Steadfast!

Introduction
Like most people, I have sometimes found myself trapped on the roller-coaster we often call faith. We pour through countless books, videos, CD sets and sermons trying to find a way to jump-start or stabilize our erratic spiritual states. It’s tragic that what should be the most joyful and fulfilling life offered on the planet is so fraught with pain that many Christians find themselves on the brink of throwing in the spiritual towel.

Today's Christian living seems to be running the same course as dieting. There is a whole industry devoted to the fact that Americans can’t keep the weight off. Oh, there’s no problem losing the weight—we lose millions of pounds of fat as a nation each year! We just can’t keep it off. And because of this, publishers, legitimate doctors, movie and TV stars, quacks and charlatans galore trot out diets, products and plans by the thousands that show you how all the others missed a key element that will revolutionize your life. As a matter of fact some plans tell you that you will never need another diet again.

Have you been there?

But isn’t it the same with the sin-loss industry? Face it: people spend millions trying to find love, joy peace, patience, faith and the like. And bookstore shelves are breaking with stuff promising to fix your spiritual brokenness in ten easy steps! Pray this prayer, sing these songs, climb this mountain, ford this stream, follow this rainbow and soon you’ll find your dream. The result: spiritual cynicism. Each mountaintop, spiritual high generates a headfirst dive into the valley of spiritual despair. After a few of these frightening swings, many believe that the nice, level plain of spiritual indifference is the safest place to hang out. Maybe there are no ups on the level plain, but there are no horrifying plunges from the heights of joy either. But the empty and purposeless life on the level plain of indifference brings no joy or peace—that empty life brings no hope. So, like crack addicts, we crawl back to the pusher to get another rock. We go back to the bookstore or go back online and search for that title that seems to speak to the gnawing need we have inside—that need for peace, power and hope.  And the uphill climb to the high-dive starts all over again.

What makes this book different? Isn’t this a setup for another nose killer? You know, the nose bleed on the way up and the broken nose at the bottom? Isn’t this just the next new book that ensures that you will never need another book, ever? NO.

What I am building here is a discovery. It is a discovery built upon some readily available material from the Bible that is rarely connected. Steadfast is a book about faith and what the Bible is really saying about it. Some of what I say will seem to be different from the conventional approaches to discussing faith, but if you follow the connections, you will see that now, what Jesus, James and the writer of Hebrews have to say about faith make real sense.

However, what you will find here, as I found, is that there is a responsibility in faith that exceeds what you have been taught conventionally. This is not diet-plan Christianity, This is Bible faith--πιστισ. Pistis is a Greek word that clarifies and draws together the important concepts of faith. When understood, you will see the reasons for our up and down experience and you will understand how to move forward with confidence.