. Joseph was in David’s lineage (Matt. 1:6-16) though Jesus wasn’t Joseph’s biological son, he was still considered a first born son (Matt. 1:25) as Joseph took Jesus as his own son thus giving Jesus both royal (through David) and priestly (through Mary, being related to Aaron) heritage

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and he Word was God. (John 1:1).  John goes on “The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him and there was nothing made without Him.  In the Word was life and the life was the light of men.  The light shined in the darkness and the darkness didn’t comprehend it (John 1:2-5).   The Word is the Light and became flesh as the only begotten Son of God (John 1:14).   

I’ve shared some background on the meaning of the name of “Jesus”.  Hopefully, this helps us understand a little bit more. 

In “Let’s Get a Handle” (blog 5-2-2026) I pray that we got the understanding that God is LOVE, agape love.  This is an all caring about our welfare kind of love with tenderness, guidance and correction.  He cares so much for us that He gave Himself for us (on the cross) and even has breathed His life into us via the Holy Ghost.  He truly loves us.  All we have to do is ‘truly’ love Him back by following His direction tkhrough living in this Word.

Love us?  Paul tells us that Jesus said He would never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5-6), yet we still have to believe and accept this to be true (Mark 11:24) in our own lives.  Father loved Jesus as Jesus loves us so we need to continue in that love (Mark 15:5:9).

So how do we express our love God?  The ‘beatitudes’ help us to understand this. 

Matthew 5:3-12. 

³ Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This doesn’t mean poor as in penniless but that to understand that in and of ourselves, we are nothing.  Jesus provides (Phil, 4:19) for us all that we have from and through His love.  We totally depend on the Lord, yet remember Father blesses us through our obedience (Luke 11:28).

⁴ Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

When we lose something, a loved one or even a cherished possession, Father gives us comfort for our loss (1 Corinth. 1:3).  Here, to mourn is he Greek word pentheo (G3996) which is to mourn or wail.  We are deeply hurt over our loss and God will comfort us, help us to feel ‘better’ though we have lost something precious.

⁵ Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Meek is the Greek word praus (G4239) which is humble.  Being humble is not considering ourselves better than those around us.  We are all a creation of God which puts us all on the same level.  We need to remember this, no matter how successful we become in this life.

⁶ Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Hunger and thirst.  Hunger is the word peino G3983) which is to  famish, crave or be really hungry for.  The Greek word for thirsty is dipsao (G1372) which implies a great thirst for a drink.  Righteousness is dikaiosune (G1343) which is justification or righteousness. In other words, we live our lives to please God as though our very lives depend upon it for truly it does.  Father will help us to accomplish the tasks that come before us.  And living righteously (in God’s standards) keeps us in the good graces of Father.

⁷ Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Merciful is the Greek word eleemon (G1655) which is merciful or compassionate.  Not just feeling sorry for but caring truly enough to do something to help others and, as he passage says, God will help us.  Paul reminds us that whatever we do should edify others (Eph. 4:29).    

⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Pure is the Greek word katharos (G2513) which pure, clean or clear.  This does not mean ‘never sinned’ (Only Jesus fulfills that description), but when we do sin, we confess that sin so that there is nothing that is not covered by the blood Christ in our lives.  That means not sinning in what we think as well as in what we do (Matt. 5:28) and then confess and repent (1 John 1:8-10).

 

⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Peacemakers is the Greek word eirenepoioe (G1518) which is peacemakers or peaceable.  In other words don’t look for a fight but try to find a non-violent solution for everything that comes our way.  When we are at peace with others, we have peace in our own heart.

¹⁰ Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Persecuted is the Greek word dioko (G1377) which is to pursue, press toward or persecute. The priests and Pharisees had commanded people to tell them if they knew where Jesus was (John 11:46-57).  They pursued Him, without giving up, all the way to the cross.

¹¹ Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Persecute and revile,  oneidizo (G3679) the Greek word which is revile, taunt, upbraid or reproach.  Did not those, at the high priest’s house, strike Jesus before taking Him to Pilate (Matt. 26:65-68)?  And isn’t the cross the ultimate abuse the Romans could inflict upon someone (Mark 15:15-38)?  Even Pilate realized that the church leaders envied Jesus (Matt. 27:18-24) and yet he had Jesus scourged (whipped) (John 19:1-3).   

¹² Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Satan is the prince and power of the air (Eph. 2:2) as God cast him down to the earth (Rev. 12:9), so, (in this world) he influences much of what men of disobedience do.

Yet, as believers, should the world similarly administer afflictions upon us, should we not rejoice that the world has found us worthy to treat us the same as they treated the prophets and Jesus.  

BUT, also as with Jesus, who was raised into glory, won’t we be raised with Him into glory – forever?  As we love and live in our Lord Jesus, is our life not hid with Him in the Father?   If so, won’t we appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:1-4)?

The “Beatitudes” are a guide to our way of life in this world.  We have comfort in knowing that Jesus is always with us – no matter how good or how bad life seems.  Paul tells us to run the race and expect to win (1 Corinth. 9:24).  The path is straight and narrow and there are few who enter in (Matt. 7:13-14).  In crossing that finish line, we all win – eternal fellowship with our Lord and Savior (Rom. 6:23)!

Amen