Scripture
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
~Hebrews 11:1, NLT
Quote
Faith is a gift to be treasured
~Ya’akov
Peter reminded his readers that FAITH is more precious than gold. In his first Epistle he said...”So be truly glad, there is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. Then he begins his second Epistle on the same subject… I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. I wonder how many people actually believe what Peter said is true. When you stop and think about it, everything hinges on faith. Peter tells us in chapter one of his first Epistle that our salvation is by faith, our joy, our hope, our assurance are all by faith. Folks, if you have no faith, you are in deep trouble for faith is the currency of heaven. The bank of heaven will not take gold but it will take faith. I had not noticed until today that FAITH is the key to a vast variety of things. As I read Hebrews 11, I saw clearly that by faith we except the fact that God is the Creator; by FAITH Enoch walked with God. By FAITH Noah prepared an Ark when there was no lake on which it could float. By FAITH Abraham believed God’s incredible promise although it seemed humanly impossible. By FAITH Abraham followed God even when he had no idea where God was leading him. It was by FAITH that Issac and Jacob received God’s blessing. By FAITH Joseph believed that the Israelites would leave Egypt someday. By FAITH, Moses parents hid him and by FAITH Moses left the house of Pharaoh and joined himself to his people. By FAITH young David fought a much bigger Goliath and won the battle.
Without faith, you are going nowhere in the KINGDOM OF GOD. I don’t care how smart you are or how well trained, you have to have faith. I can’t think of any thing in KINGDOM WORK that you can do or accomplish without FAITH. Any time a pastor or spiritual leader makes a bold attempt to move a group forward there is tension and there is opposition. It has always been so: this is not a new thing. Twenty eight years ago when we were on the verge of moving our meeting place from down town {kidding} to across from the school where we are now; no one, not one single soul came to me and said, “Bro. Jack, this is the right thing to do. God is in it and I know it. I am behind you lock, stock and barrel.” But I did have those who told me, “You are making a big mistake.” These people were not my enemies; they were not people who despised Bro. Jack. I think they were genuinely concerned about my future but my final decision to move forward came when I understood, these people, though they meet well, had absolutely NO FAITH. They were looking at everything from a human standpoint. Jesus and the supernatural was not in their thinking, at all.
- Day two in St. Louis went well. The sun came out and it was hot and humid. It is kind of like Ruby Falls, if you do it once, you are completely satisfied. Big Mama is tired and ready to come home. LORD willing we should be at 1120 Iron Man tonight.
- This was yesterday’s blog. I had it ready and was waiting for the clock to strike mid-night and the hotel cut my internet off at midnight exactly. Sorry about that!