With the imminent arrival of the Easter season, I thought it might be fitting to focus on our faith for a few weeks. After all, the fact that we have a LIVING Lord is what sets our faith apart from all other religions of the world. The greatest testimony to the power of the living Lord, Jesus Christ, comes from those who have had encounters with Him.
I know of no better place to tighten the focus of our lens than around the book of Hebrews and specifically, the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews. It is often called the ‘Faith Hall of Fame’ and I aim to take a stroll down the hall and interview some of the giants of our faith. My inquiring mind wants to know how their legacies of faith were built.
I hope you will join me for this Monday series that I am calling
Our series will be based on Hebrews 11:1. I’m offering you several versions of it below. Pick the one that suits you and let’s get started.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (NIV)Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (ESV)Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (KJV)What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. (NLT)The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. (The Message)Es ist aber der Glaube eine gewisse Zuversicht des, das man hofft, und ein Nichtzweifeln an dem, das man nicht sieht. (1912 Luther, German)
Faith. Confident assurance. Is it possible to have confident assurance in anything any more? We live in a world of moral relativity where good is called evil and evil is called good (Isaiah 5:20). Faith is a buzzword tagged onto anything that smells remotely spiritual.
We all live by faith to some degree.
- We settle into our airplane seat with faith that the pilot will get us to our destination safely.
- We drink water from a fountain with confidence that the water is safe.
- We submit ourselves to the surgeon’s scalpel believing that he is well trained and capable of doing the job right.
- We deposit our money in the bank in faith that the money will be there when we need it.
What is real faith? How does it look? How do we get it? We will talk about this in our interviews in the coming weeks. For now, allow me to leave you with some quotes about faith.
“There are realities for which we have no material evidence, though they are not the less real for that. Faith enables us to know that they exist and, while we have no certainty apart from faith, faith does give us genuine certainty.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary – New Testament p. 993.
“Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as the present and the invisible as the seen.” – Be Confident by Warren Wiersbe – p. 122
“Faith is putting God in every fill-in-the-blank.” Beth Moore
Each week I will offer you a “Meditation Moment” for your pondering pleasure. It would bless me so much if you stopped back by after you ponder a spell and throw your thoughts out about this question. This how we live out Proverbs 27:17 and sharpen one another.
MEDITATION MOMENT: What is faith to you? How would you describe faith?
