Impact

I have shared here a couple of times that I have been leading a Sunday school on Predestination and Free Will.  Most people when they hear that sort of roll their eyes and suggest I could have done something a little easier.  They are right.

In the last week I have also done an overview of 1 Timothy.  Several times in the book Paul exhorts his key man to teach sound doctrine in the church.  It has been my experience that we do not get a lot of that in our fellowships.  Too difficult.

Today we had an announcement that took a large portion of our Sunday school time.  So I went over the assignment from last week and asked people both what they had learned in the three weeks and what questions they wanted to have answered in the time we have left.

Here are some of the responses:

• How does predestination impact our prayer life?
• The idea that God has chosen people in our sphere of influence changes the way we relate to them.
• I am amazed at the level of God’s intervention in our lives.
• This has impacted my understanding of who God is.
• Since he chose me it makes me wonder about my purpose in His kingdom.
• It has forced me to view God as bigger, I tend to want to cut Him down to a size I can handle.

I am good with those results.  People are struggling, thinking, reevaluating their understanding of their Father.  That is a very good thing.

When we avoid the hard stuff.  We are not challenging those in our community.  One person said this morning that they would just be lazy and not dive into the hard stuff.  They would let others deal with it.  Problem is not many do.

By diving in we are forced to evaluate whether what we hold to be true is actually in the Bible.  That makes a difference.

Noah’s Faith

Yesterday I listed some of the things I saw about faith in Hebrews 11.  I want to focus on Noah for a moment.  Hebrews 11:7 tells of his faith experience.  In detail:

• He was told that something was going to happen that had never happened before, a flood.
• He was told to build something that had never been built before and for which up to this point there was no need.

Think about that for a second.  There has never been a flood, frankly there may not have been rain.  Genesis 2:5 tells us that a mist rose from the ground to water the plants.  The next time rain is mentioned in the Bible it is associated with the flood.  So there is a possibility that Noah had no inkling about what God was doing.  No one in Noah’s community would have any idea what was going on.

Yet look how Noah reacts.  The language in the text is stunning.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that “in reverence” Noah prepared an ark.  Noah looked at the building of this unknown vessel for an event that had never happened in history as worship.

That challenges me.

Have you ever sensed God leading you to do something different?  Something really against the grain?  Something that no one else would understand?  How did you respond?

Noah obeyed.  He prepared what seemed to be an incredibly weird project for what God had told him to do.  It took many years.  Yet when the time came Noah was prepared.

This challenges me to do all that God has laid out for me in reverence.  Waiting for His timing.  Not worrying about whether the project makes sense.  Just doing what He says I am to do.

How about you?

What is Faith?

This morning my time with the Lord was in Hebrews 11:1 - 16.  It has been a hard month.  I looked and although I have been in Bible study pretty much every day, I had slacked off a bit in my devotional time with the Lord.

There were several issues that had been weighing on my mind.  I wrote them down and began to pray over them, but got the sense I needed refreshing in the Word.  I did.

I have read Hebrews 11 many times, have part of it memorized.  You probably do as well.  It is the faith hall of fame.  This time through I noticed a thread that you probably have seen but I have not put together.  The theme deals with the substance of faith.

First, in verse 3 we believe that the world was not made out of what is visable.  Abel gave a better sacrifice but was not given direction to do so.  Enoch did not see death and was not seen because God took him up.  Noah was warned about  things not seen.  Abraham left his home not knowing where he was going and was given a child when Sarah was unable to conceive.  So we see that faith means we believe in the:

• Not visible
• Not directed
• Not seen
• Not knowing 
• Not able 

We act on all of these on faith, believing, as Hebrews 11:6 says that God rewards faith.

This is not an easy assignment.  But there is more.  I will circle back to Noah specifically tomorrow.