The Nature of Faith, part 6

And not being weak in faith,
he did not consider his own body, already dead
(since he was about a hundred years old),
and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
Romans 4:19, NKJV

What do you do when the promises of God say one thing, and the reality of the situation says another? This is where the rubber of our faith meets the road of God's faithfulness. I use that analogy because the road is constant. It is solid and firm, and though winding, it will get you where the map says it goes. But my faith is ever turning, and my tires aren't always consistent. They get bulges and bald spots. Right now one of the tires on my truck has a slow leak that I have to keep refilling until I take the time to have it fixed. If a tire sits in the same position too long, it gets misshapen and rots. Are there lessons to be learned there? If anything, faith needs to be active.

Take Abraham for instance. He was "about a hundred" when God showed up at the door of his tent for a conversation. Among other things they discussed, God told Abraham that Sarah was going to give him a son. The first time God said it, Abraham laughed. The second time God said it, Sarah laughed. But it is God who laughed last, for when that boy entered the world, they named him laughter. That's a good way to put another spin on your faith.

Abraham was ninety-nine, Sarah was ninety. People may have aged differently back in the patriarchal days, for they lived much longer. Sarah died at 127, Abraham at 175. I've often tried to think of it in relative terms, comparing their lifespans to ours. In other words, Abraham and Sarah were middle-aged. She had likely gone through The Change, and Abraham probably experienced some Dysfunction. They weren't young people anymore. He didn't have the toned muscular physique of his prime. She was still beautiful, but perhaps that perfect hourglass figure had broadened and softened a bit. The pitter-patter of their hearts wasn't attraction and infatuation, it was atrial fibrillation. Their hair was gray, their faces wrinkled, and let's face it, a lifetime of nomadic tent dwelling could not have been an easy one. The years had taken a toll on their bodies.

So when God showed up and said they were going to have a son, it wasn't the easiest thing to believe in. God had to repeat Himself several times and endure some mental jesting from his two chosen servants. Finally, he said, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" The obvious answer being no, that put an end to the discussion.

Abraham was a man of faith, a man who had always put feet to his prayers. When God said get up and go, he got up and went. When God said pack your bags, Abraham was ready. He did not consider the lifelessness of his own body, nor the lifelessness in Sarah's womb. I've got a sneaking suspicion that these two people, who had lived and walked by faith for a quarter-century in following God, acted upon that enduring faith regarding this promise too. After dinner that night, I'm pretty sure they had a little private alone time that we won't speculate on here.

And the wheels of faith kept on turning

The Nature of Faith, part 5

who, contrary to hope, in hope believed,

so that he became the father of many nations,

according to what was spoken,

"So shall your descendants be."

Romans 4:18, NKJV

It seems I still have this lesson to learn, that when God makes a promise, He's good for it. If God has said He'll do it, He will. If God has said it will happen, it will. If God has said you'll get it, you will. No matter what. God doesn't make promises that He can't make good on.

Take Abraham for instance. Abraham was seventy-five years old when God started making promises to him, promises about a hope and a future for him and his descendants forever. God promised Abraham a new home and country, a land that he could call his own, and He promised Abraham children and family, heirs of the promise. Those promises were repeated to Abraham over and over again through the course of the next quarter-century. At one point, God showed up and personally made a covenant with Abraham--the most sacred of ancient agreements two people could make--and demonstrated that He Himself would uphold both His end of the covenant, and Abraham's. God was swearing by Himself, and then He said, "Look at the stars and count them if you are able. So shall your descendants be."

Abraham was almost halfway through the length of his life when he received that promise from God. He was getting older, his body was starting to suffer the consequences of advancing years, and his wife was aging as well. The situation didn't look good from the start, and at seventy-six, he still wasn't a father. At eighty, he still wasn't a father. At eighty-six, he took matters into his own hands and tried out Plan B; that didn't work so well, even though he fathered Ishmael through it. But God had something different in mind for Abraham. At ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine he still had not received the fulfillment of God's promises. By then, his situation looked, to his natural eyes, impossible. "God," he said, "I'll just be satisfied with what I have. I have Ishmael, and that's good enough for me."

