The dearest thing in my life is faith. Faith not merely in just anyhting, but faith that is rooted in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. It is when I exercied faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that many fundamental questions were answered. I grew up in a home that embraced a religious machenery of salvation by works, or even more specifically salvation through the sacraments. I could call it "sacaramental salvation." I am not posting this 'blog' to malign any man's religion, what gain is there in doing that? When I realized that salvation is based on a person (i.e. Jesus; see John 1:12) and not elements (e.g. bread or water) all of a sudden the "religion" shifted to a true relationship with God. Take for example baptism. In the Bible, sinners first repented of their sin, and trusted the Lord Jesus as Savior and then got baptized. Baptism is an obedient act in the part of a Christian, it was not a pre-requisit to obtain salvation, rather it was the outward manifestation of the death, burial and ressurection of the Lord, and a geniune step on the part of Christian to walk in newness of life. In essence baptism does not and cannot save, but rather 'believing' does, or faith in Jesus Christ.

I am not an advocate of a modern phenomena called 'easy prayerism' or 'easy believism' (the equivellent of 123 repeat this prayer and you'll be saved, let me bypass however true repentance, just tip your hat to Jesus). I do believe as the Scriptures teach that there is a simplicity to salvation. In essence faith in Christ, in His Person as the Divine Son of God, and in His work on the cross (death, burial and ressurection), that through repentance and faith a person can be brought to harmonious terms with God.

There are other reasons why faith is the dearest thing to me, I'll be glad to 'blog' about it some other time.