15.3 Examples of Faith

(Hebrews 11:7-12, 23-26, 32-33a)

It was faith that made Noah hear God’s warnings about things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God and built a boat in which he and his family were saved. As a result, the world was condemned, and Noah received from God the righteousness the comes by faith.

It was faith that made Abraham obey when God called him to go out to a country which God had promised to give him. He left his own country without knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. He live in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God, for Abraham was waiting for the city which God has designed and built, the city with permanent foundations.

It was faith that made Abraham able to become a father, even though he was too old and Sarah herself could not have children. He trusted God to keep his promise. Though Abraham was practically dead, from this one man came as may descendants as the are staes in the sky, as many as the numberless grains of sand on the seashore.

It was faith that made the parents of Moses hide him for three months after he was born. They saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s order.

It was faith that made Moses, when he had grown up, refuse to be called the son of the king’s daughter. He preferred to suffer with God’s people rather than to enjoy sin for a little while. He reckoned that to suffer scorn for the Messiah was worth far more than all the treasures of Egypt, for he kept his eyes on the future reward.

Should I go on? There isn’t enough time for me to speak of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and prophets. Through faith they fought whole countries and won. They did what was right and received what God had promised.

15.2 Peter’s Discourse After A Miracle

(Acts 3:11-16)

As the man held on to Peter and John in Solomon’s Porch, as it was called, the people were amazed and ran to them. When Peter saw the people, he said to them, “Fellow Israelites, why are you surprised at this, and why do you stare at us? Do you think that it was by means of our own power of godliness that we made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has given divine glory to his Servant Jesus. But you handed him over to the authorities, and you rejected him in Pilate’s presence, even after Pilate had decided to set him free. He was holy and good, but you rejected him, and instead you asked Pilate to do you the favor of turning loose a murderer. You killed the one who leads to life, but God raised him from death- and we are witnesses to this. It was the power of his name that gave strength to this lame man. What you see and know was done by faith in his name; it was faith in Jesus that has made him well, as you can all see.

15.1 Healing Of The Sick Woman

(Matthew 9:18-22)

A Jewish official came to him, knelt down before him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and place your hands on her, and she will live.”

So Jesus got up and followed him, and his disciples went along with him.
A woman who had suffered from severe bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If only I touch his cloak, I will get well.”

Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, my daughter! Your faith has made you well.” At that very moment the woman became well.

14.4 Believe Only In God

(Psalm 81)

Shout for joy to God our defender;
sing praise to the God of Jacob!
Start music and beat the tambourines;
play pleasant music on the harps and the lyres.

Blow the trumpet for the festival,
when the moon is new and when the moon is full.
This is the law in Israel,
an order from the God of Jacob.
He gave it to the people of Israel
when he attacked the land of Egypt.

I hear an unknown voice saying,
“I took the burdens off your backs;
I let you put down your load of bricks.
When you were in trouble, you called to me,
and I saved you.
From my hiding place in the storm,
I answered you.
I put you to the test at the springs of Meribah.
Listen, my people, to my warning;
Israel, how I wish you would listen to me!
You must never worship another god
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of Egypt.
Open your mouth, and I will feed you.”

“But my people would not listen to me;
Israel would not obey me.
So I let them go their stubborn ways
and do whatever they wanted.
How I wish my people would listen to me;
how I wish they would obey me!
I would quickly defeat their enemies
and conquer all their foes.
Those who hate me would bow in fear before me;
their punishment would last forever.
But I would feed you with the finest wheat
and satisfy you with wild honey.”

14.3 The Just Shall Live By Faith

(Romans 1:16-17)

I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God’s power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, “The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.”

14.2 A Faith That Can Lift Mountains

(Matthew 21:18-22)

On his way back to the city early next morning, Jesus was hungry. He saw a fig tree by the side of the road and went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. So he said to the tree, “You will never again bear fruit!” At once the fig tree dried up.

The disciples saw this and were astounded. “How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?” they asked. Jesus answered, “I assure you that if you believe and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I have done to this fig tree. And not only this, but you will even be able to say to this hill, ‘Get up and throw yourself in the sea,’ and it will. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

14.1 The Faithful Is Like A Tree Planted Beside Water

(Jeremiah 17:5-8)

The Lord says, “I will condemn the person who turn away from me and puts his trust in man, in the strength of mortal man. He is like a bush in the desert, which grows in the dry wasteland, on salty ground where nothing else grows. Nothing good ever happens to him.”

“But I will bless the person who puts his trust in me. He is like a tree growing near a steam and sending out roots to the water. It is not afraid when hot weather comes, because its leaves stay green; it has no worries when there is no rain; it keeps on bearing fruit.”

13.4 Praise The Lord Who Shall Reign Forever And Ever

(Psalm 146)

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, my soul!
I will praise him as long as I live;
I will sing to my God all my life.

