September 26, 2020

We are Part of Something Bigger than Us!

September 26, 2020/ jan

John Eldridge in his book The Sacred Romance says that deep inside of us is a longing for intimacy and adventure. Here in Hebrews 11, we definitely see both! The intimacy is with a God who spoke us into existence and now can be trusted to care for us every step of the way (we will see this again in Heb 12). And the adventure...oh my! We are part of something bigger than ourselves...and that's exciting! We are in the "race of faith" with a long line of "runners"...some famous, like Abraham and Moses; some infamous and unlikely, like Rahab and Samson; and some unknown, like those who were sawn in two (among other horrors)...people "of whom the world is not worthy," the writer to the Hebrews says (Hebrews 11:38).

September 29, 2015

We are Part of Something Bigger than Us! (Hebrews 11)

September 29, 2015/ jan

What is it enables us to endure, like our fellow runners? It's faith! Not the world's kind of faith, which makes faith a work, or a "name it and claim it," or an "entity" in myself that I need to muster up enough of to get what I want. NO! As Andrew Murray says, "faith is confessed helplessness, casting itself on God [the living God, the "I Am"] and His promises [which are 'yes and amen!']."

So the nature of true, Biblical faith has to do with the unseen and the future. It is confidence in what we don't see: God & His promises; not in what we do see: circumstances, people, things, feelings, etc.

And the outcome of faith is that it puts "a smile on God's face"...it pleases Him. He puts His stamp of approval on us! In fact, He so loves to see faith that He witnesses to it in us...He testifies to it in His children. Remember how God boasted of Job? "Have you observed my servant Job?" That's what God does when He sees true faith!

According to Spiro Zodiates in his Word Studies in the NT, the words, "to be approved, to obtain the testimony, obtained the witness" are all the same Greek word in the passive voice (which means someone else does it). The exciting thing is that God "lauds" [dare I say, "applauds"] us and "reports well" of us because of our faith (which faith, by the way, is a gift, Ephesians 2 :8-9; as is everything in life!)

So this means that God is looking for faith, not perfection! And that is good news to those of us who worship at the altar of "doing the right thing" or "doing it perfectly." It may sound so right to be trying so hard to be perfect or get it right, but where is God in that picture? That sounds more like self-effort and a "works with a smidge of God" type spirituality.

As you reflect on these far-from-perfect-people in Hebrews 11, thank God that, despite your "fluctuations of body and soul," you can walk by faith TODAY, because HE IS and He rewards those who seek HIM...step by step...by faith!

Hebrews 11 – Ray Stedman

BY FAITH Keith & Kristen Getty

By faith we see the hand of GodIn the light of creation's grand designIn the lives of those who prove His faithfulnessWho walk by faith and not by sight

By faith our fathers roamed the earthWith the power of His promise in their heartsOf a holy city built by God's own handA place where peace and justice reign

We will stand as children of the promiseWe will fix our eyes on Him our soul's rewardTill the race is finished and the work is doneWe'll walk by faith and not by sight

By faith the prophets saw a dayWhen the longed-for Messiah would appearWith the power to break the chains of sin and deathAnd rise triumphant from the grave

By faith the church was called to goIn the power of the Spirit to the lostTo deliver captives and to preach good newsIn every corner of the earth

We will stand as children of the promiseWe will fix our eyes on Him our soul's rewardTill the race is finished and the work is doneWe'll walk by faith and not by sight

By faith this mountain shall be movedAnd the power of the gospel shall prevailFor we know in Christ all things are possibleFor all who call upon His name

We will stand as children of the promiseWe will fix our eyes on Him our soul's rewardTill the race is finished and the work is doneWe'll walk by faith and not by sight

April 09, 2015

A Better Resurrection

April 09, 2015/ jan

It was just a week ago that we heard the story of students having been massacred at a university in Kenya. We were stunned but not surprised! Radical Islamic terrorists made their mark again!

But I would venture to guess, few of us have heard the following story of hope and deliverance in the name of Jesus. At least, I hadn't until I received an email from our brother in the Lord, Sammy Maina. Sammy is a pastor of a small congregation in Nairobi. (I posted his personal story of faith last year at Easter time.)

I was overjoyed to learn about the Lord's rescue, all because of the courage of the indwelling Christ in and through one young student. Here is Sammy's account in his own words:

These are the last of the last days and seeing ugly scenes are inevitable as happened when 147 people were killed in a college in my country by terrorists last week. The word of God must be fulfilled.

A man within the group of students attacked told the attackers that he would not denounce Christ just because they held a gun at him. He held his bible in a room that had others in dozens while saying these words. He said if God had seen it fit for him to die by the gun so be it! But he was not ready to denounce that Jesus is his Lord. These words from him made the gunman to shiver and his mind seemed to have been taken away from what he intended to do. He stood for a while just guessing amid the frightened faces of many in that cubicle, save for this bold young man. He asked them all in that cubicle to flee for their lives as fast as they could, not firing a single bullet at them. Thus this group of people that had hidden in that cubicle were all saved because of one man whose mind has been made up fully to live and die for Jesus Christ.

Christ the Messiah of God is the holder of our destiny. He knows our purpose for our living and what mission we must accomplish. If we have full trust in Him, we cannot perish if the reason of our coming is not fully met. We live predestined lives and our part is just to walk the path of that road as a train would move on a railway with its driver, less bothered about its motion for he is more than sure it is on the right track. I hear too that in aeroplanes, pilots would after reaching some heights just relax and take coffee as the plane just moves on its predestined air route. The Lord is faithful!

We all are part of something bigger than ourselves, aren't we?

I can't help but think of what I call my

worldview passage

, Hebrews 11 & 12. There we read of believer after believer who lived by faith. Sometimes good things happened as they walked by faith, but sometimes "bad" things happened as they walked by faith.

But no matter what the outcome, they persevered by faith. I especially love the following passage:

[By faith]

Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them.
Hebrews 11:35-38 NIV

That Kenyan student was hoping for a better resurrection as he stood firm in his allegiance to Christ. The world is not worthy of such as him. May we be encouraged to hold on to the reigning King of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, no matter the outcome on this earth...by faith!

April 12, 2013

Hebrews 11: We are Part of Something Bigger than Ourselves!

April 12, 2013/ jan

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Homework: Read Hebrews 12:1-24 Answer questions in Hoping for Something Better, p. 201-203 Read chapter 9, Hoping…

Hebrews 11 – Ray Stedman

Class notes -- BY FAITH…Heb 11