Confession and Prayer - and Prayer Brings Victory

Over the past 2 Sundays we have continued our journey with Shirley Andrews and the messages have focused on Week 6 - Confession and Supplication, and Week 4 - Prayer Brings Victory. Ken Hansen gave a message on confession and we all engaged with the Word of God to understand better what He requires as we come to Him in prayer. On December 11, Gill Wilson spoke on Prayer Brings Victory. Gill used the passage from 2 Chronicles 20 which had been given to her 20 years ago by a lady in a prayer group as a significant passage for her. She didn't really understand it at the time but the passage has become increasingly important. The passage concerns King Jehoshaphat and the battle that the Lord won for the children of Israel because the king "set himself to seek the Lord". We have all been encouraged in our prayer journey and Gill also focused on the power of speaking out the Word of God.

Ken and Gill's talks can be listened to or downloaded from the website - click on the Listen tab and scroll down to 2011-12-04 for Ken's talk and 2011-12-11 for Gill's talk.

On Sunday 18th December, Sue Moore will be speaking on "What Prayer Can Do for You". The next service at Boloco will be on December 24th at 7:30pm which will be a Christmas Pageant. It promises to be exciting and Emily Shumack is overseeing the telling of the Christmas Story with music and bible passages. 

The Challenges of Prayer

At our church meeting on Sunday 27th November, Emily Shumack brought us a wonderful message on the ups and downs of prayer from her own journey as she looked back at her prayer journal. She quoted George Croley (1854): Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;

Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;

Stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art,

And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;

Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,

To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;

Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart.

In looking back at her journal, Em noted that for her the journey of faith and prayer had mostly been a hard, long learning process requiring faith and persistence. One of the key things as Em looked back at some of the most personally challenging issues was the need for obedience to what God has called us to do. Em's message can be heard by clicking on the Listen tab on the website and then going to the date - 2011-11-27. Thanks Em for helping us all by sharing your own journey of faith.

The Privilege of Prayer

Last week at Boloco Church we considered the first week of Shirley Andrews' material on "Lord Teach us to Pray". The focus was on the privilege of prayer and that prayer is a conversation with God. As we worked through the verses together we were reminded of the faithfulness of God and His character. There were stories of the impact of God speaking in different people's lives and a reminder that we simply had to "draw near to God and He will draw near to us" (James 4:8). The audio of the message can be heard by clicking on Listen and then going to 2011-11-20.

Lord Teach us to Pray - Owen's Message

Sunday 13 November we had Owen Davies with us as we continued with our series from Shirley Andrews' book "Lord Teach us to Pray". Owen focused on the story of God's amazing feast spread before us but in prayer we can often not enter into the intimacy of what God has provided. Owen focused on what it is that God wants to do in us and also what God wants to do with us.

We all tend to rush around busy with various activities and fail to just be quiet and have a conversation with God. There is clearly opposition to this happening but also in a sense, lack of faith on our part.

You can hear Owen's message by clicking on the Listen tab and then scrolling down to the date of the message which was 2011-11-13.

Lord Teach Us To Pray

On Sunday 6 November we started a series that will be worked on in all the Snowy Mountains churches, called "Lord Teach us to Pray"by Shirley Andrews. Shirley came to launch the series in Jindabyne on October 30. There are 13 weeks of studies with bible verses and prompts to help us all think about how to improve our prayer lives. Kate gave the first message in this series and her key points were that prayer is a struggle and in fact a spiritual battle - and we have to persist. All of us find prayer difficult and a great quote is that there are no great prayer warriors, just those who don't give up. Kate's message can be heard by clicking on the Listen Tab of the website and the message is labelled 2011-11-06 Lord Teach us to Pray - Week 1.

Boloco Church - Next Steps

We have been having a discussion over the past few months about the governance and way ahead for us as a church community. It has been helpful for us to think about our life together and how we can show the love of Jesus in all we do. On October 23rd 2011, we discussed our foundational principles and how these translated into the structure of our meeting. We also discussed leadership within our church community. Our focus was on the Word of God and what was set out in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. The message from our meeting can be heard be clicking on the Listen tab and then the meeting date - 2011-10-23.

