Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

Deuteronomy 25:4

When you study the Law, you see an ox was not to be muzzled while working. Paul said this was not written for the ox, but for men. He said the reason for this law was called HOPE. A man ought not be so bound with profit in his mind that he muzzles his ox while plowing. When man is in a right spirit, he is generous even to beast. But this applies to us today. As we live by His Spirit, we should find ourselves generous as well, giving, and not working out of desperation, but from hope. If not, there is something bound in our hearts that Jesus would like removed so His Spirit can flow free. In the same way, all the Law of Moses points to the upright heart for God to dwell. You can’t follow it and get there, but just like the ox, you can see a picture of where how the Spirit wants to be, and, perhaps, follow. Read more…

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

1 Corinthians 15:3 NASB

Now, we have seen, Christ came to satisfy the righteous requirement of the law for us, and, in completely fulfilling it in His own flesh, we, in our belief in His work, are baptized into His work, His death, burial, and resurrection.

There is, however, a working out of the process of our faith.  As Paul called those who were new to the faith “babes”, and “carnal”  (1 Corinthians 3:1), he also wrote to the Galatians, who were yet learning, of how he was in great labor of prayer until Christ was formed within them.

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He told them still another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.

Matthew 13:33

It is no large observation to note that people do not usually fully understand all aspects of the Kingdom immediately at the time of salvation.  That which is planted grows, flourishes and multiplies, until greater and greater light is revealed within.  For, surely, the path of the righteous is like the growing dawn, it grows brighter and brighter until the full light of day (Proverbs 4:18).  So, the Spirit comes to reveal to us all truth, to be our counselor, and to help us.

Salvation is not an agreement with a doctrinal statement, but it is an introduction to a person, Jesus Christ.  It is meeting Him, and realizing that there is no other name under heaven whereby men might be saved, and that living with faith in this man, belief in who He is, is the doorway to Eternal Life.

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And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Matthew 17:20 KJV

As has been talked about elsewhere, unbelief is the greater belief in the seen, rather than the unseen.  This is often described as more than simple a lack of faith, is a force that works against true faith as it is a “faith” in the visible, rather than in the invisible.

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A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Matthew 7:18

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6).  The physical body and the physical soul are not evil creations.  In the beginning, God created them, and He called them good (Genesis 1:31).  Yet, fallen man is completely incapable of pleasing God on his own (Romans 3:11).  It takes Faith to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and this is given (Romans 12:3).

The life of the Christian is marked by ‘baptisms’ (plural, see Hebrews 6:1).  We are baptized (immersion, you go down into it) into Christ, and we are baptized (immersion, you come underneath it) into the Holy Spirit.  This was depicted in the wilderness by the Israelites being baptized into the Red sea (water baptism) and the cloud (the Holy Spirit) (1 Corinthians 10:2).

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Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James 1:27

Paul wrote that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:6).  True religion is a good thing, as opposed to the thing commonly called the “religious spirit”, aka, the demonic force of blindness, deafness, and mere rules.  True religion expresses faith through an attitude of love.  The word “expresses” here means it does something.  As James wrote elsewhere, faith without works is dead (James 2:26).  Religion does something, it is both forward and reserved, but always after some goal.

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By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Hebrews 11:3

The whole of the Christian walk is in the unseen, which manifests into the seen.

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I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.

John 3:11

One of the tenets of the Gospel is faith.  This can mean many things to some people, but a Bible definition goes something like this:  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1).  While many people claim to have a “faith”, their claims prove to be nothing at all.  They are houses built upon sand (or worse), and they have no ability to stand up for the Truth.

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Now, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

Substance is “hypo-stasis” in the Greek.  Hypo meaning “beneath”, and stasis meaning “the state, status, or structure of a thing”.  That is, the underlying, inherent nature of an object, its foundation, its unseen, non-physical yet spiritual essence.  Whether it is an apple, a thought, or a person, to have faith in or for something is to have it for real, whether or not you see it manifested in the natural.  For example, if you say, “I believe such and such will happen”, that is hope.  If you have the substance of the thing hoped for, the very reality of that thing, though yet unseen, that is what Faith is.

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