Hebrews 11:1
Hebrews eleven is called the faith chapter in your Bible, it
is all about faith, the faith of some very great people, like Abraham, Sarah,
Moses, and others that you may not be so familiar with. I have come to believe that it is
impossible to live life without faith!
In fact, I do not believe it requires a person to be a Christian to have
faith. I do believe that it is a
gift from God and it was given to mankind to live life on planet earth. Once we leave this life we will no longer
require faith, it will not be of any value in heaven or hell.
Have you ever observed a young child when his/her mother or
dad tells them to jump into their arms from an elevation that seems extremely
high to the child? Or have you
seen a parent telling the child in a swimming pool to trust them to not let go,
or that they can ride their bike without the training wheels? Where did that faith come from, surly
the very young child has not been taught about faith. You may be thinking that it was a learned trust, but what is
that but faith?
As stated above without faith life would be impossible on
planet earth, as I begin my day, I put faith in the Canyon Lake water system
that my water is not contaminated, that the gas-o-line I put into my car is the
real stuff and that the other drivers around me will obey the laws and that the
pilot of the plane will have the skills to both take off and land something
that weighs tons and has small wheels.
So we all show-up with some faith, and it is not required to be a Christian
to operate under faith. And there
in may lay the problem for many, they have never seen Christian faith. They hear about it, but many have
observed family members, friends, or neighbors, who make the faith claim of
being a Christian, but saw little or no evidence of Christ in their life. Form the letter of James, whom many
believe refers to the brother of Christ, as the apostle Paul so stated, has
this to say about faith; “Do you want to be shown,
you foolish person that faith apart form works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by
works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith
was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” – and he was called a
friend of God.” (James
2:20-23)
So you and I who claim the name of Jesus Christ and go by
the name Christians, must have an active faith, a faith that is alive and has
total assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not
seen. If you have a very small
faith in a very big God you are not unusual, in fact it might surprise you that
your faith is in keeping with the apostles of Christ. In Luke 17:5, “The apostles said
to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
So if you are like me in the faith department, you may want
to look to Romans 10:17, “Consequently, faith comes
from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of
Christ.” What the world
is looking far is an active faith, they are not looking for you and I to do
great things for God, and they are hoping to see God doing great things through
you. The apostle John had this to
say on faith, “For everyone who has been born of
God overcomes the world. And this
is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.” (1 John
5:4) It is so important to
understand that faith is not the issue, no, what is important is the object of
your faith.
Form the Back Porch,
Bob Rice