Owen Davies has outlined a focus on prayer using a resource book "Lord Teach us to Pray" which will be launched on October 30th at the combined parish meeting. We will be using this over the next few months and then over the summer period we will be using some wonderful material from John Eldridge called Beautiful Outlaw which focuses on the gospels and the amazing words and stories of Jesus.

Boloco Church Foundational Principles

Life seems to have been busy with lots of challenges for everyone. At Boloco Church we have been discussing our future together and the importance of unity. Over the last few weeks we have been talking about some draft foundational principles, which are outlined below:

Being of one mind - THE foundation of unity amongst us is the spirit of god and the living word of god in our lives

We seek unity in the following areas of our life together:

I.                                 Boloco Church Purpose: To meet together as the body of Christ, to worship Him, grow in understanding of His Word and His Way for us. To experience the transforming power of His life in us and see His Kingdom come across the region.

II.                               Foundational principles:

1.The focus of our weekly meeting is to meet with God and worship Him together. His Presence with us is the foundation of the meeting (Matt 22:37; Psalm 99:5).

2.We meet relying on His Word for our counsel & direction (Psalm 16:7-9).

3.We fully anticipate and depend upon God's presence with us each week - to teach, reveal, convict, impart faith, salvation, wisdom, healing, etc (Psalm 16:11).

4.We desire for the gathering in every aspect to be characterized by His love (Matt 22:37-40).

5.Because we are scattered, spending time together is important so that we can support and pray for one another (Romans 12:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:9).

6.We meet together with openness, vulnerability and trust (Hebrews 10:24-25) and do this with a sense of family and informality. We want to speak the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15).

7.We want to see His gifts (1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, Romans 12) fully expressed in our church body to build one another up in Him and also accompanying the proclamation of the gospel as we each go about our daily lives (Mark 16:15-18).

8.We believe that as His disciples we are called to proclaim the Kingdom of God & the good news of the Lord Jesus, heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead (Matthew 10:8; Mark 16:15-18).

9.We are acutely aware that without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5)  and that the Kingdom of God is established in us and through us on the earth not by might or power but by His Spirit (Zecharaiah 4:6).

10.We see prayer (asking Him to do His will - in us, and in the earth) as foundational to the movement of His Spirit upon us as His body and as foundational to a sovereign move of His Spirit in this region to bring revival (Luke 18:1; Luke 21:36; 2 Thessalonians 1:11).

Receiving Gifts of the Spirit

Sunday 7th August we were blessed at Boloco church to have Chris Chan, who spoke at Boloco church 3 years ago about his journey of faith. On Sunday 7th Chris came with his wife and baby together with his sister and brother-in-law, to share his continuing journey of faith. In particular, he encouraged us as Christ's church to ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we are empowered to do His work. Chris' focus was on Mark 16:15-18 "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." What a great encouragement to our little group!

Chris' message can be heard by clicking on the Listen tab on this website and the message is titled: 2011-08-07 - Chris Chan

Spiritual Gifts

On Sunday 24th July, we started what will be a great area of impact for us as a church  - looking at the equipping of Jesus' church through spiritual gifts. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:14 that "the body is not one member but many" and then later in that chapter goes on to indicate that God has appointed apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healings, helps, administrations and a variety of tongues. It is important for us as the body of Christ to be equipped for His work together.

Kate spoke an introductory message about gifts and the impossibility of doing what we are called to do without His life in us. We will continue to explore spiritual gifts over the next few months to understand how we can be more effective as members of His body and the supernatural empowering of the Holy Spirit. You can hear Kate's message by clicking on the Listen tab on the website and selecting 2011-07-24.