Let me pause here for just a minute.

Many times, we receive a promise from God and expect immediate fulfillment. We expect to see the promised blessing materialize out of thin air right before our eyes just like that (snap fingers here). And sometimes, God does things that way. He speaks, and BOOM, just like that it happens. But other times, God takes some time. He has good reason for it, I'm sure. He's getting us ready to receive. He's moving us where we need to be. He's bringing others into place. He's working on our behalf, working out all things for the good of those who love Him, who are the called according to His purpose. He's always doing stuff, even when we can't see. To us it takes along time, but God has a different perspective.

Let me put it this way. The Apostle Peter wrote that with the Lord, one thousand years is as one day, and one day as a thousand years. Now I'm not certain as to the mechanics and dynamics of that statement, but if we take it most literally, the twenty-five years that passed in Abraham's life--from seventy-five to one hundred--was about thirty-six minutes on God's watch.

Sometimes we get in a hurry. Like Abraham did at minute sixteen in the time frame of God, sometimes we get impatient and try to handle things ourselves. We get ahead of God's unfolding plan, skip steps, skim passages, going forward by leaps and bounds when God wants us to take small, cautious steps. We've got the end in mind when God is working through the journey. And every time we get ahead of God, we get an Ishmael--an ill-conceived, illegitimate, unruly product of our work instead of our faith. What's even worse is that sometimes we delight in the bastardization of God's plan and cease hoping for something better. We think we have what we wanted all along, and it is enough.

But God's plan is still in motion; God's promises are still faithful and true. He's not going to let us down, and he's not going to leave us with broken dreams or broken hearts. Abraham may have been happy with Ishmael; he may have even been happy with Hagar. And perhaps they were happy with him. But one person not happy with those circumstances was the instigator of Plan B, Abraham's wife Sarah, who thought she was helping God out by providing a surrogate. Sarah had always been part of God's plan; Hagar was not the way. And now Sarah was being excluded from fulfillment while Abraham played with inadequacy.

So when Abraham was ninety-nine years of age, and Sarah was ninety, at 34 minutes and some seconds past the hour of God's promise, God Himself shows up again, twice, and makes covenant with Abraham again. This time, though, He cuts covenant with Abraham in his manhood, instituting circumcision as the sign of covenant, forever marking what would likely have been considered the symbolic representation of Abraham's vim, vigor, and vitality. And then God says, "Sarah your wife shall have a son."

It wasn't logical for Abraham and Sarah to expect to have children. It wasn't normal. their contemporaries were likely enjoying grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They were past their prime. The time for hope was gone. And yet when God spoke, reiterating the promises He had been making all along, the Bible says that Abraham, contrary to hope, in hope believed.

Sometimes that's a lesson I still need to learn.

The Nature of Faith, part 4

Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace,

so that the promise might be sure to all the seed,

not only to those who are of the law,

but also those who are of the faith of Abraham,

who is the father of us all

(as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations")

in the presence of Him whom he believed--God,

who gives life to the dead

and calls those things which do not exist as though they did...

Romans 4:16-17, NKJV

Faith is belief.

It is conviction.

It is persuasion.

It is trust and hope and confidence.

Faith is not science or philosophy or politics.

Faith is not opinion.

Faith is not imagination, although some would call it a delusion.

Faith is the substance and reality of hope , the evidence and proof of things unseen.

Faith is a choice.

On a day that is not thoroughly described in Scripture, Abraham made a choice. The Bible says that Abraham heard the voice of God--a voice, we might assume, he had never heard before, belonging to a God he did not worship--that told him to leave his homeland and family and go to a land that God would show him. He was given promises of becoming a great nation, and of being infinitely blessed by both God and man, and of providing a blessing to all the people of the earth. Based apparently upon that revelation, Abraham made a choice; he chose to follow the voice.

