Church WithOut Walls International-Europe
  • Home
    • ANBI
    • Privacy Verklaring
  • DE
    • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken >
      • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken - PDF
  • EN
    • Weekly Thoughts >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS >
        • John's Monthly Newsletter
      • Weekly Thoughts serie in PDF format
    • About John Fenn
    • About Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Books written by Ank Kleinmeulman >
      • About Ank - author
  • ES
    • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (Weekly Thoughts) John Fenn >
      • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (PDF)
  • FR
    • Pensées Hebdomadaires
    • PDF à lire et/ou imprimer
    • A propos de John Fenn
    • A propos de Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Vidéo en anglais
    • Nous contacter
  • FI
    • Viikottaisia ajatuksia >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS / Viikottaisia ajatuksia
      • Weekly Thoughts / Viikottaisia ajatuksia - PDF
    • John Fennistä
    • TV7
  • L
    • LV
    • LT >
      • Weekly Thoughts (LT) Savaitės Mintys >
        • E-Book
      • Straipsniai >
        • Kaip mes suprantame, koks turi būti surinkimas
        • Krikštai
        • Kaip veikia 5 tarnavimo dovanos namų surinkimuose?
        • Grįžimas prie paprasto tikėjimo
        • Garbinimas
        • Namų surinkimai Naujajame Testamente
        • Išgelbėjimas
        • Tikėjimo išpažinimas
        • Kaip prasidėjo CWOWI?
        • Dažnai pasitaikantys klausimai
      • Video LT
  • NL
    • Weekly Thoughts - nederlands >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS (NL) Wekelijkse Gedachten >
        • Weekly Thoughts NL pdf
    • Over / bio van John Fenn
    • Over / bio Wil & Ank
    • Wat wij geloven
    • Onderwijs - MP3
    • Boeken van Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Doneren / gift overmaken?
    • Conferentie >
      • Conferentie LT - 2025
    • Artikelen >
      • Hoe “Church Without Walls International” is ontstaan
      • Hoe een samenkomst van een CWOW huisgemeente eruit ziet
      • Waarom samenkomen in een huis?
      • Wat is een huiskerk en een huiskerk netwerk?
      • HuisKerken: Waarom – Wat – en Hoe?
      • Ank deelt over Wat & Hoe van Huiskerken (VIDEO'S)
  • PL
  • PT
    • "O pensamento da semana em Português"
    • PT-pdf
  • RO
    • Gânduri săptămânale >
      • Gânduri săptămânale - PDF
  • RU
    • Джон Фенн
    • Сид Рот «Это сверхъестественно»
  • Donate
  • Events
  • TV
  • Contact

How are you affirmed #2, All the eggs in 1 basket

9/14/2019

0 Comments

 
Hi all,
When I was a little boy we had a neighbor named Mrs. McCoy. Her farm land was rented out to other farmers except for the chickens she kept, and she rarely left her house because she couldn't walk well at that late stage of her life. But she loved her chickens. So she allowed us to 'help' her gather the eggs when we visited, and she would give each of the 3 or 4 of us our own personal basket to put eggs in. She said, "I don't want you to put all the eggs in one basket." 
 
Of course we all know that boys ages 4 through 8 are especially careful and gentle with fragile things and therefore make perfect egg gatherers, lol. Mrs. McCoy was wise to spread the risk around between several baskets!
 
All the eggs in 1 basket?
I've been asking what affirms us as Christians? What confirms us in our faith, and as individuals in Christ? Do you know Christians who put all their spiritual 'eggs' in one basket? Is their spiritual life totally in the basket of one church, teaching, person or ministry? Have they taken their faith in Jesus from Him directly to put it in Him through a stream of the faith?
 
Have you seen that 'basket' taken away, corrupted, or fall from grace which caused that person a massive crisis of faith? If they did have a crisis of faith when that happened, it is because they put all their spiritual eggs in one basket. 
 
They said they believed in the Lord, but that believing was filtered through those ministers and their ministries.
 
They were affirmed not by the Lord, but by those ministries. They did not know the Lord directly, but knew of Him through those ministries. They were believers, but not knowers. Their faith was confirmed by man, not by the Lord in their own walk with Him.  
 
There's nothing wrong with being involved in the various streams of faith, but they are not our salvation. We should be affirmed by the Father Himself and Lord Himself. Not by the 'stream of faith' in which we are involved. Those may contribute to affirming us as Christians and people, but they are not our spiritual core. 
 
Consider this statement from Jesus in John 17: 3: 
"This is life eternal; That they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." 
 
That statement does not nullify the rest of scripture which says if we believe in our heart that Jesus was raised from the dead and that He is Lord we will be saved. It merely points out the deeper knowing of eternal life. To truly know the Father is deep Life. In the Greek the word 'know' is the word 'ginoskosin', which means 'to come to know'. Deep eternal life is a path in which we come to know the Father and His Son whom He has sent. 
 
There is a difference between believing in Jesus, and knowing Jesus. There is a difference between believing in the Father God, and knowing the Father God. When we believe, we are born again and saved, but deep faith is knowing. 
 
When each of us was first born again we were believers, not knowers. We believed in Jesus, said a prayer, stated our faith, 'asked Jesus into our heart', or something like that. We believed. We were born again, some even baptized with the Holy Spirit. We were and are believers. We became identified as being a Christian. 
 
Path to knowing
We set about finding things which affirmed our faith. Ministries and churches, friends and media, small groups and special speakers, all of which affirmed our faith and confirmed what we believed to be true, is true. But we didn't immediately know the Father or Lord. We believed. We were using the various ministries and media to help us get to know the Father and Lord, but many have never made it past believing, to actually knowing the Father. Knowing Jesus. 
 
Even decades in the faith later, because they've always sought affirmation in ministries and ministers, teachings and revival centers in a misplacement of faith rather than taking the time and effort to know the Father, they remain believers, not knowers. 
 
C. S. Lewis observed: "It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true Word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him."
 
Is your faith in the written Word, or the Person Who IS the Word? Is your faith merely in chapter and verse, or the One from Whom those verses flowed? When you 'stand' on the Word, are you standing on chapter and verse or the Person of the Word? Is your faith 'all in' the basket of Jesus, or the basket of Jesus with lots of little baskets attached? 
 
We will pick it up there next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

      John Fenn

      If you want to subscribe

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    RSS Feed

Church WithOut Walls International.eu (C) 2025
to donate
Photo from widakso