By Faith

Thursday, October 25, 2012, 4:00 a.m. – the Lord woke me this morning with the song “Jesus, I am Resting, Resting” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Hebrews 11 (quoting selected verses in the NIV 1984):

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

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. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death…

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

We Do Not See

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” This, I believe, is speaking mainly of our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and of our hope of eternal life with God in heaven, yet faith in God does not stop at our initial decision to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, and to make him Lord (boss) of our lives. We live out our faith each and every day by the things we do, say and think, in response to the promises of God, and to what we say we believe. In other words, our faith is proved genuine by what we do. And, that is exemplified for us here in the “Faith Chapter” of the Bible.

The Lord is presently giving me a real life example of this in my own life. A little over a month ago a music producer wrote to me on a professional network called “LinkedIn.” The Lord had given me over 100 songs to write in the past year and a half, plus he has had me sharing what he teaches me from my quiet times with him each day on the Internet, for over six years. I had joined this LinkedIn network a few months ago, and had posted some examples from my blog and from the songs the Lord has given to me to write. The music producer looked at them and then asked me to consider taking the songs to the next level. My first response to him was “No.”

He wrote back and asked me to pray about it, so I did, and the Lord immediately responded to me with an old hymn by A. B. Simpson: “To the regions beyond I must go, I must go, where the story has never been told. To the millions who never have heard of his love, I must tell the sweet story of old.” So, I knew he was sending me “to the regions beyond” with the gospel. As well, he gave me this message from another song, “God will make a way where there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see. He will make a way for me… And He will do something new today” (by Don Moen). Then he spoke to me through the scripture: “With man” (this means me) “this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” So, I knew I was to go, that God would work in ways I could not see, and that he would do something that was impossible with man, but not impossible with God.

So, I began the process of selecting a song(s) to record and to send to the producer, to work with the producer on selecting the best arrangement for the song which I believe the Lord chose for this project, and then practicing the song and my breathing. I am 62 years old and I had not done much singing for a while prior to the Lord giving me songs to write, and my voice was already not at “professional quality,” and was in and out. Then, two weeks ago I got this really bad cough from sinus drainage (allergy related, I believe), so I prayed about that and the Lord answered back that against all hope Abraham believed and became the father of many nations, and “hope that is seen is no hope at all, but if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait patiently for it.” This is the meaning of faith as described in Hebrews 11. It believes God for what we cannot see with human eyes, and it acts upon that belief by following him in obedience and by surrendering to his will, sight unseen!

When we Get There

So, here it is the morning that I am scheduled to record the song with the producer, and I still am coughing and my voice has not returned, yet I am following the Lord in obedience and am going completely on faith. The Lord has not promised me he will give me a voice, though. He just told me to go, and that he would make a way for the impossible to happen. So, I am resting in him to do far beyond I could possibly imagine and that he will gain the glory through whatever he chooses to do through this. The thing for me is that I have to be willing to have no voice and to be thought a fool for even coming here to begin with. Yet, think about all these examples in Hebrews 11. Many of them were considered nuts. I am sure Noah was thought crazy for building the ark, but not just him. Many who have trusted God by faith have been considered “loony” by the world. Yet, the Lord reminded me of one of the verses in the song “The Regions Beyond:”

To the hardest of places He calls me to go,

 Never thinking of comfort or ease;

 The world may pronounce me a dreamer, a fool,

 Enough if the Master I please.

Amen!

Rick and I are in the process of reading a book called “Not a Fan” by Kyle Idleman. The last section of the book is titled “Following Jesus – Wherever, Whenever, Whatever.” I’ve got the “wherever,” because we are there, I believe, and the “whenever” appears to be at 10:00 a.m. this morning, but I don’t know yet what the “whatever” is going to be, which is the point. When God says “Go,” we need to be willing to go wherever he sends us, whenever he decides we should go, and to whatever he calls us to do, which we may not see ahead of time and we may not see completely even in our lifetimes, as was also true of these men and women of faith. Abraham, “when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance,” packed up his bags, “obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” This is the meaning of faith. We don’t have to have any guarantees ahead of time other than to know we are in the will of God and that he will provide all we need for our journey, and that he will gain the glory through it all. We don’t have to have a five page business plan to know exactly what we are supposed to do when we get there. We just go, and we trust God that he will do exactly what he had planned all along. To God be the glory!

Our Salvation

So, how does this apply to our faith in Jesus Christ to save us from sins? Well, first of all we must believe God is who he says he is and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he did leave his home in heaven, came to earth, took on human flesh, suffered as we suffer; that he was tempted in all the ways we are tempted, yet without sin; that he was crucified on a cross for our sins; that he took upon himself the sins of the entire world, crucified and buried them with him, and that he rose from the dead, triumphing over death, hell, Satan and sin; that he ascended into heaven; and that one day he is coming back to judge the world and to receive his bride, the true church, to be with him forever.

Yet, we must do more than just believe all of that with our minds. Notice how all the people of faith listed in this chapter, and throughout the Bible, believed God and they acted upon what they believed through obedience. Noah did not just stand there and say “I believe, God, that you can do this,” but he obeyed God and built the ark, and he worked on it for 100 years before the rains came. Wow! Can you imagine? Abraham obeyed and went even though he didn’t know where he was going. By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months. “By faith Moses refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward... he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.”

So, when we come to Jesus Christ by faith, and we invite him into our lives to be our Lord and Savior (from sin), we turn away from our lives of sin, and we turn to God to follow Jesus Christ with our lives, to go wherever he leads us, and to do whatever he commands. This is how we show that our faith is genuine. If we truly believe Jesus Christ died so that we could be free from slavery to sin, then that faith should be acted out by us repenting of our sins, and by us turning to follow Jesus Christ in obedience and surrender to his will. And, we willingly place our lives into the hands of the Master and we trust him with the results. This is what it means to believe, and today I am taking yet another step of faith in trusting God to do what he said he would do, sight unseen, and believe He will get the glory through it all. I rest in Him!

Jesus, I am Resting, Resting / Jean Sophia Pigott / 1845-1882

Jesus, I am resting, resting,

In the joy of what Thou art;

I am finding out the greatness

Of Thy loving heart.

Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,

And Thy beauty fills my soul,

For by Thy transforming power,

Thou hast made me whole.

O, how great Thy loving kindness,

Vaster, broader than the sea!

O, how marvelous Thy goodness,

Lavished all on me!

Yes, I rest in Thee, Belovèd,

Know what wealth of grace is Thine,

Know Thy certainty of promise,

And have made it mine.

Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,

I behold Thee as Thou art,

And Thy love, so pure, so changeless,

Satisfies my heart;

Satisfies its deepest longings,

Meets, supplies its every need,

Compasseth me round with blessings:

Thine is love indeed!

Ever lift Thy face upon me

As I work and wait for Thee;

Resting ‘neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus,

Earth’s dark shadows flee.

Brightness of my Father’s glory,

Sunshine of my Father’s face,

Keep me ever trusting, resting,

Fill me with Thy grace.

Jesus, I am resting, resting,

In the joy of what Thou art;

I am finding out the greatness

Of Thy loving heart.