In what did he place his faith? In whom did he trust? The Bible shows that Abraham believed in the God who created all that is, who formed the original man from the dust of the ground and fashioned that man to look like Him and to be like Him. Abraham believed in the God of his forefathers, the God that Adam knew personally, that Abel worshiped, that Seth and Enos called upon, that Enoch walked with, that Noah obeyed. How Abraham's family strayed from the true faith to become idol worshipers in Ur of the Chaldees, and how Abraham was restored to that faith, we are not told. What we are told is that Abraham heard the voice, listened to its commands, and made the choice to believe and follow.

And therefore it was accounted to him as righteousness.

But in whom did he believe, and who are we to believe today? The Apostle Paul said that Abraham believed in the One who gives life to the dead and creates by the power of His word. In other words, Abraham believed in the God who can do anything, everything, whatever He pleases.

God brought life to the deadness of Abraham's spirit when he called him from idolatry to serve the One True God and live in newness of life.

God brought life to the deadness of Abraham's and Sarah's aged bodies, enabling them to conceive. God did such a good job on Abraham, that he went on to father six more sons in his old age.

God brought life to the deadness of their hopes and dreams for an heir and a legacy, demonstrating His own faithfulness to His word and His promises, which are faithful and true.

God brought Isaac symbolically back to life when He prevented Abraham from sacrificing him and provided a ram in his stead.

And God will bring life to Abraham again when he is resurrected to walk in eternal life.

God called Abraham the possessor of Canaan, though he never owned anything more than a burial plot for his people.

God called Abraham the father of many nations before he ever fathered a son.

God called Abraham a blessing to the whole world before Abraham ever even followed the Lord!

That's the God I serve today, the God we all can believe in, the God in whom I have placed all of my hope, my confidence, my trust, the God in whom I have put all my faith. He has demonstrated His great faithfulness to me again and again, and I am persuaded that He will continue to be faithful to what He has said.

Don Quixote

My Mother tells me that I can't fix everything. But that doesn't keep me from wanting to try. You see, ever since I was an adolescent boy, my hero has been Don Quixote de la Mancha, which usually means I go off fighting windmills and chasing dragons, constantly dreaming the impossible dream. (If any of this is lost on you, I suggest you find the musical Man of La Mancha or read the classic Spanish novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes). I have often been the one to see giants instead of windmills, castles instead of taverns, and beautiful dreams instead of awful realities.

At one point, Cervantes is accused of being an idealist, a bad poet, and an honest man...to which he pleads guilty. He says, I've been a soldier and a slave. I've seen my comrades fall in battle or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I've held them in my arms at the final moment. These were men who saw life as it is, yet they died despairing. No glory, no brave last words, only their eyes, filled with confusion, questioning "Why?" I don't think they were wondering why they were dying, but why they had ever lived. When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? To surrender dreams - -this may be madness; to seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness! But maddest of all - -to see life as it is and not as it should be.

I want to bring cheer where there is nothing but sorrow, and hope where there is nothing but loss.

I want to be a friend to the friendless, and help to the helpless.

I want to fight unwinnable battles and duel unbeatable foes.

I want to right the worst of wrongs and make up with good for the bad things that were done.

I want to love the unlovely, unloving and the unlovable.

I want to speak words of encouragement to those who are broken down.

I want to see the invisible, receive the incredible, and believe the impossible.

I want to heal broken hearts and bind up their wounds.

I have at times been accused of always needing a cause, a hill to die on, a distressing damsel to rescue. I have made myself a fool standing up for things I believed in. I have sometimes brought trouble on myself by speaking out about things when others wished I would just sit down and shut up. I am not always understood, not always appreciated, but I'm not looking for admiration or recognition. I'm simply doing what I have to do.

I'll charge hell with a water pistol and go devil hunting with a switch.

I'm afraid of nothing.

I'll get out of the boat if someone calls to me.

I want to make the world a better place.

I want to heal broken hearts and bind up wounds.

Maybe my mother is right. I can't fix everything. If I could, life would be a lot different now. My life would be different now. But there are just some things that can't be fixed. There are some circumstances that cannot be changed. There are some people who can't be helped. Through it all, one thing I have learned...and that is how not to give up. I don't give up on God, I don't give up on living, and I won't give up on you.

