Please see my commentary below, regarding this post I received from the daily devotional I subscribe to, the CQOD, Christian Quotation of the Day, which is highly recommended as the best online source of quotations for Christian unity I know of. _______________________________________________________________
Subject: [cqod] Barth: faith from God
Christian Quotation of the Day
Saturday, October 1, 2022
Commemoration of Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, Apostle of the Franks, 533 Commemoration of Therese of Lisieux, Carmelite Nun, Spiritual Writer, 1897
Meditation: "... if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" --Mark 9:22-24 (NIV)
Quotation: To speak as men, we can only say that we do not learn faith, never will learn faith, neither from ourselves nor under the stress of fate and evil times. Faith comes from God each moment, and when it comes we can say nothing else, astonished and perplexed, but: "I believe, dear Lord, help my unbelief!" ... Karl Barth (1886-1968), from "The Name of the Lord", in Come Holy Spirit: Sermons, New York: Round Table Press, 1933, reprint, Mowbrays, 1978, p. 33 See the book at http://cqod.com/b/r3477 See also Mark 9:22-24; Luke 17:5; Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 1:29- 30; Heb. 11:6; 12:2
I'd like to comment on points in this excerpt from the above, fine devotional: "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."...Faith comes from God each moment...Lord, increase my faith."
Faith comes from God any moment we seek faith in God's words He spoke, where He told us we would find words to live by every moment. Faith for every moment we need it in our lives (which is really every moment) happens the moment when the Holy Spirit in our hearts calls to our memory pertinent words spoken by Jesus, as recorded He spoke in the Bible, which we now keep written in our own hearts, where the Holy Spirit explains how to live by the meaning of those God-spoken words to us right there in each, our own heart, showing us how those words apply to every situation we encounter in our lives, so we can always know how to live by those words spoken by God from the mouth of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Bible, which are words that are spirit, and are life in the Spirit, proceeding from the mouth of God for us believers to all live by, starting now, into eternity.
““But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (Joh 14:26 NKJV)
““However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own [authority], but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” (Joh 16:13 NKJV)
““But this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jer 31:33 NKJV)
“6 ¶ But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Heb 8:6-10 ESV)
“20 “At that day you will know that I [am] in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”” (Joh 14:20-21 NKJV)
“23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. 25 ¶ “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (Joh 14:23-26 NKJV)
“7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. 9 ¶ “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and [that] your joy may be full. 12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (Joh 15:7-13 NKJV)
““It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and [they] are life.” (Joh 6:63 NKJV)
““So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every [word] that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.” (De 8:3 NKJV)
“But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”” (Mt 4:4 NKJV)
“5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” 6 So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. 7 “And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? 8 “But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 “Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10 “So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”” (Lu 17:5-10 NKJV)
Notice the last part of that scripture in Luke, quoted above, about realizing we are unprofitable servants even if we think we've done everything we've been commanded to do. Doing everything Jesus commanded you to do has nothing to do with proving you have done anything to make yourself a more worthy servant than all the other servants of God, including believers of every Christian denomination and faith group, which is how, from the least to the greatest of us believers, we will not teach either our unbelieving neighbors in this world, nor our brothers in the body of Christ now in this world, saying they need to know the Lord as we know Him only in our Christian faith group or denomination, because even the least believer in His name for repentance and forgiveness of our sins bought for us by His self-sacrificial blood knows Him, and loves God back in the ways Jesus says are most important, loving both neighbor as much as self, and loving brother more than self as part of loving God with everything we have, with our life laid down as Jesus loved us, and in obedience to the first and second most important commandments fulfilled by Jesus, regardless of denomination.
“10 For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.” (Heb 8:10-11 AV)
If you think that you need to prove your Christian faith group more worthy or superior to the others it means you don't think all repentant believers are really credited equally by God to have the absolute righteousness of Jesus, Himself, which righteousness none of us can actually deserve by a totally sinless life. But instead of that equality in Jesus with all repentant believers, for which God paid with His own blood on Earth to give to us believers, all, the same, you prefer to think your other doctrine makes you better. “42 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."” (Mr 10:42-45 NIV)
Does that blood God shed on Earth sound to us like the least common denominator of all Christians, or is it the greatest common denominator all Christians hold in common, but one that we may have perhaps mistakenly allowed to become secondary to our Christian faith group's doctrinal distinctives?
Most all of us Christians have effectively done that to some extent in the past by failing to do our part to show the glory, given to Jesus, of the Father in the name of the Son, which glory Jesus gave to us believers for Christian unity, for the purpose of obediently having our own self-sacrificial love as commanded, for all one another believers in Christian faith groups beyond our own, like God's self-sacrificial love shown to us all on the cross, as Jesus loved us, for which Jesus says His Father loved Jesus in His obedience to His Father's commanded self-sacrifice. “22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (Joh 17:22-23 ESV) “17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (Joh 10:17-18 AV).
