Having reached the end of our ‘essential ingredients’ for a life of faith, we looked tonight at all 26 ingredients which help us to grow on our journey towards God.
A is for Adore – adoration of God who is the Alpha and Omega (Rev 1:8) is the start of our faith and one of the chief purposes of man.
B is for Believe – ‘Everything is possible for the one who believes’, Jesus said (Mark 9:23) and believing and trusting God are key elements not only to the start of our Christian journey but for every stage thereafter.
C is for Christ Crucified – the centrality of the cross is at the heart of our faith (see 1 Cor 1:18-25). As Simon Ponsonby reminds us, ‘if we drop the cross, we lose the plot.’ We don’t need a new message; we need to have confidence in the fact that Jesus Christ died for our sins and because of this, we can have a personal relationship with God and can have the assurance of eternal life. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are absolutely fundamental to growing in faith.
D is for Desire – God’s desire is for us. He loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die on the cross for us so that we can be reconciled to Him. (John 3:16) As the Song of Songs says, ‘I belong to my beloved and his desire is for me.’ (Song of Songs 7:10)
E is for Extravagance – our response to God’s passionate, raging love for us should be an equally extravagant love in return! The woman who poured out the alabaster oil of perfume was not thinking of cost but of how much she was loved. Such extravagance may well arouse disgust and disdain in others, but God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor 9:7)
F is for Follow me! – Jesus calls us to follow Him (Matt 4:19). Primarily, we are called to a relationship with God, and our primary allegiance has to be to Him. There are costs to following Jesus, which he spelled out to all His disciples, but there are also huge benefits.
G is for God – we are called not to religion, but to worship God as He is revealed in the Bible: one God in Three Person – Father, Son and Spirit. One God who is all-powerful and all-knowing and all-loving. One God who is far above all things, completely holy and pure and majestic, righteous and just, and yet who stoops to rescue us and acts in grace, mercy, tenderness and forgiveness. One God who is good and who works good from the tragedies of life. (Rom 8:28)
H is for Heaven & Hell – not fashionable topics these days, but Jesus taught that there are eternal consequences to the choices that we make on earth (see John 3:16-19). Heaven is the hope we all have if we believe in God’s Son; we shall be saved and shall not perish. To those who reject Jesus, however, there are eternal consequences: ‘they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.’ (2 Thess 1:9)