By Pastor Don Schatz

The Impact of the Life of Faith

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“And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”
Genesis 12:2 English Standard Bible

God promised ancient Abraham a three-fold blessing: he would have the Promised Land of Canaan; he would have descendants as innumerable as seashore sand; he would be a blessing to the nations.  Through faith in Yahweh, Abraham trusted God, and the Lord counted it as righteousness.  I am focusing especially on the latter today, and on we who through Christ are inheritors of Abraham’s blessings, which ultimately pointed to Christ and in Christ, to the true Promised Land of life in the presence of God in Glory.

Loving one another, loving the neighbor as ourselves by God’s grace has a rippling effect.  It touches others.  Perhaps you are a disciple of Jesus because of the rippling effect of parents, other relatives, pastors, Christian brothers and sister, and friends.

Ripples in water are caused by a transfer of energy.  Whether that energy is supplied by a small duck, or by a thrown pebble, energy is transferred from the source to the water.  Now, the surface tension of water is significant, so that it smooths out the ripples in fairly short order.

But the ripples of the Christ-life, empowered by the Holy Spirit, can have a long and lasting impact.  The saving, transformative nature of the Gospel, the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16), is life changing.  Our empowered faith lives itself out in loving service to God and to the neighbor.  The ripples of such a life touch so many, and through them, perhaps many more.

I hope you know how important your life in Christ is.  I hope you understand how you, living out the kind love of God in Christ so freely bestowed on you, ripples into the lives of others.  Far from distorting the view, as ripples in water can do, the Christ life can help others see more clearly.  Because they can see Christ.  Rippling out from you.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado