Faith in Christian preaching is trust and confidence in God’s promises, often unseen but deeply assured (Hebrews 11:1). Illustrations use images of mental attitudes, overcoming barriers, and spiritual vision to show how faith shapes perception, sustains believers through trials, and directs their focus toward Christ’s ultimate goal (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Faith renews zeal by leading us toward hopeful visions beyond present trials.
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Herman S. Reichard is the author of this:
I dreamed a dream Of white-robed Faith; with words of cheer and love She took me by the hand and led me on; And by some magic art smoothed out the way Until my lagging zeal was fired anew By future visions of unmeasured bliss. I saw beyond the wintry cold and snow The days of springtime, full of flowers and song To greet and satisfy the longing heart.
Faith trusts God’s daily provision will never fail unless God Himself dies.
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The following incident is related of Rev. John Wilkinson and his Mildmay (London) Mission to the Jews:
On one occasion two American gentlemen sat at Mr. Wilkinson’s breakfast-table and noted his opening of letters which brought God’s supply for the day. “This is all very well, so far,” said one of the gentlemen, “but what would you do, Mr. Wilkinson, if one morning the expected supply did not come?” The answer is clear in my memory, “That can only happen, sir, when God dies.” (Text.)
Faith in trustworthy people enables confident action and success in critical moments.
A graphic account of how Adjutant S. H. M. Byers, of the Fifth Iowa Infantry, carried to Grant before Richmond the news of General Sherman’s advance through North Carolina on his march to the sea in 1865 is told in _Harper’s Weekly_. After a perilous trip, he finally reached Grant’s headquarters at City Point.
“I ripped open my clothing, handed him my dispatches, and excitedly watched the pleased changes on his flushed face while he hurriedly read the great news I had brought from Sherman,” says Mr. Byers. “General Ord happened in at the moment, and the good news was repeated to him. Ord clanked his spurs together, rubbed his hands, and manifested joy. ‘I had my fears, I had my fears,’ he muttered. ‘And I, not a bit,’ said Grant, springing from his seat by the window, ‘I knew Sherman--I knew my man.’”
Faith undergirds daily life and business, illustrating trust needed in God.
If all the world did not trust all the world, we could not do business for a single day. The amount of coin and bank-notes in circulation is ridiculously inadequate to the needs of business. By far the larger part of every day’s transactions of every kind is conducted by means of promises to pay.
The National Monetary Commission has just reported an investigation of this matter. About seventy per cent of the daily bank deposits consists of checks. More than ninety per cent of the payments in wholesale dealings is made by checks, and even more than half of the retail business is conducted in the same way, while the banks report weekly pay-rolls aggregating $134,800,000, seventy per cent of which is settled by checks.
This is a gigantic illustration of the principle of faith. We have faith in the integrity of the average man. We have faith in the business institutions of the country. We have faith that the future will be as good as the past. And in this faith we continue to accept bits of paper in return for most of our labor and the goods we sell.
In exalting the principle of faith in our relations toward God and the concerns of the next world, religion is merely applying to the Owner of all things the same rules that we apply without question to the petty properties of earth.--_Christian Endeavor World._
Superficial religious acts without true faith reveal form without reality.
During the Civil War the late Colonel Bouck organized a regiment, says _Everybody’s Magazine_, which he controlled as a dictator. It was while the army was resting after the colonel’s first campaign that an itinerant evangelist wandered into camp and, approaching the colonel, asked if he was the commanding officer.
“Ugh!” snorted “Old Gabe,” as he was affectionately called, “what do you want?”
“I am a humble servant of the Lord endeavoring to save the souls of the unfortunate. I have just left the camp of the --th Massachusetts, where I was instrumental in leading eight men into paths of righteousness.”
“Adjutant,” thundered Colonel Bouck, after a moment’s pause, “detail ten men for baptism. No Massachusetts regiment shall beat mine for piety.” (Text.)
True glory is found in faithfully pursuing righteousness despite opposition and hardship.
It is glory enough to have shouted the name Of the living God in the teeth of an army of foes; To have thrown all prudence and forethought away And for once to have followed the call of the soul Out into the danger of darkness, of ruin and death. To have counseled with right, not success, for once, Is glory enough for one day.
It is glory enough for one day To have dreamed the bright dream of the reign of right; To have fastened your faith like a flag to that immaterial staff And have marched away, forgetting your base of supplies. And while the worldly-wise see nothing but shame and ignoble retreat, And tho far ahead the heart may faint and the flesh prove weak-- To have dreamed that bold dream is glory enough, Is glory enough for one day.
--WILLIAM HERBERT CARRUTH, _The American Magazine_.
Dreams and faith inspire hope and perseverance through life's challenges.
What should we do in this world of ours, Were it not for the dreams ahead? For thorns are mixed with the blooming flowers, No matter which path we tread.
And each of us has his golden goal, Stretching far into the years; And ever he climbs with a hopeful soul, With alternate smiles and tears.
To some it’s a dream of high estate, To some it’s a dream of wealth, To some it’s a dream of a truce with fate In a constant search for health.
To some it’s a dream of home and wife, To some it’s a crown above; The dreams ahead are what make each life-- The dreams--and faith--and love!
Faith trusts in God's eternal truth and progress beyond human limitations.
Faith in divine progress is exprest in these verses by John Philo Trowbridge:
The eternal truth of God moves on In undisputed sway, While all the narrow creeds of men Decline and pass away.
The eternal light of God shines on Beneath an eternal sky, Tho human luminations cease, And human watch-fires die.
But faith still mounts the endless years, And truth grows lovelier still, And light shines in upon the soul From some immortal hill.
Progress in the world follows stages like plant growth, culminating in fruitful maturity.
* * * * *
Professor Guyot, of Princeton, says that progress in the world is like the development of plant life. It has three periods of growth. The first is that in the soil--growth by the root. The second is more accelerated--growth by the stem. The third is the most rapid of all--growth by the blossom and fruit. The world has been growing by the root, obscurely, lingeringly, slowly. It is growing by the stem now, very much faster. It is beginning to break into the blossom and fruit, when progress will be wonderful compared with our past experience in all other periods.
— HENRY WARD BEECHER
Old habits can hinder spiritual progress and openness to new eras of faith.
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Modern ministers, while they should not be stagnantly conservative, are sometimes apt to make too little allowance for the inveterate habits in old saints of clinging to the past. These old saints in many cases can not easily get into line with the word “go.” They are not prepared for new eras of thought or the inauguration of new epochs. Hume destroyed the faith of his mother and made it a wreck. Arterial sclerosis is a hardening of the walls of the arteries, so that they become unable to bear the pressure of the blood when impelled by the heart under excitement. A similar process of hardening of the avenues of mental operations characterizes many excellent folk in old age.
Visible symbols represent invisible realities understood only by the mind and faith.
The schoolboy writes these figures on his slate: 2+2=4, and says two and two make four. But the two and the two which he has written on the slate do not make the four which he has written on the slate. For both the twos are there unchanged, and the four also. The two and two that make four are in his head--invisible. The figures on the slate are not the realities, they are only symbols which interpret the realities, and the realities are invisible--LYMAN ABBOTT, _The Outlook_.
Great achievements often start from small, humble beginnings.
“Despise not the day of small things.” “Great oaks from little acorns grow.”
A boy used to crush flowers to get their color, and painted the white side of his father’s cottage in Tyrol with all sorts of pictures, which the mountaineer gazed at as wonderful. He was the great artist, Titian.
An old painter watched a little fellow who amused himself making drawing of his pots and brushes, easel and tools, and said, “That boy will beat me some day.” So he did, for he was Michelangelo.
Thomas recognized Christ’s wounds, affirming faith through Christ’s suffering.
Francis, Duke of Guise, bore the common name of _Le Balafré_, or “The Scarred.” In a skirmish with the English invaders he received a wound the most severe from which any one ever recovered. A lance entered above the right eye, declining toward the nose, and piercing through on the other side, between the nape and the ear. The weapon was broken off, a part remaining in the dreadful wound. The surgeon took the pincers of a blacksmith and tore out the barbed iron, leaving a frightful scar which was shown as a signal badge of honor.
When Thomas tested the wounds of the risen Savior he cried, “My Lord and my God.”
Core faith truths must be preserved to maintain spiritual vitality and heritage.
An institution has life in it. Cut any of the faiths of your fathers and they bleed. At the heart of a grain of wheat is a golden spot that holds the life, and a coming sheaf. You may strip off the outer hull, but touch that living heart at your peril. You may change the forms of your government, but, oh, guard the liberty of your fathers. You may change the wording of your fathers’ creed, but at your peril touch the providence of God, His Fatherhood and love, the way of life through Christ, the hope of immortality. You may change the method of worship on Sunday, but at your peril do not destroy it, until in one wild orgy of drunken pleasure, your children become mere insect “skippers,” dancing for a day on the surface of a poisoned pool, then to disappear forever.
— N. D. HILLIS
Dwight L. Moody on Faith: "I prayed for faith and thought it would strike me like lightning. But faith did not come. One day I read, 'Now faith come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.' I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now began to study my Bible and faith has been growing ever since."
(Faith is not like gasoline that runs out as you use it, but is like a muscle which grows stronger as you exercise it.)
Many are skeptical of the trustworthiness of the Bible and judge the
apostolic writers instead of being judged by them. Longenecker believes the
Bible must take precedence.
#1046
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The problem of unbelief. (filed under SCP Newsletter)
Scientists study Creation, but have a hard time with the Creator. Noted astronomer Robert Jastrow writes:
The Big Bang theory in astronomy tells us the universe has a
beginning. Theologians are delighted with the proof that the
Universe had a beginning, but astronomers are curiously upset.
It turns out that the scientist behaves the way the rest of us do
when our beliefs are in conflict with the evidence. We become
irritated, we pretend the conflict does not exist, or we paper it
over with meaningless phrases.
(from “God and the Astronomers,” p.16)
Missionary Chester "Scotty" Scott built a runway and hanger in Zaire though he had no airplanes. Some mocked him, but he finished it. His first plane was from missionaries fleeing danger. Every plane they have gotten has been free.
The story is told of a farmer in a Midwestern state who had a strong disdain for “religious” things. As he plowed his field on Sunday morning, he would shake his fist at the church people who passed by on their way to worship.
October came and the farmer had his finest crop ever - the best in the entire county. When the harvest was complete, he placed an advertisement in the local paper which belittled the Christians for their faith in God. Near the end of his diatribe he wrote, “Faith in God must not mean much if someone like me can prosper.”
The response from the Christians in the community was quiet and polite. In the next edition of the town paper, a small ad appeared. ... It read simply, “God doesn’t always settle His accounts in October.”
===============
Another version:
An Atheist farmer often ridiculed people who believed in God. He wrote the following letter to the editor of a local newspaper: “I plowed on Sunday, planted on Sunday, cultivated on Sunday, and hauled in my crops on Sunday; but I never went to church on Sunday. Yet I harvested more bushels per acre than anyone else, even those who are God-fearing and never miss a service.”
The editor printed the man’s letter and then added this remark: “God doesn’t always settle His accounts in October.” That editor was right!
Sometimes even dedicated Christians are tempted to complain because of what they see in the world around them. Perplexed by the success and prosperity of the wicked, oftentimes at the expense of the righteous, they ask, why doesn’t the Lord do something about it? Why doesn’t He reward those who fear Him, and judge those who disregard Him? Be patient. He will! True, He doesn’t always “settle His accounts in October,” but He does settle His accounts!
So if you’re trying to do the will of God and you become discouraged because unjust people are getting ahead, don’t be shortsighted. Remember what the psalmist David advised: “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb.” He went on to say, “For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth.” (Ps 37:1-2,9)
Faith as taught by Jesus in the gospel of Mark. OT background, what faith
does, who has (and doesn't have) it, false faith, weak faith, and having faith
for others.
*
Medical missionary Bruce Olson was captured by Columbian communists in October 1988. He endured pain by concentrating on the Spirit and doing God's will in his current situation. He was tortured but able to influence the guerrillas by teaching and healing them. He was able to lead some of them to the Lord. While very ill a bird sang outside, reminding him of how the Motilone Indians sang the Scriptures. When they could not break him they apologized and released him. [1102]
Version in sermon:
Medical missionary Bruce Olson was captured by Columbian communists in October 1988. He was beaten and kept bound most of the time. The soldiers were waiting for a ransom, but the mission wouldn't pay. Olson endured pain by concentrating on the spirit and doing God's will in his current situation. He was tortured but able to influence the guerrillas by teaching and healing them.
After a while they even let him conduct worship services. They couldn't understand how he could pay back evil with good. Olson was able to lead some of them to the Lord. While very ill a bird sang outside, reminding him of how the Motilone Indians sang the Scriptures. When the soldiers could not break him they apologized and released him.
[see also HolwickID #27962]
In Minor Prophets series. Habakkuk 2:4 and justification by faith alone.
1. Context of faith in Habakkuk 2:4.
a. Saving faith.
b. Living faith.
2. Influence on Luther and Reformation.
3. Jesus plus me?
a. Roman Catholics. See Christianity Today, 11/7/86, page 26.
b. Jehovah Witnesses.
Sermon in Joshua series. Rahab's lie and faith. Joshua 2:1-14
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A GOOD PROSTITUTE
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I. They've always been with us.
II. Secret spies. 2:1
A. Aren't all spies "secret"?
B. Is Joshua displaying unbelief?
III. Rahab's profession. 2:1
A. Biblical view of prostitutes.
B. Why the spies went there.
IV. Rahab's lie. 2:4-6
A. How her generation saw it.
B. Ways to understand her deception.
C. Should Christians lie?
V. Rahab's bargain. 2:8
A. Main emphasis in story.
B. A covenant of love. 2:12
VI. Rahab's salvation.
A. A request to spare their lives.
B. Salvation of whole family. 2:13
C. The scarlet cord. 2:18
D. Commended for her great faith. Heb 11:31
VII. Are you on same level as this prostitute?
A. Recognize what God has done, is doing, in history.
B. Stand up for God before pagan opponents.
C. Seek the salvation of your family.
#1633
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The prophet Jeremiah had doubts, which led him to greater faith. Otherwise he would have been content with temple reform. Blaise Pascal had doubts but also great faith. Nietzsche paraded his doubts and congratulated himself for them. Real doubt, coming from a reverence for truth, is from God: it does not forbid questions, nor does it answer questions prematurely. Instead, it reaches beyond understanding and asks honest questions.
Actions lead to attitudes.
Interesting experiment by sociologists: Housewives where asked to put a large, ugly “Drive Carefully” sign on their front lawns. Most of them refused.
Another set of housewives was asked to first sign a safe driving petition. THEN they were asked to put up the ugly sign. Surprisingly, many of them did. A small initial action gave them a new attitude, and prepared them for a more significant action.
#2664
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The two parents watched the screen anxiously and with awe. The head appeared. The arms twitched. Then the feet wiggled -- the feet of their 18-week-old baby.
For Lee and Dena Smith, the day -- April 10, 1997 -- and the unborn child were answers to years of praying. Seven to be exact. The ultrasound technician could sense their excitement and smiled kindly as she cheerfully chatted about each new discovery.
Then silence.
As the second anniversary of that day approaches, Lee talks about the day as if it were yesterday.
Unnerved by the sudden stillness, Lee tentatively asked what was wrong. No answer. Lee watched the technician scan the spine and brain stem. He asked again.
“I do see a problem,” said the technician. “And the doctor needs to look at it before I tell you what I think.”
The doctor looked grim. He compassionately, yet firmly, told the tragic news: Their child had an incomplete formation of its spine -- a birth defect known as spina bifida. Accompanying this rare abnormality was hydrocephalus -- an abnormal increase in spinal fluid in the head cavity which leaves no room for brain development.
This neural tube defect had dashed the Smiths’ hopes for a child, at least a healthy one.
More tests at a research hospital revealed a grave situation.
Doctors offered no hope, explaining the baby would die in utero due to the fluid build-up. If, by a slim chance, the child lived, she would exist in a mentally vegetative state, totally paralyzed.
“Really the only option for you is to terminate the pregnancy now,” said one doctor. The Smiths were devastated.
“I remember going to the doctor’s office the first time. I thought that this is what Abraham must have felt like when the child of his faith was in the womb of Sarah,” recalled Lee, a master of divinity student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. “And now, having this news, I wondered if I may have felt like Abraham did when God said to sacrifice Isaac.”
The choice was clear according to the doctor. Nothing within human rationale justified carrying the baby to term.
But, something in the Smith’s faith said, “Let God have his way. If stillbirth was required, then the Lord would give the grace to endure that.”
So Lee and Dena agreed to wait. Their decision shocked the doctor. “The doctor acted like we were absolutely foolish,” said Lee, a native of Raleigh, N.C. “He was short with us and very uncompassionate.”
“‘Well, if you’re determined to do that, I’ll see you in a month,’“ the doctor said condescendingly, Lee recalled. “‘In a month you’ll see that the hydrocephalus has continued to worsen. It will not go away. It will continue to build up until the child’s head cavity explodes in the womb.’“
When the Smiths returned home, Lee called everyone he knew -- the deacons in the church where he pastored, his family, his friends. The Smiths’ request was simple and earnest: They did not care whether the child was mentally or physically handicapped, they wanted a child -- a life.
Church members began to pray. And they instructed Lee to take that Sunday off. “No, I want to preach,” Lee said.
He preached from Matthew 14, which tells of Jesus calming both the storm and the fears of his disciples. He is a “God of our storms,” Lee said.
During the altar call, many came to pray. Overcome with emotion, Lee and Dena left and went home. The congregation stayed, petitioning God long into the afternoon.
The following month seemed to last forever.
“During that time we just prayed, prayed and prayed. And the Scripture that came to my mind is in the James 5:16b, which reads, ‘The fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.’ I began to hold to that Scripture,” Lee said.
The Lord also spoke to Dena that month. She read a book about the women approaching Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body. On the way to the tomb, with despairing hearts, the women had no clue that the stone was rolled away. They were in their “grief journey.” But when they arrived, a miracle had happened.
“I don’t know if God can do this in my situation or not. I don’t know if this is my wishful thinking,” Dena said at the time. “But I feel that the Spirit of God is saying to me, ‘You’re in your grief journey, but the work is already accomplished. The stone has been rolled away.’“
She believed it, and Lee believed it as well.
“It was a comforting sense of the Spirit of God, saying, ‘You don’t know it yet, but I’ve already dealt with this problem,’“ Lee said.
The day for the follow-up exams finally came.
As the doomsaying doctor began the ultra-sound, Lee noticed something different. A full spine. Brain tissue developing. And no fluid.
The doctor didn’t say a word. After about 20 minutes of testing, he turned the machine off. “You’re child is fine,” he said bluntly.
“I don’t know what to say about it. The spine is fully developed. The ventricles of the brain where hydrocephalus builds up are normal size. I don’t have an explanation for how this happened,” the doctor said.
“Let me explain it to you,” Lee said, reciting James 5.
By that time word had spread, and a crowd had gathered. “I announced that continued fervent prayer could reverse what in the scientific realm doctors would classify as a hopeless case,” Lee said.
Lee had another word for the doctor: “If there is one-in-a-million chance for a natural remedy, not to mention supernatural intervention, doctors shouldn’t tell people there’s no hope. That one-in-a million might be my child.”
On Sept. 12, 1997, the one-in-a-million Alison Hayley Smith came into the world.
“She’s doing great,” Lee said.
Since then, Lee has shared this miracle in a dozen churches, incorporating the story into his sermon on Matthew 14, “The God of our Storms.”
God has used Alison’s story to minister to others swirling in the hurricanes of life, Lee said. Following one service, a lady whose baby had the same condition approached Lee.
“I encouraged her that a handicapped life was better that no life,” Lee said. “Sometimes God chooses to heal, and sometimes he doesn’t. When he doesn’t, he’s still the same God. And, the God of all comfort makes himself available, and his grace is sufficient.”
The Smiths view their storm to be like that of Job. “You almost want to say, ‘Lord, why did you put me through that month of hell if you were going to heal the child?’ Well, for the same reason he put those disciples through that long night of toil upon the sea of Galilee in Matthew 14 -- as a faith- building tool.
“No matter how dire the news is, I don’t believe there’s ever a hopeless situation. There’s always hope in the gospel,” Lee said. “God is able to do abundantly more than we could ever ask or think.”
Beginning faith is often “vending machine” faith - I am obedience or faithful, and God fulfills my desires. Although faith of this sort may suffice for a time, it cannot bear the full weight of life. It is a subtle form of trying to conform God to our own image of Him.
One of Stacy Rinehart’s seminary professors used to begin his fall semester freshman class with this question: “Students, I have one question for you. What is God like?” His students would get out their pencils, hem and haw, and wait for the professor to dispense the prescribed answer. But he outwaited them. In desperation, one student after another would attempt to fill the awkward pause. “God is love, God is just, God is like this, God is like that.” The professor would just sit there, unimpressed.
Finally, after they had exhausted everything they knew or had ever heard about what God was like, he would lean over and say, “Men and women, let me tell you something. God is not like anything. He is His own standard. And the tragedy is that you are going to build your little theological boxes around what you think God is like. Someday when you really need Him, you’re going to race to your box and open the lid, and He won’t be in there.”
God does not allow us to continue to reduce Him to a size and shape we can manage. He moves in our lives in ways that burst our categories and overwhelm our finiteness. When we realize He’s bigger than anything we can get our minds around we can begin to relax and trust Him. Ironically, the crisis of disillusionment is what shakes our preconceived notions and beckons us to deeper faith.
Sermon on growth of faith through disappointment. [see #3311]
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PASSAGES OF FAITH
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I. How do you handle disappointments?
II. We all go through stages.
A. Adulthood is not climbing a hill and resting passively on top.
B. N.T. characters went through passages of faith. Luke 24:17
III. Early faith: A faith that is controllable.
A. Rudimentary faith yearns for predictability. Heb 11:6
B. This kind of faith cannot bear the full weight of life.
IV. Second passage: Faith on the rocks.
A. The turn from faith to disappointment is usually unexpected.
B. End of faith can hold potential for its true beginning.
V. Final passage: Faith that overcomes.
A. Differences in faith's stages.
B. Mature faith is tested faith. John 21:22
C. Shift from a predictable God to one who holds us.
Sermon in King David series. David and Goliath. 1 Samuel 17:45-50
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HOW TO KILL YOUR GIANT
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I. A decisive contest. 1 Samuel 17
A. A big valley separates the hills - one mile across.
B. Goliath was a giant in more ways than one.
C. Champions often decided battles. 17:8
D. Three benefits promised by Saul: 17:25
E. Older brother syndrome.
II. Where is the focus?
A. Some scholars think it has little to do with fighting giants.
B. But David wasn't just a weak pipsqeak.
C. God will set things right, but he uses certain people to do it.
III. Seven principles for giant-killing.
1. Save your energy for fighting giants and not fellow soldiers.
2. Giants are often not as big as you think. 17:32-33
3. You have what it takes to kill your giant right now. 17:34
4. Do your giant-killing in the way God has called you to do it.17:38
5. Giant-killing requires a plan. 17:40
6. Giant-killing is a lonely business, but we are not alone. 17:45
7. Giant-killing results in encouragement. 17:52
IV. Deal with the question, "The giant in my life right now is..."
A. Identify the giant.
B. Confront it in name of the Lord Almighty.
A FAITH THAT LASTS
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I. Does distance make the heart grow fonder?
A. Not knowing can be the hardest part of separation.
B. What we should look for in our faith.
II. A faith that can endure trouble. 3:3
A. Real faith will attract trouble.
B. Real faith stands firm in spite of everything.
C. Could your faith survive tragedy?
III. A faith that is characterized by joy. 3:7-9
A. Their faith encouraged Paul.
B. Their faith brought the apostle joy.
C. You are not just living for yourself.
IV. A faith that has room for growth.
A. What is lacking in their faith. 3:10
B. What is lacking in YOUR faith?
V. A fath that loves more and more. 3:12
A. Love is the ultimate sign of a genuine Christian.
B. Love for each other - easy.
C. Love for everyone else - hard.
VI. A faith that is strong enough to last till Jesus comes back. 3:13
1996 interview with the new premier of Taiwan [Lee Teng-hui?] who surprisingly held free elections.
"People say you are a very religious man. What role has religion played in your life?"
"I studied Zen. But there was too much spiritualism. So I had no belief at all. I gradually came back to spiritualism and Christianity. Buddhism and Christianity are different ways of thinking, but the goals are the same. Christianity has love and Buddhism has humility. At their highest points they are the same. But Christianity is a freer way of thinking. The greatest part of Christianity is that you have faith in something you cannot see."
"Did this philosophy help you in tough times?"
"My life of 74 years has been changing time and again, with so many events and situations. I wanted to see people have democracy and freedom, just like Moses leading the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt."
How much faith do you have? It’s not an easy question, even apart from the fact that it is open-ended (you could always have more, of course). What makes it harder is that “faith” has so many dimensions. We receive Christ as our Savior “by faith” and we are told to walk in Him “by faith.” Yet that faith is “the gift of God” and not our own creation, according to Ephesians 2:8. In addition, John 1:12-13 tells us that, although we must “receive” Christ, our new birth is not “of human decision.” We are supposed to have faith, but it doesn’t come from us. What a paradox!
Faith is really not a question of quantity. In Luke 17:3-6 the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith. he tells them their faith doesn’t have to be large - a bit as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. And Jesus does not say, “If you have ENOUGH faith,” but simply, “If you HAVE faith.” True faith is not a matter of personal strength, not an issue of quantity, and not even a question of how much certainty we can muster to meet our needs. It doesn’t require you to grunt. Instead, biblical faith is dependence upon the PERSON in whom we claim to believe. The key to a life of faith lies in focusing our attention on God, our Source, instead of on the answers to our prayer. True faith focuses not upon the believer’s ability to believe, but upon the grace and faithfulness of God.
As we consider our lives and the world around us, we can choose to respond according to circumstance or according to conviction. Those who evaluate the goodness of God on the basis of circumstance will waver in their understanding of His nature. They cry, “Why, God? If you love me, and if you’re good, why did this happen to me?”
Those who evaluate God’s nature in light of what the Bible says about His character, however, will develop a conviction of His faithfulness that cannot be swayed by the winds of circumstance. In difficulty and hardship, such faithful Christians say, “Lord, I know you love me. I know you’re good. I don’t understand, but I choose to trust you.” Take the weight off your own shoulders and place it where it belongs.
[see #3947 for outline]
Sermon in Fresh Look at Jesus series. Hebrews 12:2-4
BELIEVING IN THE DARK
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I. When is it hardest to believe?
A. For many, faith is simple and easy.
B. Others see faith as a struggle.
C. Hardest to believe when it doesn't seem to work.
II. Jesus knew what it was to struggle in faith.
A. Don't assume it was easy for him.
B. Evidence of Jesus' inner combat.
C. Jesus' struggle intensified at the cross.
III. Faith won out over fear.
A. In each struggle, Jesus kept his faith.
B. His final struggle was the hardest.
IV. Where we struggle.
A. Moral choices.
B. Life events.
C. Spiritual struggles.
V. Through the darkness to victory.
A. Crosses are great educational tools.
B. Maintaining our faith through the dark valley.
"The progress of mankind has always depended upon those who, seemingly isolated and powerless in their own day, have seen their vision and remained true to it. In the darkening corridors of time, they preserved integral their vision of the daylight at the end. This is a matter not of calculation but of faith. Our work may be small and its results invisible to us. But we may rest assured it will come to fruition in God's good time."
________
John Ferguson, The Enthronement of Love
Years ago I read a sermon by Dr. Arthur John Gossip, called “When Life Tumbles In, What Then?” He preached it the day after his beloved wife had suddenly died. He closed with these words:
I don’t think you need to be afraid of life. Our hearts are very frail, and there are places where the road is very steep and very lonely, but we have a wonderful God. And, as Paul puts it, “What can separate us from his love? Not death,” he writes immediately. No, not death, for standing in the roaring of the Jordan, cold with its dreadful chill and very conscious of it terror, of its rushing, I, too, like Hopeful in Pilgrim’s Progress, can call back to you who one day in your turn will have to cross it, “Be of good cheer, my brother, for I feel the bottom and it is sound.”
Listen to this inspiring thought by Catherine of Genoa. This was written sometime around 1460, but it rings true across the centuries.
If we could see what we will receive in the life to come, we
would cease to occupy ourselves with anything but the things of
heaven. But God, who desires that we see by faith, gives us this
vision little by little, sufficient to the level of faith of
which we are capable. In this manner, God leads us into a greater
vision of that which is to come until faith is no longer needed.
Final sermon in Joshua series. Joshua's challenge. Joshua 24:15-27
===================
THE ULTIMATE CHOICE
===================
I. Our choices make a real difference.
A. Think of the choices you have made that had an impact.
B. What would have been results of other choices?
II. Choices that face us.
A. Choosing college or career.
B. Choosing spouse.
C. Choosing personal values / lifestyle.
D. Most important choice of all.
III. Why we can believe.
A. God did stuff for the Israelites. 24:17
B. Christian faith is based on real events.
IV. The dilemma.
A. We are not able. 24:19
B. Will God NOT forgive?
V. When to choose God.
A. Don't put it off.
B. The choice is not for you alone - what about your family? 24:15
C. Make your choice concrete.
In "The Peter Principle," Stan Toler writes:
I was a church planter at one time and felt impressed by the Lord to send $50 to some missionaries. When I shared with my wife what had been laid on my heart, we took a look at our checkbook and found $54 in our balance. Not much room for error there. She said, "Honey, I wasn't raised quite like you, but I trust you and have faith in your stewardship commitments. Let's do it." So I wrote the check and sent it to the Carters in Arizona, who were ministering to Native Americans in a small reservation village. Even though I knew it had been the right thing to do, I did begin to wonder how we were going to manage.
The next day I went to the post office, and amazed I picked up a letter from a student at Asbury Theological Seminary who had been one of my roommates at college. The letter read, "I just had you and Linda on my heart and felt impressed to write you. I'm enclosing a check for you, knowing you will probably put it in the offering plate next Sunday, but it is not for your church. It is for you." Fifty bucks!
When the check we sent arrived in Arizona, Doug Carter called immediately. "Stan, your check just arrived. What timing! We had an appointment with the doctor for our daughter, Angie, but we had no money to pay the bill. I was just about to make the dreaded phone call to tell the doctor, but I paused to look at the mail first, and there it was. The Lord was right on schedule, wasn't he?"
How could God touch a poor church planter on the shoulder and say, "Send $50 to missionaries in Arizona," even though he knew the church planter needed it, and at the same time touch a student at Asbury Theological Seminary on the shoulder and say to him, "Send $50 to the Tolers"? A cynical person might ask, "Why didn't God just impress the Asbury student to send his $50 directly to the missionaries in Arizona?"
To the first question I say, that's how God works. To the second I suggest that God wanted to pour out his blessings on three families instead of two.
--management guru Tom Peters
(Despair, Hope)
Copyright(c) 1998 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Leadership Journal. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mail LeaderJ@aol.com.
Fall 1998, Vol.XIX, No. 4, Page 67
*
After the potluck supper Jesus decided that the disciples needed a boat ride. So he sent them on ahead to cross the lake while he stayed behind to pray.
Bear in mind that the disciples were experienced fishermen. No doubt many of them had grown up in a boat. Crossing the lake, they were in their element. The test came at the point of their greatest confidence and competence!
The potluck supper had ended in the late afternoon, so they departed with plenty of time to cross the 4.5 mile lake with time to spare before sunset. The weather had something in store that they had not anticipated. When we pick up the story at verse 24, it was already 3 a.m. in the morning.
Exhausted, wet, cold and hungry -- they were a sorry lot. Then somehow through the gloom they saw Jesus walking toward them over the water. The storm itself was no cause for fear -- they’d been in storms before. The rough waters didn’t frighten them -- they’d navigated worse. But just at the point of their greatest confidence they were faced with something they’d never seen before. A man, walking on the water.
You remember the rest of the story. Peter gets out, begins walking on the water, grows fearful when he looks around and sinks. We read the story as if Peter were the loser. But Peter was the winner. He learned that when you step out of the boat in obedience to the LORD’s command, he’ll rescue you if you sink. Peter was the first human ever to walk on the water; such a thing had never happened before.
The losers were those who stayed in the boat! Sure, Peter was chastized for having little faith (v. 31), but he alone had the courage to trust the LORD, to venture out of the boat and learn that you can always rely upon Jesus to rescue when you’re about to sink.
What’s your boat, Christian? Where do you need to step out, risk sinking, and rely totally upon Jesus?
Go ahead, swing that leg up over the rail.
________
Adapted from an article by Larry McCracken, General Director of the Nortwest CBA.
There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats. All
over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights.
Then he had succeeding acts; he would do it blindfolded, then he would
go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow. An
American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to
the tightrope walker, saying, "Tightrope, I don't believe you can do
it, but I'm willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum
of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to
challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls." Now, Tightrope wrote
back, "Sir, although I've never been to America and seen the Falls,
I'd love to come." Well, after a lot of promotion and setting the
whole thing up, many people came to see the event. Tightrope was to
start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. Drums roll,
and he comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous
part of the falls -- blindfolded!! And he makes it across easily. The
crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, "Well, Mr.
Promoter, now do you believe I can do it?" "Well of course I do. I
mean, I just saw you do it." "No," said Tightrope, "do you really
believe I can do it?" "Well of course I do, you just did it." "No, no,
no," said Tightrope, "do you believe I can do it?" "Yes," said Mr.
Promoter, "I believe you can do it." "Good," said Tightrope, "then you
get in the wheel barrow."
Dear Friend,
This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer in it and it should last for at least five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has to be primed. So under the white rock to the north I've buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and corked up.
There's enough water in the bottle to prime the pump, but not if you take a drink first. Pour about one-fourth of the water and let it soak the leather washer. Then pour in the rest medium-fast and pump like crazy. You'll get water.
This well has never run dry. Have some faith. Then, when you've pumped all the water you need, fill the bottle and put it back where you found it for the next feller who travels this path.
Desert Pete
There was once a small Kentucky community that had two churches and one distillery. Members of both churches complained that the distillery gave the town a bad image. To make matters even worse, the owner was an avowed atheist. They tried repeatedly to close the place down, but were unsuccessful. Finally, they decided to hold an all-night Saturday prayer meeting. That night saw a terrible electrical storm hit the town. Lightning struck the distillery and burned it to the ground. The next morning the sermon in both churches was on "The Power of Prayer." Insurance adjusters promptly notified the distillery owner that coverage did not include "acts of God." The distillery owner then sued all the church members, claiming they had conspired with God to destroy his business. The church members denied they had anything to do with causing the fire. Case went to trial and the judge observed: "I find one thing about this case that is very perplexing. We have a situation where the plaintiff--an atheist--is expressing his belief in an act of God, and the defendants--all church members--are denying their belief in the power of prayer!"
