The F word

The F word. Now don’t get too upset okay. Christians, atheists, agnostics, and other religious people all have one thing in common. It’s true. Every day from the time our eyelids open, everyone in the world begins the day. We leave our rest thinking about the events of the day. Some praise God for the day while others are depressed about living another day. The one similarity all people share is that we all use the F word. It is so subtle. We all have faith. We do friends. We do. We have faith that we can get to work in our vehicles. We crank it up thinking we can get from point A to point B without ever thinking that it could be the last time. A Houston Pastor named John Bisagno put it this way: "Faith is the heart of life. You go to a doctor whose name you can’t pronounce. He gives you a prescription you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen. He gives you medication you do not understand --- and yet, you take it." Now, that is living by Faith!  Our pets even have faith. The pets know that we feed and water them. They have faith that we will continue to do so every day. The thought never crosses their minds that one day they might not get that water or food. We do things, we live life by faith. Buddhists have faith in Buddha. Muslims trust in Allah. Hindus believe in various Gods (thousands actually.) Most religious people put faith in their ability to keep the rules … to be “good enough” to satisfy their god --- or reach their Nirvana --- or build up good Karma.
       

     Even when people claim no religion at all, they still live by faith.  Every human puts faith in something. It may be in some notion of human potential. It may be in the supremacy of science or reason or political power. Or they may have faith in some vague concept like “oneness with nature.” But everyone lives by faith. It isn’t just a religious thing. What is faith really? We don’t need a dictionary. We have The Bible. Let’s go to Hebrews chapter 11.

¹Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
 ²For by it the elders obtained a good report.
 ³Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
   
         While verse one may not be a definition, it is descriptive. Things hoped for relates to the crucifixion and resurrection AND RETURN of Christ. The second deals the things not seen referring to Christ’s sacrificial death and the forgiveness of sins. The most famous or well-known biblical story involving faith may be with Thomas.      
            Thomas didn’t believe that Christ was risen. He was emphatic that he would believe only when he could feel the nail scarred hands. Jesus appeared and complied. He, Christ, furthermore told Thomas blessed are those that believe without seeing. That is faith. We don’t see the wind, but we feel it and we see its effects. A.W. Tozer had an interesting explanation for this verse. He said:

       “Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the nonexistent.” Some people think faith is believing in something that is not actually there. Biblical faith believes God when He tells us there is a reality, which we cannot see. Faith means that we keep our eyes on God who controls circumstances --- not on the circumstances themselves. The Book of Romans tells us faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Anyone know another name for Christ? Right, Word of God, The Word.

II Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.  

       Back to Hebrews 11. It is called the Hall of Fame for Christians so to speak.  Sixteen times and I may of miss counted by the way, we see the two words that come before names of biblical icons. The two words are by faith. We start with Abel and go through such men like Abram to Moses to even a prostitute that by faith in not human nature, a political party, a blogger, rapper, or Jersey Shore girl, but by faith in God were obedient to what they needed to do. I’m not going to go through each one, but there are a few.

      Enoch in verse five is a great start.  
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

       He didn’t die. God took Enoch because Enoch so pleased God that oh wait! At this point there may be those skeptics who are educated in biblical knowledge that jump and say but your Bible says there is no one righteous before God, so how can Enoch be good in the eyes of God? Good question. Here’s the answer in Hebrews verse six:

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.      

       God does not look upon sin because God is holy. All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. That occurred after The Fall. Enoch’s faith made him righteous in the sight of God. We as sinners before Christ through faith in Him become new creations, saints before Almighty God. From Enoch we learn that to walk with God is to please God.  Does your faith cause you to walk with God?  

        Verse 13 shows us patience. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.           

        All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.

With faith, they looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. With faith, we look back to His coming. And all of us continue to look ahead to the time when all the promises of scripture will be fulfilled. Becoming a Christian-repenting of sin and accepting Christ as savior is not an intellectual decision. Yes, the brain controls the body's functions, but really, acceptance of Christ is based on/in faith that He is The Christ. It is a decision made by the heart. Nothing I’ve written can make your mind up. Look and you will see as millions have for over two thousand years. God bless.