Voyage into Outer Mongolia

Sunday the 17th July saw a Mongolian visitor - Dr Zola Baljinnyam, a veterinarian who came to faith in Jesus after the Soviet Union split up and Mongolia became an independent country. Zola is working the Mongolian herders undertaking a research project examining brucellosis, a serious disease affecting animals and humans there. Zola spoke about her experience of coming to Christ in a country that had been under a  communist government for 70 years and systematically enforced the idea that there was no God. It was encouraging to hear of God's work in that country and how Jesus is making Himself known. Zola's visit came on the back of David and Wendy Hall, who are missionaries at the bible college in Mongolia, visiting us a few weeks ago. We will keep up a Mongolian connection which seems appropriate for a little church in a remote location. You can hear Zola's talk by clicking on the Listen tab and then Sunday Talks of this website. It has the date - 2011-07-17 at the start of the talk.

Drawings from Children of Boloco Church - 10th July 2011

The children at Boloco church have been doing a wonderful range of drawings and these are just a few from Sunday July 10th:

The Shocking Story of Love - The Challenge of Conflict Part 2

We have continued the journey and challenge of working through how to love God and love others. Dealing with conflict is always difficult and Jesus exhorted us to forgive up to 70 times 7 and to love our enemies. This is no easy task. It can only be done by the "Power of Another Life" (see Kate's message from a few weeks ago). There are key principles that we can use to guide us from God's Word:
1. All authority is instituted by God (Romans 13:1)
2. Let everyone be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:19)
3. Do not let the sun go down on your anger (Ephesians 4:26)
4. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But is he will not hear, take with you one or two more...and if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. (Matthew 18:15-16)

The message from this Sunday (10th July) can be heard be clicking on the Listen tab of the website and playing or downloading the recording.

The Shocking Story of Love - The Challenge of Conflict

Over the last few months we have been talking together about the challenge of loving God and loving one another. Last Sunday we looked at what the Bible has to say about dealing with conflict and relationship difficulties. This was the first of two messages in relation to conflict. We focused on a few key areas: Romans 13 which deals with authority and how we need to see the authorities in our lives as authorities appointed by God. We also discussed the need to take care with how we speak (James 3:10; Proverbs 15:1) and if we do have problem with someone, we need to go to them directly (Matthew 18:15). There are notes from this talk, based on material from Mike Bickle at the International House of Prayer. The notes can be downloaded by clicking on the following link:
Dealing with Conflict
The talk also can be heard by clicking on the Listen tab on this website - the message is dated 2011-07-03

Entering into the Power of Another Life

Over the last few months we have been on a journey of discovery in relation to loving God and loving our neighbours. As we went through various teachings about this it was soon evident that we couldn't just try harder to love, we needed the "power of another life" - Christ in us (Galatians 2:20). We have had some discussions in relation to this and this week (June 19), Kate gave a powerful message focusing on entering into the power of another life - we do this by faith. Faith is not just intellectual assent but wholehearted commitment to something we can't see. It is not stepping blindly into the unknown but taking a step onto the amazing work of God - what He has done in the past and what he promises for the future. You can hear the message (2011-06-19 Entering in to the power of Another Life) by clicking on the Listen tab and then either listening or downloading the talk.

We will continue discussion about this challenging walk of faith in the coming weeks. In the meantime, it is worthwhile reading "The Normal Christian Life" which can be downloaded (look at the links on the Boloco Church website).

Faith - What is it and how do we get it?

We have had some time as a church to think more about the journey of love, together and most recently the "power of another life" - from Galatians 2:20. At the heart of the bigger story is the journey of faith and this is what we focused on last Sunday (12 June, 2011). In Luke 18:8 at the end of the parable about the unjust judge, Jesus says "when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?". It is clear that faith in Jesus will come under increasing challenge over the next months and years. We live in a society that finds the whole story of Christianity challenging and offensive. It is difficult when a society believes that all beliefs are of equal (or no) merit, to say that there is only one way - the way of the crucified Christ.

