By Faith Alone - Two

Through faith alone:

Kingdoms were subdued... Righteousness was worked... Promises were obtained... The mouths of lions were stopped... The violence of fire was quenched... The edged of the sword was escaped... The weak were made strong and became valiant in battle... Enemy armies were fought... Women once again received their dead.


By faith alone:
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. ~Hebrews 11

Again I ask, are we living by faith? Are we enduring the shame, carrying our cross and following hard after the one who saved us?

Would it be said of us that "the Lord was our passion; that we bore with gladness every cross we were given; headed unity's call; were marked by forgiveness; known by love ruled by peace...?2


Would our observable lives be known to bear the mark of faith - lives lived believing without seeing the substance of all that we hope for in Christ?

Father God, it is true that all too often we have so little faith and believe. Lord God above we believe little and we want to believe and have faith in and for more. Would you help our unbelief and increase our faith that you alone might be exalted and made famous in all the earth. Amen.


S. Paul

DIGGING DEEPER Psalm 91:15-16
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation."


1 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2011-13&version=NKJV

2 http://couragetotremble.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/let-it-be-said-of-us/