Don't keep the faith to yourself.....

Sharing the Faith. That is the name of my blog. It seems simple enough because here on my blog I am sharing my faith. But the story goes a little deeper than what you see on the outside.
You see, it relates back to my childhood and growing up years. As I have posted in earlier blog posts .....( link to posts here
http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/04/coming-to-jesus.html

http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/04/baptism.html


in my family we are fans of Billy Graham. His teaching throughout the years has been a great blessing to our lives. We used to listen to the Hour of Decision broadcast every Sunday afternoon at 1:30. Oftentimes the message would be by Billy Graham himself,  preaching from a recent crusade but other times he would have other members of the Billy Graham Team bring the message. One of the Team speakers was a man by the name of Leighton Ford. He was a good preacher too. But at the close of his message, he would always end it the same way saying "Don't keep the faith to yourself - Pass it on!" That sounds like great advice, don't you think? Well my Dad didn't think it was worded quite accurately. My Dad would say " Don't keep the faith to yourself - Share it!". So what is the difference here?

I think why my Dad was bothered by the statement to "pass on your faith" is because your faith is a personal thing. None of us can redeem his brother. That is what the Bible says in Psalm 49: 7-8  None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

I cannot give you faith. I can share my faith with you and then it is your decision whether to make it your own or not. An example I think of is a family heirloom - a clock that my mother passed on to me. It is a very old chime clock. See picture of it here.



The clock I inherited


My Mom's Mom  ( that is my Grandmother ) inherited it, then she passed it on to my Mother, and now my Mother has passed it on to me and some day I will pass it on to one of my boys. So in passing down something valuable such as this clock, it is completely the decision of the giver whether or not I receive the gift. I inherited it. While when I share my faith with you, you must be decide whether you will receive what you have heard and whether you will choose to make it your own.

So I kind of like my Dad's idea "Don't keep the faith to yourself - Share it!!"

My Dad passed on to glory in 2004. If you would like to read a post about him link to post here:

http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/04/my-dad-man-of-god.html

http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/04/daddy-old-time-preacher-man.html