On Sunday our theme was "faith" and our focus was on Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". The whole of Hebrews 11 is a remarkable chapter illustrating faith in the lives of the great ones (but who also were fragile and far from perfect, like us). We also read together Genesis 22 about God's test of Abraham who was called on to sacrifice his only son. What a remarkable testimony of faith. The Bible tells us that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17) - so the challenge for us all is to commit ourselves to spending time in the word of God, to increase our faith. The message from can be heard in the Listen tab of this website and is titled: 2011-06-12 Faith.

Love, the Cross and the Power of Another Life

We have been continuing our journey of discovering the challenges of loving God and loving one another. The key verse this week is Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with CHrist; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me". Kate's message this week (can be heard by clicking on the Listen tab and then on Sunday talks - dated 2011-05-22) focused on the story of the Exodus from Egypt and linking it to our crossing over from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God by the cross, with the forgiveness of our sins. She then discussed a further crossing - for the children of Israel into the Promised Land with an exchanged life for us, when we live not by our own effort but by the power of Christ in us. This is something that is little known and hard to grasp as our natural inclination is just to try harder. However there are for all of us areas of sin that we can't just try harder to deal with and it is only the power of Christ in us that can live the life that we can't live. We will continue to talk about this together as it is an amazing truth that we need to understand together.

Love and Life Together in Him

As we grapple as a church with how to love one another, we have continued looking at the Word of God in relation to love. This last Sunday we focused on 1 John 4:7-21 which calls on God's church to "continue to love one another for love comes from God." The passage goes on to say that "All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God". This is an extraordinary statement and at the heart of this is the realisation that we have the power of another life living in us to help us to love one another. The challenge for us is to "abide in Christ" and to access the power of His life in the challenges of life including loving one another. In fact we can only obey the commandment to love one another if we abide in Jesus. The amazing fact of the gospel is that Jesus did not come only to forgive our sins but to offer us an exchanged life - where His life in us can enable obedience to do the things we can't do ourselves. This is the focus of the message at Boloco church on Sunday 15th. You can listen to it by clicking on the Listen tab and then Sunday Talks. We will date all talks from now on by the year, month and date so they can be found more easily. The talk also is called Love 3.

Love, God's Purposes and True Fellowship

Our little church community has been grappling with how to love one another. We have looked at 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 relating to gifts and the challenges of love. We learnt a song that focused on 1 Corinthians 13:3-8 and this is on the website under the Listen Tab and Sunday talks - it is called Love. The song uses the words directly from the New King James Version and as we learn the song together it will be the source of provision of God's word to us to build us up in love.

Last Sunday we discussed the bigger picture of God's purpose for His church on the earth and the centrality of love and the difficulty of doing this together. God is refining us all and as we come together as His church part of His purpose is to knock the rough edges off us for His kingdom purposes, looking toward eternity. The message relating to this can be heard under the Listen tab on this website and the title of the talk (under Sunday Talks) is Love, God's Purpose and True Fellowship. Some of the material covered in the talk can be viewed on this link:
Presentation on Love God's Purposes and Fellowship

Boloco Church Goes on YouTube!

We have been looking for some good resources for children's worship but have been disappointed with what is available on the web. Last night there was inspiration to write a children's worship song and today we have put some images with it and posted on YouTube. The link to the clip is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxkNGfm1gVA

The Story of Love and God's Amazing Rescue

As a church community we have had a focus over the last weeks on the big picture of God's work for us as the body of Christ, our gifts under the Holy Spirit and our call to love. As we looked at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, all of us realised that love was impossible for us by our own effort. We couldn't suffer long and be kind, not envy, not parade ourselves, ensure that we weren't puffed up, were never rude, seek our own way, bear all things, believe all things, hope all things or endure all things. However, God's work under the Holy Spirit is to give His life to us to lead us into love. Kate gave a message focusing on love called A More Excellent Way which is on the web site under the Listen tab, click on Sunday Talks and the talk can be listened to or downloaded. To help us in our walk together to "eat the word of God", we are learning a song using the words of 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 which hopefully will help us have this part of the Word of God inscribed on our hearts. We will record and put on the web site.

