Should I trust God with all my mouth, and accept his every word,

Should I complete every ceremony and memorize each word,

And preach to all the earth with empty words,

Yet, trust God to call me innocent, despite my evil deeds,

Should I praise the Lord with every song, and always attend church,

Yet should I mimic not his life, his grace, and claim I only live for him,

Should I compensate for my good faith, with every now a lie,

And steal every now and then, and mock those, whose faith is dear,

And chase away the gates of hope,

Should I choose the evil man over the good,

And the Liar over the boring truth,

Should I, claiming to trust God, yet not his methods,

Should I mimic the devil, in what he does,

And do evil that good may come,

Should I, not then ask the question of unpopular truth-

Do I trust and follow God,

Or the devil I mimic?”

-Marc Aupiais

Definition

1.  Righteousness- a firm disposition  wherein a man consistently chooses and acts on right over wrong, and does what is right consistently in virtue.
2. Acts of godliness and untainted goodness.
3. mimicry of the nature of Charity which is noted of Godliness.

Righteousness

A requirement for salvation, righteousness not only causes the Christian to accept the message of salvation (John 10:14-15;John chapter 3 verse 19-21), but also affects his further salvation (I John chapter 3), with such importance that without such, he cannot be saved (Revelation- nothing impure… heaven).

1. Love is the action, and force behind such, which is credited as the very nature of God.
2. Charity- that love shown in I Corinthians 13, which is the focus of the Christian life, and a driving factor.
3. “Love is obedient to the command”. The state in which the Christian acts in the nature of God (”In his name” has references whereby one’s name and nature are intrinsically connected in the biblical society)
4. That which is demanded of a Christian, and demonstrated, via the actions of Jewish old Law, as well as the Law of Liberty.
5. Love is one of the three remainders after all else passes. The other two, are based on unseen things, and will either fade or change in nature when the time comes.

Commands in love

“The law is summed in love”, love is the point and nature of the commands. It is the universal command for all Christians, and involves justice (”Love is not happy with evil, but is happy with truth” from I Corinthians 13).

Love and Justice

Love acts in justice, placing all in their right place, and rendering onto others as is their due, so far as it is able. As “God is Love”, his actions are the blueprint of love, within his position. His nature, of love- is that which controls his actions. It is not that God is unable to do the impossible, rather- his action is based in love.

Love and discernment

It is not considered loving should one not attempt to aid the salvation of others, either via living as Christ did, or by testifying to him via words and deeds. While wrong judgement is condemned, which degrades another, by mere appearances, prudence and discernment are fruits of virtue. Prudence sees the situation, and uses it to aid his brother and himself.

 Love is active and of God

 The bible notes that both the liars in word and those in deed will find a place in hell. This shows that the testimony of love, must not purely be in words(1 John 3 v 18), but also deeds. The gospel is preached in action and in words (Luke 12 verses 8 and 9). A life of love is thereby (Luke 12 verses 8 and 9) vital to salvation.

Theological virtues

Love, hope and faith, are all elements and manifestations of the salvic process, and of God’s grace.

Belief, the act on this ability given- the act of altering one’s entire life, because of the truthful message-

As one would alter their lives, and visit the doctor often, if one had cancer- as we visit the church every Sunday and on the Holy Days when the church requires.

As one does not stop their course of medication, knowing that if they do- that it may return even worse.

God has prescribed the sacraments. There is no honest way to doubt this. Should you honestly doubt it, which is possible, with all those voices and oppinions that so loudly speak against this, perhaps pray, and ask the truh of this- I dare not disobey the voice that my conscience follows. I know that this voice should inform you also, should you open yourelf in obedience and listening. We cannot be judged by that we did not know.

Should we obey our doctors with more zeal that the creator of the universe- than the being that controls the moment of our death?

We should not be ignorant of the message of God himself. If we say that we believe the message, are we to ignore the commands, which are there, to save our souls?

Faith- is hearing the soft voice that we know to belong to God, and obeying it. This is where even baptism of desire involves faith. They hear God in conscience alone, and obey him.

We recognise his voice in the servants of the gospel and the official doctrine of our spiritual mother- the church.

We should always seek the truth, and obey the Lord our God, that voice of conscience within- as best we can

-Marc Aupiais

To have faith, has several meanings. Biblically, it refered to trust, obedience, and credence based on authority.

Examples of biblical style faith

In greek mythology, there is a famous story, of a man who made a deal with the god of the underworld, to get his love back, the only condition, was that he never look back, to see if she was following him out, as he left.

He looked back, because he did not believe the god. She was condemned forever.

