1/15/15 Hebrews 11:1

1Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2This is what the ancients were commended for. (Hebrews 11:1)

Thoughts: Faith is confidence- it is a trust that allows us to act.  It brings us confidence in God and indirectly confidence in our faith or tie to Him.
Faith is confidence in what we hope for.  Faith is not confidence in what we have, or confidence in what we fear.  It is placing our confidence in our hopes.  Our hope is found in God and our confidence remains in Him and not in ourselves alone or in what we fear.  In fact, faith helps us fight fear with hope for it is confidence in our hope and not giving into our fears.
Faith is assurance in what we do not see.  The difference between faith and sight is that faith allows us to rest our confidence and find peace in what we do not see.  We do not have to see and understand or experience everything in order to have confidence or assurance in something.  I do not have to have seen Napolean or his original manuscripts or his original uniform to believe he was a real person and he really did the basics of what people said he did..  I do not have to pull my brakes every time I get into the car to make sure they are working.  i do not have to see NASA;s charts and calculations in order to believe the sun will come up tomorrow.
    But faith gives us confidence and assurance to move forward with our lives.  Faith enables us to not get stuck in the past or simply determined by our gene pool or environment.  Faith empowers the human spirit to do more.
    The ancients were commended for their faith.  Perhaps they understood a lot less about how the world works today.  But they knew more about the why- and the purpose of the world and the who.  Ironically, the more we are addicted to having to understand everything, the less we are likely to make use of the gift of faith given to us.  Faith involves understanding, but it is not simply understanding.  The ancients may not have understood things- but they understood the need to have faith in God -which many today cannot even imagine.  

Prayer: Help me believe in order to understand. Help me to find my confidence and assurance in you, Lord. 

1-14-15 Belief bringing Joy and strength

16I heard and my heart pounded,

my lips quivered at the sound;

decay crept into my bones,

and my legs trembled.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity

to come on the nation invading us.

17Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

18yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

he enables me to tread on the heights.

Thoughts: The highest belief in God does not waiver in hard times.  Faith enables us to trust in God even when times are hard.  For Habakkuk- the people of God- the only ones who could tell the world about the Lord- are destroyed and taken into exile.  The enemies of God's people destroyed their cities, their crops, their wealth- but not their faith.  The beauty of faith is that when everything on the exterior is destroyed, there can still be hope.   Though we may not be rich in this life, there can still be meaning and strength in life.  The Lord is our strength even if the blessings of the Lord are hard to see.  There is even joy despite out comforts being gone.  

Prayer: Help me to trust in you with strength even in the tough times of life- when my comforts and loves are swept away.  

1-13-14 Believing to Understand

1Then Job replied to the Lord:

2“I know that you can do all things;

no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

3You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me to know.

4“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.’

5My ears had heard of you

but now my eyes have seen you.

6Therefore I despise myself

and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:1-6)

Thoughts: To believe does not mean we will understand everything.  Job says, "I spoke of things I did not understand."  We do not understand the plans of God, and sometimes His plans thwart our best laid plans.  The more we know of God and the clearer we see Him, the more we are humbled and repentant.  The less we know of God the less we respect Him.  Unbelief keeps us from thinking the unusual is possible.  Unbelief retreats us back to thinking only what we expect may happen- the calculable.  It leaves no means for surprises and for mystery.  Belief allows for the unusual which means there is hope in the worst of circumstances, and a strength to call on when we have no strength of our own.  It also means we must bow and humble ourselves before Someone greater than ourselves.  

Prayer: I long to understand in some degree thy truth, which my heart believes and loves.  (Anselm) 

1-12-14 Understanding and Faith

18“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Mt. 13)

Thoughts: At a study by Richard Burnett I attended tonight it was pointed out faith and understanding have two continuums- one that says faith is irrational and absurd and the other that says faith is common sense and totally empirical.  In the middle is what Augustine describes as faith seeking understanding.  We do not have to understand everything to believe- otherwise only the smart could be saved.  But we believe in order to understand.  In the parable of the sower, those who do not add understanding to their faith have it snatched away (vs. 19).  It is the one who hears and understands that bears fruit (vs. 23)  Faith seeks understanding.  Understanding enriches faith.  We do not have to leave our brains at the door to have faith.  

Prayer: Help my mind to go along with my heart, O Lord.  

1/11/14- Keep the Faith

I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people. (Jude 1:3)

Thoughts: We are all urged in this verse from the Holy Scriptures to contend for the faith.  Literally the Greek word translated "contend" here means to "struggle earnestly for."  The idea is to wrestle for what we have been taught- and not to give into easy believing.  We are not called to go along with what is popular or easy or culturally proper.  We are called to KEEP the faith (semper fi) that has been passed onto us.  The faith has been passed to us- and we are called to pass on the faith to others.  Jude is a book of warning against falling into pagan sexual immorality and giving into heresy.  This is also the problem of our day.  We are called to contend- stand up for the faith, and to contend in our own heart for the faith.  We should not be surprised that it is a contentious struggle to which we are called.  The last verse of Jude reminds us that God is able to keep us from falling.  We are called to keep the faith and we are reminded that God is able to keep us.    

Prayer: "Lord I seek you with all my heart, with all my strength you have given me.  I long to understand that which I believe.  You are my only hope; please listen to me.  Do not lett my weariness lessen my desire to find you, to see your face.  You created me in order to find you; you gave me strength to seek you.  My strength and my weakness are in your hands.  preserve my strength and help my weakness.  Where you have already opened the door, let me come in; where it is shut, open at my knocking.
     Let me always remember you, love you, meditate upon you, and pray to you, until you restore me to your perfect pattern."  (Augustine of Hippo 354-430)

1/10/15-- Moses Believed

1Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

4When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6Then he said, “I am the God of your father,^a the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. (Ex. 3:1-7)

Thoughts: Moses was just going to work at a menial job when God spoke to him, calling him to leave his work and go rescue his people,  Moses, doubted his own ability to answer the call, but he did not doubt that it was God who called him  Moses believed God enough to go and do just what God said to do- approach Pharaoh- though that may mean his death.  In the end, Moses believed God could equip him, help him, protect him and use him for the good of his people and for His glory. Of course God used Moses.   We too need to believe God can help us.  

Prayer: Help us, God, to walk in  your ways and believe what ou say.   

1-9-14 Answering the Call with Belief

4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring^c I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Thoughts: God called Abram to leave, and Abram responded in belief by action.  Belief in God motivates us to do.  Perhaps there is no greater motivation than religious inspiration.  Belief in God has inspired some of the greatest pieces of art, works of literature, pieces of music, Missionaries have left families, riches, homes to go to places they had never seen to serve God.  Abram was willing to leave and go in response to his belief.  What can we do to answer God;s call on our lives?    

Prayer: Lord, give me strength to respond to you.