The Nature of Faith, part 3

For we walk by faith, not by sight

2 Corinthians 5:7, NKJV

If I've said it once before, I've said it a hundred times. It's easy to live by faith and walk by faith when everything around you is aligning with that faith, when all things are going according to plan, and life looks like it's going to turn out the way you've been believing. But when times are tough and the way is rough and nothing seems to go right, living by faith is not always the easiest thing to do.

When the storm is raging, the battle fierce, the night grown dark and foul. When the hand of every man is against us, and our hand against every man. When we are bruised and battered and badgered, besieged on the right hand and on the left. When we are pursued without escape, pressured without relief, struck down and kicked around. When we cry and pray every night and every day, and yet no answer will come. When our sight is blinded by blood, sweat and tears. When our heart is breaking into a thousand separate pieces. When our guts are wrenched by the pain and agony of our own personal suffering. When failure seems to be our constant companion, and success the dream that flees when we wake. When it feels like the weight of the world is on our shoulders alone, and there is no help within reach.

It's easy to get our eyes on our surroundings, our circumstances, our difficult situations and our failing selves. And when we do, we begin to feel like there will never be an end...unless we give up. Unless we surrender to the darkness, wave our white flag in the face of adversity. Then it will be over and we can die in peace.

But the Bible says don't do it! Don't look at your setting; look to the Savior. Keep your eyes fixed upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. He is where you will find the courage and the strength to carry on. He is where you will find the hope to believe in what you have been promised, and to trust in the one who promised it to you. He is where you will find the faith to persevere.

Whenever I find myself in difficult circumstances, I like to turn my thoughts to those men and women of faith who have gone before, to see how they handled themselves.

Abraham left everything behind to follow the high call of God, received promises of an heir and an inheritance, and looked beyond this life to a city that has foundation, whose builder and maker is God. It was only when he took his eyes off God and started trying to figure things out for himself that he got in trouble.

Moses had nothing but a stick and a commission, but he spoke with the authority of the Great I AM and followed through on everything he said. It was only when he took his eyes off God to strike the rock instead of speak in faith that he got in trouble.

Gideon could see nothing but his own short stature, his own insignificance, his own inabilities, his own inadequacies, but God saw something more. And when Gideon decided an army of thousands was just what he needed, God made him fight with just 300 men armed with bugles and flashlights. He saw what God could do.

David looked past a giant to see his God and won the victory.

A widow woman looked past the empty jars of meal and oil to see her God, feed a prophet and receive more than enough for as long as she needed it.

Elijah looked past the 850-to-1 odds to see his God and started a revolution.

Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego looked past the flames of death to see their God and find life in the presence of their Lord.

Daniel looked past the hungry lions to see his God and a night of sweet deliverance.

Philip had his eyes on five tuna fish sandwiches and a hungry crowd of thousands, when he was standing next to the provider of all things.

Peter had his eyes on the waves when he was walking on the water with the master of the wind.

Martha had her eyes on the impossibilities of death and the grave when the Lord of life spoke and said, "roll back the stone."

The disciples were crippled with grief and despair by the finality of the cross, but they forgot what Jesus had said. Destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up!

As one preacher said, "You can't go by what you see; you gotta go by what you know!"

Walk by faith, not by sight. Reality is not what you see around you, but what is happening in you. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path!

I've Got Good News

Then the angel said to them,

"Do not be afraid,

for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy

which will be to all people."

Luke 2:10, NKJV

What a night! What an announcement! And we need to hear it as loudly and clear as they heard it on that night. Here were these shepherds, just your ordinary, every-day, average stockmen minding their own business on a hillside near Bethlehem. It was the middle of the night, and all was quiet. And then an angel glowing the light of the presence of God steps from the celestial onto the terrestrial and--as the shepherds cowered in shock and awe at the appearance--says those famous angelic words: FEAR NOT!


"Why not?" those guys might have asked.