Did God forget to mention, or did we not take care how we hear His spoken words about the self-sacrificial Love, which the Spirit of God is, the Spirit that Jesus showed us on the cross? If we keep in our hearts the words Jesus spoke in the Bible, then the Helper, the Holy Spirit God sends to live in our hearts in our faith of Jesus' name for repentance and forgiveness of sins bought for us by His blood, will teach us all things He hears in those words Jesus spoke in the Bible.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (Joh 14:26 ESV)
The Helper will call to our remembrance the God-spoken words of Jesus where Jesus says that God's self-sacrificial love for every one of us repentant, mutually loving, and all-forgiving believers, in all Christian faith groups and denominations, is exactly the kind of love Jesus wants most for the One Spirit of God, in Jesus on Earth, to be remembered for, and the very kind of God's love Jesus wants to be preached in His name to all the world, as God's love above all, the same as His own, One Spirit of self-sacrificial love for all believers, as His same Spirit He gives to live in our hearts in faith of His name for repentance and forgiveness of the sins available for all in the world, so the world sees that same self-sacrificial One, Good Shepherd's love God has for all believers, now living in us believers in our own self-sacrificial love for one another. “24 And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25 After the same manner also [he took] the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink [it], in remembrance of me.” (1Co 11:24-25 AV)
“Hereby perceive we the love [of God], because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down [our] lives for the brethren.” (1Jo 3:16 AV)
“29 Jesus answered, "The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mr 12:29-30 ESV)
“And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” (1Jo 4:21 AV)
“11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (Joh 15:11-13 AV)
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (Joh 13:34 AV)
“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” (Joh 15:9 AV)
“17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (Joh 10:17-18 AV)
“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (Joh 17:23 AV)
“25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare [it]: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (Joh 17:25-26 AV)
“45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."” (Lu 24:45-49 ESV)
“even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (Joh 14:17 ESV)
The mustard seed of faith Jesus wants us to find for miracles: Self-sacrificial love as servants to all believers, of every Christian denomination and faith group
For further consideration of how much Jesus wants each of us believers to find our mustard seed of faith in Christian unity in holiness and love to be given in His kind of self-sacrificial loving service to all other believers outside our own Christian faith group, notice in that referenced scripture in Mark, repeated again here, that Jesus gives Himself as the example of how we should serve all believers. He reminds us that His service to all believers is to serve them in self-sacrificial love for all believers, whom Jesus served by paying on the cross for the sins of us all. Jesus used this theme of each believer being like Him, a servant who serves all the other servant believers, stating it repeatedly so we would see it in multiple parables, that can be understood by all believers who seek unity in love and holiness with all believers in every Christian denomination and faith group. “42 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."” (Mr 10:42-45 NIV)
As such, we see the promise to be blessed in Christ is the same to all believers who obey His commands to seek to live in His holiness and to love all believers self-sacrificially like He did. We believe the scandal of Christian disunity has gone on far too long.
We believe the day is upon us when it will be good for all of us believers to make of ourselves servants who feed all the other servants with the fruit of the Spirit in the love and holiness Christ gives to all us believers equally. “42 The Lord answered, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns.” (Lu 12:42-43 NIV)
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Ga 5:22-26 NIV)
“For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” (Lu 22:27 NIV)
We believe it's the proper time now in the body of Christ on earth, that all of us believers be served with the allowance of solid spiritual food that God wants us to have now, which is in the word of faith in scriptures that show that Christ's Spirit in us does now lead us out of worldly jealousy, quarreling, and divisions among believers of different Christian denominations and faith groups. “1 ¶ Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?” (1Co 3:1-4 NIV)
All of us repentant believers who forgive all who sin against us in this world, and who love self-sacrificially and serve all other repentant believers in order to promote our unity in Christ's holiness, and unity in Christ's love for all believers, also consider such union in Jesus with all believers to be His wedding to His bride, the Church. As such, we are asking Jesus to come forth spiritually now before His wedding is complete, to show the world that we are His disciples, which He said we should ask, and which Jesus promised He would prove, by showing the glory Jesus already gave us to make us one in Himself, united in His love and holiness, giving us whatever we ask in the name of Jesus.
We are like the servants of Jesus who eagerly await His wedding, and so remain dressed and ready for service, waiting for our Master to return from the wedding banquet where Jesus is the Groom, because we know it will be good for those servants, good for all us obedient believers together loving and serving one another, whom the Master finds watching when He comes.
Prior to the wedding of Jesus to His bride, the Church, when the wedding is to be done according to the traditional Jewish wedding customs, the banquet for the Groom takes place just before the wedding and apart from the bride. Following Jewish marriage tradition further, His servants follow where their Master, the Groom, leads in the procession to go to the bride, and before the wedding, His servants and attendants treat Him like a King, dressing Him so He doesn't have to dress himself, in preparation to proceed with the wedding to His bride, which in this case is the Church.
We work as equal and unworthy servants simply obeying His new commandment, by working together as one for unity in His love and holiness in His bride as He commanded us to please Him, and by us asking God for miracles to show the glory Jesus said in His prayer for Christian unity was the glory He already gave us believers, all, specifically for the purpose that we may be one in God. “35 "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.” (Lu 12:35-37 NIV)
“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:” (Joh 17:22 NIV)
I am the good shepherd…as the Father knows me and I know the Father…I lay down my life for the sheep… other sheep that are not of this sheep pen…I must bring them also… one flock…one shepherd…I and the Father are one: “14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (Joh 10:14-16 NIV) “"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"” (Mr 1:15 NivUS) “27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one."” (Joh 10:27-30 NivUS)
“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (Joh 14:14-15 NIV)
“"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (Joh 13:34 NIV)This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tim Warlick,
