"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by the_power of God manifested to you for obedience (faith} that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of     Christ, which possesseth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."

     NOTE: These are just a few samples of the over 250 examples of this duality of faith found in the New Testament.  The others, for the whole New Testament, have been similarly eval uated and "synthesized" and can be found in the appendix.

      As such, the appendices are keyed to each of the books of the New Testament - Matthew through Revelation - with all uses of faith found being delineated per the "Power of God" and the "obedience of man" concept.  I trust you will find increased blessing and insight for further study and understanding of the Word of God via these appendices.

A REVIEW OF SOME DEFINITIONS

     HIS FAITH:     The power of God manifested (to us) - (through us).  His instruction/command.

     OUR FAITH:     Obedience to His instruction/command.

                    (FAITHFULNESS)

      GRACE:        God's posture of forgiveness, His willing ness to make a way out for man.

  "For by Grace (His forgiving posture) are ye saved through faith (His Power)..." (Ephesians 2:8)

      GOD'S LOVE:     The Father heart-drive of God, the driving (Agape) force of His Grace, the switch for His power -- so remarkably expressed in Jesus.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave..." (John 3:16)

 EXAMPLES OF GRACE and FAITH

           Via the duality approach (God's and man's)

       EPHESIANS 2:8,9

 "For by  God's posture of forgiveness and willingness to make

a way out for man (grace) are ye saved through the power of

God manifested to you (faith);  and that not of yourself, it

is the gift of God, not of works," [rather, of obedience to

His instruction] "lest any man should boast."

  NOTE:       This is only one "definition" of grace as shown above, although this, too, can be the subject of a very detailed study, but the definition shown above is one that can he very rewarding to us as we allow it to become a part of our thinking.

 THE OCCURRENCES OF FAITH - A HISTOGRAM

      As I concluded the search for faith statements, I realized that only a few books of the New Testament (specifically two of John's writings) had no (zero) uses: some had many.  A faith histogram by books of the Bible seemed in order; as such Figure 1  resulted, showing the number of occurrences of "faith" per book.

      It is very interesting to note that the two having the most prominent uses were also the key treatises to the Greeks and to the Jews (the books of Romans and Hebrews).  These had 38 and 36 uses, respectively, at least 50% higher than the next larger users (I Timothy and Galatians - these at 24 and 23, respectively).  These then in turn were about 50% above the main field of users, where a predominant number of the books had between 10 and 15 uses.

      It is of interest, though, that both I Timothy and Galatians have denser uses of faith on a per verse basis:  I Timothy, 21% of verses use faith;  Galatians 18.8%; Hebrews 11%; and  Romans 9.4%.  The 11th chapter of Hebrews is the most dense chapter with 35% of verses using faith.

      The significance of this is not too clear, but, it is interesting that faith in one of its forms is used at least 284 times in the New Testament, and without clarity of definition the depth of meaning and understanding is at least partially lost.

       With the concept that faith is, indeed, God's primary communication "media" to man via the Holy Spirit, as has been made quite evident to me, the overwhelming urgency for me to be obedient to His every command/instruction has been made very clear.  Before, I could (and did) "in my ignorance" side‑step many a blessing as I was disobedient to Him.

      Yes,     He commands!  We do hear ...     Are we faithful?  or faithless?

      He implores us to be obedient --- to be wise  --- to be faithful.  Let's be alert --- yes, let's let our "reflex obedience" grow ...........       

 Histogram 1a

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