"Because I've got good news!" was the answer, whether the question was asked or not. And that's ultimately what needs to be understood about the birth announcement of Jesus Christ. The church has often used the "gospel" to hit people over the heads, to browbeat, bully and berate folks into rejecting it so that we can dust our hands off and say, "Well, we tried to tell 'em. All those dirty rotten sinners are going to hell, praise His holy name, and they had their chance to get it right with the Lord just now, and they didn't take it, so they can go on go if they're going." We've eased our conscience by telling people to turn or burn, while having little genuine concern for the condition of their lives or the eternal destination of their souls. It ought not to be that way, because the gospel is good news. It's not about hell, it's about heaven. It's not about sin, it's about salvation. And it's not about the sinner, it's about the Savior. Imagine the response we might get if we started telling people the good news that we have, rather than the bad.


The Angel continued that it was good news of great joy! The gospel of Jesus Christ is supposed to generate excitement, producing feelings of joy and hope and love among those who hear it. We've often turned it into a drudgery. With our long, unsmiling, unfriendly, unhelpful faces we mutter our verses about sin, judgment and death and wonder why people aren't joyfully receiving. What would happen if we were so excited about Jesus and the message of salvation that it showed on our faces and was heard in our voices as we told people about Christ and what He's done for us? What would happen if our enthusiasm about being saved stirred others to desire? People might actually start believing us if we started acting like we had something that just tickled us pink.


The final part of the message was, in my opinion, the coolest part of all. To this point in human history, God had revealed himself specifically to one nation, and sporadically to anyone else. But it was with a purpose. He needed a dedicated people through which he could bring His ultimate plan to fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, all the planning and preparation was done. The fulfillment of all the promises was here. And this time, it's not just good news for the Jewish people. It's good news of great joy for everybody, everywhere. And it still is.


The salvation available through Jesus Christ is still good news to the Jew, and the Gentile. It is good news to the freedman, and to the slave. It is good news for the rich, and for the poor. It is good news for everyone who will hear, and believe, and receive. It is good news for you. Jesus has come that you might have everlasting life!

The Nature of Faith, part 2

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1, NKJV

I have always loved this verse. Ever since I began seriously studying the Bible and discovered it, I have been unable to forget this singularly powerful statement on the nature of faith. I remember first finding it after a particularly frustrating conversation in Honors Biology with a fifteen year old atheist who demanded proof from me that God created the universe. Before I could answer, my best friend (who had also been playing devil's advocate) snapped, "He doesn't have to prove it; he has faith!" Even though I wanted to smack him for having fed the fire, I did greatly appreciate his declaration.

That was back in the day when I proudly carried my very large New King James Study Bible to school with me, when I helped lead the discussions in the High School Bible Club we had during lunch on Tuesdays, when everybody knew I was the son of a preacher man. But I have to admit, my mind was reeling from the dizzying lunacy of this beautiful creature who boldly declared there was no Creator, that the entire universe--from its far flung cosmic dust right down to the tiniest details of infinite precision--was, in fact, the result of accident and coincidence. It boggled the mind. It still does.

I'm not a scientist. I'm not a philosopher. I'm intelligent and well-read, but I wouldn't consider myself a great thinker. I used my Study Bible to look up some verses on faith, and found this one. I wanted to prove the existence of God. I wanted to find the answer to that girl's challenge. I wanted to be able to wave my enormous Bible in the air and shout for all the world to hear, "You want proof? I got your proof right here!" I wanted something that would change her. Instead, I found something that changed me.

Faith is the substance. Faith is the reality. It's not that I needed proof, but rather I needed to realize that faith is the proof.

Faith. Belief. Conviction. Persuasion. Certitude. Hope.

I have never been the kind of guy who needed evidence of God shown to me. I don't need scientific proof. I don't need Him to show up in person and speak in a big booming voice in order for me to believe. I don't need a seven-foot angel with a telegram on the end of a flaming sword to be convinced. I have faith, and it seems I have always had faith. It was instilled in me from my childhood, from before I could even read. I learned about it through my mother's fervent prayers and my father's bold witnessing. I've never wanted to believe in anything else; I've never needed to question it. It's been challenged, sure, put to the test. It hasn't always gotten me what I wanted. Nevertheless, it is the foundation of my being.

