In prayer, we talk to God. When we read the Holy Bible, we let God talk to us through His Word. The Bible tells us that faith comes to us by hearing, and by hearing the Word of God. As you regularly read the Holy Bible and pray, you will grow in faith in two ways. First, you will learn what God promises; He makes promises that you can claim. Second, the inspiring stories of the Bible will reassure you and help strengthen your faith. Let us remember what faith is: In its simplest form, faith is believing that God will do what He says He will do. To know what God says to us, we must read the Holy Bible daily. God reveals words to man. He tells us how He wants us to live. He tells us what He will do for us. It includes many accounts of His dealings and intervention for individuals and all mankind. If you live a life of prayer, you will develop a close relationship with God. As you walk with God, your faith will grow. To walk with God, is to have deep faith. Walking with God means a daily relationship with Him.
If you would like to know more about faith and what faith is, read the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verses 1 to 40. Upon visiting many Christian homes, one would find things that would sadden the heart of a believer and gladden the heart of a non-believer. Many Catholic homes have a strange and particular habit of keeping relics and statues that are typically pagan and even demonic. These people have erroneously forgotten that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Master and Saviour of our homes and our life. Placing interest and faith in pagan statues undermines our faith in Christ and placing our faith in unknown powers. And by putting these statues, we are providing gateway to the devil to enter into our homes.
With mass productions and easy availability of movies, one is tempted to keep pornographic movies in one’s CD collection. It is amazing how much pornography has infiltrated in our homes and many do not take it seriously. Even some Hollywood and Bollywood movies contain pornography and obscenity at unimaginable levels, which pass off as ‘Family Viewing’. Also subscription to pornographic channels is something which should be avoided at all cost. Certain books like those of Ayn Rand and Da Vinci Code should also never be read or permitted to enter into our homes.
Obscene paintings, no matter how much they are expensive, well sought after or even decorative, should also not be kept in our Christian homes at any cost. Many paintings abound with nudity, sexual suggestive, blasphemous and obscene, some might be anti-catholic or unchristian, others might be plain disturbing. Another unnoticed but widely prevalent feature in Christian homes are satanic music, trance music and other demonic music bands.
(This is a first part of the article and the remaining part will continue tomorrow)
Jubel D’Cruz