Easter Sunday saw a full house at Boloco Church with about 60 people with visitors and lots of children. We had an Easter egg hunt after a great story from Sue Moore about the empty tomb. Kate gave a message called God's Amazing Rescue, which also can be downloaded from the website under the Listen tab. 

We Find Our Rest in Him

We have been continuing a theme of God's grace in our meetings and this last Sunday, Sue Moore gave a remarkable testimony of encountering God as a young mother and in this encounter, the sense of finding "rest in Him". We can all strive to do various things in our lives and find that the achievement - owning a house, our dream job, marriage, children etc - is hollow. It is Augustine of Hippo who said "Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee".

Our God is the God who pursues us with love and as we come to Him in faith, we have nothing to bring except ourselves - weak and broken. He has done it all and this Easter season brings into sharp focus, Jesus' obedience and His sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Sue's testimony which is on this web site (clock on the Listen tab and then Sunday talks), is a wonderful story of God's grace (a free gift and also empowering presence). Thank you God!

Future Grace

At our church meeting last Sunday, Llew Moore spoke about his Christian walk and it was wonderful and amazing to hear of the powerful work of God through the many ups and downs of life.  One of the points made by Llew was the significance of future grace in his life. Llew was impacted by the book by John Piper called "Future Grace". John Piper prefaces his book by referring to his mother and the way that she saturated him in the Scriptures. He said that her favourite quote was from Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths". Piper makes the point that in this passage there is a call to live by faith in future grace. He says that his mother "called me to trust the Lord and she showed me that the focus of my trust is what God promised to do for me in the future".

Llew's talk was a great reminder of God's future grace. As we look back we can see many of the works that God has done in our lives that were unclear at the time and can have confidence by faith in his future grace.

The Tabernacle

We have been learning about worship and how to present our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) as we offer all we have to God. The Tabernacle of God, the plans of which were given to Moses in great detail (see Exodus 25-32) is critical to our understanding of God and what he has set in place so that we can approach him. It also helps us to understand the new covenant in Jesus' blood (see Hebrews 8 and 9). Great detail was provided to Moses by God about the design of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting for His people in the wilderness. As we look at each element, we can see a foreshadowing of Jesus. The link below provides brief information on each of the elements in the tabernacle and their significance.
The Tabernacle

Reading God's Mind

Last Sunday at Boloco we had the last of what have been excellent sessions from Buddy Owens focusing on worship. The last session was based around the importance of the Word of God - the Bible. Buddy pointed out that for our minds to be renewed (Romans 12:1-2), we need to read God's mind and we can do this through His word. He used a great analogy of a teabag in a cup of warm water - if we just dip it in for a few seconds there is no change but if the teabag is left in for 15 minutes, the water changes. His point was that is we are prepared to read God's word and let it soak into our souls, we will be changed as we put on the mind of Christ. He provided a very practical approach to reading the Bible, based on driving around for an outing and I have put these points into a link to use which may help people in the Bible reading:
Reading God's Mind

God's Pursuit

We had a wonderful testimony from Paul Davies, a friend from Sydney who moved with his wife Denise from the UK a couple of years ago. Paul told the story of his conversion at the age of around 22 and the change from a disaffected and traumatised young man - to a man of God. He had gone along to a Christian rally at the Empire theatre in Liverpool with his wife but it was only to see the theatre where people like Frank Sinatra and the Beatles had played. There was a bomb scare and the theatre was cleared and he didn't want to go back in but wanted to go to the pub. He was persuaded by his wife to go back but he didn't really understand the talk which was given by a famous evangelist - David Watson - but prayed a prayer at the end of the meeting, inviting Jesus to come into his life. He describes on the talk (click on the Listen tab and then Sunday talks) the extraordinary change in that moment and then going forward to the front of the meeting. His life changed in that moment and has remained extraordinary in his and Denis's walk with God which eventually brought them to Australia. It reminded me of how God pursues us in the midst of all the "stuff" that happens in our lives (see Romans 8:28).