“Even the Demons admit that and Tremble”- St.James

To state that Leonardo Divinci was a good artist, is to state the obvious. To state that a life saver is a life saver, or “your” life saver, is simply to state fact. To call God, God, or admit such, is simply to admit the truth. To call the Life guard, your Life guard, is one thing, to give complete trust and control over to him, is another. In Shakespeare, Iago, admits that Othello is his leader, but does not act as such. The bible declares that all liars go to hell, both those who lie with words, and those who lie by living sinful lives.

In Actuality

 To declare, or truly admit that Jesus is Lord, is in fact, to act as though he is, while believing such. To believe he rose from the dead, is to live a life, of faith. The word for doubt, and sin, has often been translated interchangeably- two translations of single verses. To sin, is to disobey God, all not of faith (trust, belief, obedience), is sin. Every act, not of faith- is sin.

To not Love God, with all one’s strength, heart, mind, body, and soul, and your neibour as yourself, is…

To violate Charity (a lifestyle of giving underserved love- note- Love constists of many parts including Justice), is to sin. God is Love, and so, to not love, is to not know him.

Love, is a basis of faith.”Charity (modern translations- love) is all-believing” I corinthians 13

We, as christians do not believe all things, but do believe God, based on our love and obedience. Faith, is a symptom of grace. Sneezing is a symptom of a cold, but just because one sneezes, does not make one sick. Faith, according to the bible, involves deeds. In fact, faith is simply the response to God, via being inabled, we are given choice.

“¹¹ But he replied, ‘It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted.

¹² There are eunuchs born so from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs made so by human agency and there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’ ” Mattew 19  New Jerusalem Bible

 http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=40&bible_chapter=19

That does not mean, that we don’t purposely deceive ourselves, and reject the obvious. The bible notes many who are purposely ignorant as to God. It also notes in Romans chapter I “²⁸ In other words, since they would not consent to acknowledge God, God abandoned them to their unacceptable thoughts and indecent behaviour. ” New Jerusalem Bible

http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=45&bible_chapter=1

Thereby, sin, and doubt are perfectly interconnected, and faith and good works/deeds are married for the Christians. This is shown further in John 3 v 16, where all who actively and continually believed (obeyed, believed the message of, trusted) in Christ, would not perish, but have eternal life. The Greek present/future and past tenses are very noted in this verse. The connotation, is almost, that as long as one is actively and continually believing (obeying, believing the message of, trusting) Jesus, this person, is in salvation. The interestiung thing, is who these people are. Again- those whose deeds were righteous, did so- a few verses later- why? To show themselves obedient to God (”to show that what they had done was in obedience to God”). Those who decided to treat Jesus words as fake, were those who would be judged by them, and who did what was evil.

Faith A deeper symptom

Faith, is a symptom of God’s work in our life, however- if it is not shown in deeds, just as lust has to be endorsed to be sin, faith- is worthless. The house on sand falls down. The seeds in shallow ground quickly surcome to worries, as the farmer sows. As God commands, that we obey him, and as “love does no harm to its neibour but fulfills the law”, any act contrary to “charity”, is an act of doubting God. So long as one truly believes the message, there is no need to lie, or steal, or cheat, and to pursue one’s own interest, as in fornication (premarital sex) or masturbation, is foolish. Such a person does not believe that God rewards what is good, and punishes what is evil.

Abraham -a Faithful servant

A good summary of what faith is, is found in Abraham. He is credited as righteous, because He trusted in God. His trust was not just lip-service (condemned as worthless, even evil, by God). His faith, was found in his action. His act of faith saved him. Not because he was anything himself, but because he believed God, and proved it in action (”for faith without deeds is dead” St.James – Epistle of James).

Hebrews 11 verse 8 best decribes Abraham’s obedient faith, which is an antitype, a mold for our faith.

“⁸ It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going.” New Jerusalem Bible http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=45&bible_chapter=11

Faith, over appearance -action on faith

Even, the prostitute, Rahab, was justified by her acts of Trusting in the voice of God.

Note, that all who the bible, especially in Hebrews 11, credits with faith, are those who acted on their beliefs, risking everything, based on trusting the Great Law Giver.

It was not their own acts, alone, but action, in prayer and trusting, hoping, loving belief, that saved the biblical heroes. Faith, is the first step into salvation, and one of the things, required (perhaps even to an extent in baptism of desire), for salvation.

 Rejecting the Gospel

Finally, faith is a demonstration, of whether one belongs to God or the devil. Jesus notes that some belonged to the devil (”he was a liar from the begining”), because they are liars.

God’s Sheep

He says that his sheep hear his voice, and recognise it and obey it. Faith, ultimately, could be summized in obeying the voice of God, and right Conscience, and in such, believing the voice you know to be true, rather than purposely pretending it to be false.