Faith

So I'm starting a new thing here on my blog. I'm going to share with everyone what my lessons were the night before. I hope to start some discussion and allow the teens (and adults) that hear my messages to sound off and give their opinions on what they learned.

Last night we talked about faith. What it is and what God says about it. We started with an illustration of a chair. I can stand 10 feet away and say to that chair, "I have faith in you to hold me up". But I really don't have complete faith in that chair because I'm not sitting in it. I went through several different examples without sitting in the chair. They all demonstrated one point - if I'm not sitting in it, I don't fully have faith in it!

It's not until we get to the tipping point and fall back into that chair that we have complete faith in it!!!

Probably the most known Bible passage on the subject of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1 where it says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." That is from the NIV, one that most of us "Old people" will remember is from the King James version and it says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen".

We talked about how we put our faith in many things everyday without even thinking about it! Things like a car, an airplane pilot, doctors, and our parents. But ultimately they all end up letting us down. We can put our faith in God who will "Never leave us or forsake us", and "Has a plan and purpose for our lives".

The second passage that we looked at was from James 2 where he was talking about the action that needs to go along with our faith. The example that was given was that of a brother or sister that was naked and hungry. The pat answer that we so many times give is "Well, I'll pray for you"! That was the response given in this passage. "I wish you well, be warm and well fed!!!"

James finishes off the passage with a stern warning in verse 26, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead".

We then tried to illustrate that point by doing the "Trust Walk". One young lady was blindfolded, and then led around the room by listening to an adult voice. The rest of us, along with some chairs and various other obstacles, tried to distract and disorient her. The goal was to make it through the course by listening to the adult voice and not listening to everyone else. The application is easy here, the young lady = us, adult voice = God, journey = our lives, everyone else = the distractions of this world.

We were able to illustrate the need to block out all voices except God's as we go through life's journey. It also illustrated the need to actually TAKE THE JOURNEY!!! She wouldn't have reached her destination had she just stood there!

What is your faith like? Is it evidenced by your actions, or is it all talk? Just like last night, I want to make sure that you understand that I'm not preaching salvation through works! Far from it! I believe in salvation by grace through faith. But as James said, "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do".

What will you do after reading this? Will we continue to give pat answers and be non effective for Christ? Or will we fully lean back and trust God to carry out His promises? Will we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us and help a lost and dying world? I pray that we will see this as a call to action, a proverbial "kick in the backside"!

Your thoughts????