FAITH FAITH PRAY
Forsaking Fantastic Praise of God
All Adventure Repentance of Our Sin
I In Asking for Others and
Trust Trusting Ourselves
Him Him Yielding to God's Will
------------- ------------- -------------
GRACE PUSH JOY
God's Pray Jesus (First)
Riches (Redemption) Until Others (Second)
At Something Yourself (Last)
Christ's Happens
Expense
------------- ------------- -------------
FAT DIE PhD
Faithful Delivered Past
Available Into Having
Teachable Eternity Doubts
------------- ------------- -------------
BIBLE
Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth
*
Fear knocked at the door.
Faith answered.
No one was there.
Cited in More of...The Best of BITS & PIECES
On a recent ski trip, I saw to my surprise a blind person skiing. The blind skier, wearing a bright pink vest, stayed directly behind an instructor, listening for directions on how and when to turn. Over the next several days I saw many blind skiers, invariably following the person who gave them the information they needed to make it safely down the mountain.
Remaining, or abiding, in Jesus means following him in the same way. -Steve Winger Lubbock, Texas
A preacher once told of two young brothers who were playing one afternoon. As the sun set, one said, "Look how fast the sun has moved. When we came out to play, the sun was high up in the sky and now it has moved until it is going out of sight." His brother said, "Yes, but remember: It's not the sun that has moved. It is the earth that has moved. Daddy told us that." The first boy said, "I know better. I have been standing here on the earth the whole time and I know what I see with my own eyes. The sun is what moved. " The preacher then made the application: This is the way mankind is divided. One group believes what the Father says. The others believe only what they can detect with their own senses, however misleading they may be, accepting nothing by faith in a loving Father. "For we walk by faith and not by sight," (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Knowing this is one thing--trusting God during the Lystras of our life is another! Years ago a group of visitors at the Philadelphia mint were told by a worker in the smelting works that if you first dipped your hand in a bucket of water, a ladle of molten metal could be poured over the palm of the hand without harm. A husband & wife were part of the group. "Perhaps you'd like to try it?" the worker said to the man. "No thanks, I'll take your word for it!" Workman turned to the wife: "Perhaps you'd like to try it." "Certainly," she replied. She put her hand in the bucket and calmly held it out while the metal was poured. Husband believed at one level--not at the level of trust.
W. E. Sangster told the story of a little girl who came home from school with the proud announcement that she had learned the multiplication tables, even 12 times 12. Her grandfather mischievously asked her, "What's 13 times 13?" She replied, "Don't be silly, Grandpa. There is no such thing."
Isaac Rankin says that just outside his window is a large wire which carries a heavy current of electricity for light and power. It is carefully insulated at every pole and is out of common reach. "However," he says, "if I could lean out far enough to grasp it, death would be as swift as a lightning stroke. Yet the doves in my
neighborhood suffer no harm when they perch on it. They fly from my windowsill, where I sometimes feed them, and preen in safety and contentment on the cables. The secret is that when they contact that
wire, they touch nothing else. My danger would be that should I attempt to reach out and do so, the walls of my house would act as a ground, and the current would turn my body into a channel through which the electricity would flow in damaging power. Because they rest wholly upon the wire, they are unharmed. So God would have us seek our safety in complete surrender to His power and love. It is when we reach one hand to Him while still holding fast to some forbidden thing with the other that we are in danger."
In April of 1988, a TV cameraman jumped out of a plane with some
other skydivers. His goal was to record the exciting jump of the
skydivers as they fell to the earth. What's more, this footage was
shown on the local TV news, but not for the reasons why the cameraman
had originally recorded the event.
After several minutes of "free fall," the cameraman then filmed
the skydivers as they one by one opened their parachutes. Of course,
the final skydiver was the cameraman himself and the time came for him
to pull his parachute ripcord.
However, when the cameraman reached for his ripcord, he realized
to his horror and shock that he had no ripcord. It turns out that he
had completely forgotten to put on his parachute.
For the next several minutes, the cameraman was able to capture
the sheer terror as he ultimately fell to his death. Indeed, toward
the end of the film, the picture went berserk and eventually went
dead.
This story is not only tragic, but it is also ironic. Ironic
because the cameraman took a plunge into what appeared to be an
exciting and thrilling jump. But tragically, in a moment of foolish
carelessness, he made the worst mistake of his entire life: he jumped
to his own death. Yes, his faith had been based upon a parachute -- a
life support -- that wasn't there.
In the same way, if we based our lives upon anything other than
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, then we will make the biggest mistake
of our entire lives as well. That is, faith other than in Christ will
lead to our spiritual deaths! What's more, this spiritual death will
be for all eternity -- forever and ever!
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