James 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

Recently I had chest pain like I’d never had before. I was afraid I was having a heart attack. So I went to the emergency room and they ran an EKG and blood enzymes. They found nothing but advised me to follow up with my cardiologist immediately. I did and he ordered a stress test. Then I went in to the office for the results. During the interview process he suspected it was esophageal spasms. They mimic a heart attack, right down to responding to nitro tablets.

Test result are only obtained through testing.

The testing of your faith is done to give you the test results, that your faith is not a mimic.

If you want to insist that faith cannot be mimicked, please do, but the issue of test results is not to prove you have faith, but rather where it is to be found.

Is your faith in Christ? How do you know for sure without it being tested?

Matthew 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

The deceiver will confirm your faith without testing because the last thing he wants is for you to discover you have placed your faith in a lie.

James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

Count it all joy that you are tested because it is a sign your faith is in Christ.

Luke 1:1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,

Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Both of these were letters from Luke to his friend Theophilus. The gospel of Luke was written first. That telling was an early letter rendering those things believed in the early church. Luke, not being an apostle of Christ had no firsthand knowledge of events but was relating those things which were commonly believed among the early believers. Information obtained from witnesses.

It is in Colossians and 2^nd Timothy that Paul list Luke as one of his companions and fellow worker in Christ. Luke’s role moved from a court reporter to a field reporter. As such the tenor and confidence of reporting moved into a new realm. He no longer listened to witnesses, he became a witness.

We all have heard some great witness stories about things others have seen, but it is when you have seen with your own eyes, the power of God amongst the living, that your report takes on a new, stronger and more faithful witness. You have become part of the story, just like a field reporter.

Study the intensity of Luke and compare it to Acts. There is a more sure witness feel to Acts. It has an excited state that lends the writing a zeal that I find missing in the gospel of Luke.

We change in the same way when we move from believing by faith into seeing by faith.

This too is a gift from God.