Without faith, there can be no hope. I asked a friend one time--a former believer who had exchanged his faith in God for faith in himself--what the point to life was, in the absence of God. He told me that the point was to live a good life, be nice to others, and make yourself happy. His standard of goodness was not only low, but very movable, and he is one of the most miserable people I've ever known. Without heaven or the promise of eternity, life is void and empty, and hopelessness is the common fare of those who do not or will not believe.

Some people want to see, hear, touch, taste or smell before they will even think about believing. What would they really do if they actually encountered Almighty God in all his power and glory? For me, faith is the substance. Faith is reality. And the things I hope for, I believe I will receive through faith. Some say, "Make your own dreams come true." God says, "Delight yourself in Me, and I will give you the desires of your heart." And since He's done it repeatedly throughout my lifetime, I have no doubts about the future. Faith lends credibility to hope.

And though I cannot see my God with earthly eyes, faith is all the evidence I need. And it is enough.

The Nature of Faith, Part 1

For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? but if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
Romans 8:24-25, NKJV

I've been thinking about the nature of faith, and in my little red book I have jotted down some Scriptures to remind me of what the Bible says about faith, and its constant companion of hope. Even now as I read back over them, I am moved with a deep stirring of something more than just emotion. Here is the bedrock, the foundation of everything I am and want to be, the cornerstone of belief and practice. Here is where everything begins and ends for me.

I believe in something greater than myself, something I cannot even see.

I believe in something authoritative and final, something ultimate and all-powerful.

I believe in something full of love and benevolence and kindness and generosity, and which directs those gifts toward me.

I believe in something which is both understandable and beyond comprehension, both infinite and yet tangible, something immeasurable and indescribable--and yet I want to try.

I believe in something which speaks, sometimes audibly, sometimes almost imperceptibly, but which wants me to hear what it is saying.

I believe in something that guards and guides me, protects and provides for me.

I believe in something that watches over me at all times, and in always has my best interests at heart.

I believe in God.

I believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who put off heaven and came to earth to live a life of example for me, to die a death of substitution for me. And I believe that after his death, He rose again immortal, so that I might have immortality through belief in Him.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, who is God's presence and power working in me, the precious promise of the Father received as a gift by the Son and poured out on me in overflowing abundance.

I believe in heaven, and in an eternal place of abode for the saints and their Savior.

I believe in my need for salvation, and His unfailing desire and ability to save me.

I believe in His many great and precious promises to me.

And none of those things are things I can see with my natural eyes. I cannot fix my eyes on the sky, raise my finger to a particular position in the starfield and say, "There! There is God. There is heaven." I've never been there. I've never seen this God I believe in, this God who loves me, this God who has saved me, and which God I serve. I've never seen Jesus Christ, in a vision or otherwise. I've never seen an angel, though I might have seen evidences of one once or twice. I've never seen the Spirit, for He is like the wind moving through the trees; I don't know whence He comes or wither He goes, but I can clearly see what He does.

I believe in what I cannot see. And that is the nature of faith. Faith doesn't need proof, although faith is eventually rewarded with sight. Faith doesn't need verification or validation. Faith is powerful, and it is personal, and either one has it, or one does not. Faith is a choice to stand still and put one's hope and confidence and trust and belief in that invisibility which is infinitely greater than anything I can see.

And then I wait.

If I can see it, if I can touch it and hold it and handle it, then it is no longer faith; faith has become sight. But if the things I wait for are still unseen, not yet visible, not yet revealed, then I simply continue to hope. And because of my faith in a God who has never let me down--not once, not ever--but has continually demonstrated His goodness toward me, I wait eagerly for the fulfillment of all His words and promises to me. I know that what He has promised, that will He also do. What He has started, He will be faithful to complete in me and you. And I also wait in patience, in perseverance, and in hope. For hope in Him is a hope that does not disappoint.