What is worship?

We have been exploring together the key issue of worship. What has become clear is that although we may not call is as such, we all worship something. The challenge for us as a church is to move into a place where God is at the centre of each of our lives and we worship Him in all the small and big areas of our lives: our work, our home, our bodies - everything we do has a basis in our understanding of the mighty work of God and the fact that we can be bold to approach the throne - because of the blood of Jesus.

A key part of Buddy Owen's teaching is that "apart from Me, you can do nothing"- Jesus said (John 15:5). It is hard to comprehend that all our efforts, apart from Jesus, mean nothing. This calls for us to "abide in Him" and to do this we need to keep His word before us night and day. These are real challenges for us as we go about our daily lives - but we are called to be worshipers and to rest in Him.

The Daily Practice of God's Presence

Last Sunday (January 23rd), we had a good roll up at Boloco church with more than 20 people and we watched the 2nd week of The Way of the Worshiper. Really helpful material to us all with the following key points made by Buddy Owens:

• “Worship aligns us with the throne of God’s grace....You are more likely to feast at the King’s table if you sit at the King’s feet. You are more likely to get wet if you stand in the river than if you wait out in the desert.”
• “When you learn to welcome God into your situation and circumstances, then you will live your life in the light of his presence.”
• “If you are looking for God and you just can’t seem to find Him, the stop what you’re doing and worship Him, and He will come find you.”

In the Psalms, David describes many ways that he has experienced God’s grace by living under His throne. As a result he describes God as: (my shield 7:10), my Saviour (18:46), my Redeemer (19:14), my Strength (22:19), my Shepherd (23:1), my light (27:1), the stronghold of my life (27:1), my hiding place (32:7), my deliverer (40:17), my refuge in times of trouble (59:16), a father to the fatherless (68:5), my confidence (71:5), my loving God (144:2) and many more. Which of these descriptions of God is most meaningful to you?

In discussion within the group, we all realised that we need to commit more of our time to being in God's presence - praying, reading His Word and drawing near to Him (see James 4:8). A.W. Tozer's book Experiencing the Presence of God has been a great resource in the last month and if you click on the link below, you will be able to download a short section that you will find helpful called The Daily Practice of God's Presence:
The Daily Practice of God's Presence

The Way of A Worshiper

Worshiping God is something we will be doing for eternity and so we must get good at it. In fact, everything we do in our lives is an act of worship. At Boloco church we have started a new series of studies on "The Way of A Worshiper". The key Bible verse is Romans 12:1-2. We are using material from Rick Warren's church in the USA and there are 4 sessions on DVD with Buddy Owens. We had the first of these on Sunday 16th and there were a few key messages from Buddy:

1. "The way of a worshiper is a way of life. It is about discovering the secret to friendship with God. It is not so much about doing something but about being someone - not just doing worship but being a worshiper."
2. "The discovery of God's worth to us starts with the discovery of what we are worth to God."
3. "Our heavenly Father loves us not because of what we can do for Him, but because of who we are - His sons and daughters, in whom He takes great delight. And He rejoices over us with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)

As a group, we considered some key questions that are worthwhile thinking about:

• Buddy said "You can tell what a person worships by the way he lives his life." If someone were to look at your life, what would he/she think you worship?
• What are some practical ways you can worship God by the way you live your life?

New Year Challenges

2011 has well and truly begun with all the wonders and challenges facing us all. On the first Sunday of the New Year, we talked together about looking at 2011 under the hand of God and how we needed to prioritise our walk with God. The material that we considered together can be accessed by the following link: The Challenge of 2011

This last Sunday (9th January), Kate gave a message on Face to Face - which encouraged us all on a closer walk with God in 2011. Her message can be heard by going to the Listen tab of the website and then to Sunday Messages.

May your walk with God be refreshed this year and that "He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith.." (Ephesians 3:16-17)