Don’t put your trust in human leaders;
no human being can save you.
When they die, they return to the dust;
on that day all their plans come to an end.

Happy is the man who has the God of Jacob
to help him
and who depends on Lord his God,
the Creator of heaven, earth, and sea,
and all that is in them.
He always keeps his promises;
he judges in favor of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets prisoners free
and gives sight to the blind.
He lifts those who have fallen;
he loves his righteous people.
He protects the strangers who live in our land;
he helps widows and orphans,
but takes the wicked to their ruin.

The Lord is king forever.
Your God, O Zion, will reign for all time.

Praise the Lord!

13.3 Honor To The Supreme God Who Lives Forever

(Daniel 4:34-37)

“When the seven years had passed,” said the king, “ looked up at the sky, and my sanity returned. I praised the Supreme God and gave honor and glory to the one who lives forever.”

“He will rule forever, and his kingdom will last for all time.
He looks on the people of the earth as nothing; angels in heaven and people on earth are under his control.
No one can oppose his will or question what he does.”

“When my sanity returned, my honor, my majesty, and the glory of my kingdom were given back to me. My officials and my noblemen welcomed me, and I was given back my royal power with even greater honor than before.“

“And now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, honor, and glorify the king of Heaven. Everything he does is right and just, and he can humble anyone who acts proudly.”

13.2 The Lord Is Eternal. He Creates Everything

(Isaiah 40:25-31)

To whom can the holy God be compared?
Is there anyone else like him?
Look up the sky!
Who created the stars you see?
The one who leads them out like an army,
he knows how many there are and calls
each one by name!
His power is so great-
not one of them is ever missing!

Israel, why then do you complain
that the Lord doesn’t know your troubles
or care if you suffer injustice?
Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God;
He created all the world.
He never grows tired or weary.
No one understands his thoughts.
He strengthens those who are weak and tied.

Even those who are young grow weak;
young men can fall exhausted.
But those who trust in the Lord for help
will find their strength renewed.
They will rise on wings like eagles;
they will run and not get weary;
they will walk and not grow weak.

13.1 The Just God Lives Forever

(Deuteronomy 32:36-41)

The Lord will rescue his people when he sees
that their strength is gone.
He will have mercy on those who serve him,
when he sees how helpless they are.
Then the Lord will ask his people,
“Where are those mighty gods you trusted?
You fed them the fat of your sacrifices
and offered them wine to drink.
Let them come and help you now;
let them run to your rescue.

“I, and I alone, am God; no other god is real.
I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal,
and no one can oppose what I do.
As surely as I am the living God,
I raise my hand and I vow that I will sharpen
my flashing sword
and see that justice is done.
I will take revenge on my enemies
and punish those who hate me.

12.4 The Righteous Will Flourish

(Psalm 92)

How good it is to give thanks to you, O Lord,
to sing in your honor, O Most High God,
to proclaim your constant love every morning
and your faithfulness every night,
with the music of stringed instruments
and with the melody on the harp.
Your mighty deeds, O Lord, make me glad;
because of what you have done, I sing for joy.

How great are you actions, Lord!
How deep are your thoughts!
This is something a fool cannot know;
a stupid man cannot understand:
the wicked may grow like weeds,
those who do wrong may prosper;
yet they will be totally destroyed,
because you, Lord, are supreme forever.

We know that your enemies will die,
and all the wicked will be defeated.
You have made me a strong as a wild ox;
you have blessed me with happiness.
I have seen the defeat of my enemies
and heard the cries of the wicked.

The righteous will flourish like palm trees;
they will grow like the cedars of Lebanon.
They are like trees planted in the house of the Lord,
that flourish in the Temple of our God,
that still bear fruit in old age
and are always green and strong.
This shows that the Lord is just,
that there is no wrong in my protector.

12.3 My Time Has Come. I Ran The Race, I Kept The Faith

(2 Timothy 4:6-8)

As for me, the hour has come for me to be sacrificed; the time is here for me to leave this life. I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. And now there is waiting for me the prize of victory awarded for a righteous life, the prize which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day- and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear.

12.2 We Should Always Be Ready

(1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)

There is no need to write you, brothers, about the times and occasions when these things will happen. For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief comes at night. When people say, “Everything is quiet and safe,” then suddenly destruction will hit them! It will come as suddenly as the pains that come upon a woman in labor, and people will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, and the Day should not take you by surprise like a thief. All of you are people who belong to the light, who belong to the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, we should not be sleeping like the others; we should be awake and sober. It is at night when people sleep; it is at night they get drunk. But we belong to the day, and we should sober. We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet. God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to posses salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us in order that we might live together with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes. And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.

12.1 Be Alert, You Do Not Know The Hour

(Mark 13:32-37)

“No one knows, however, when that day or hour will come- neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son: only the Father knows. Be on watch, be alert, for you do not know when the time will come. It will be like a man who goes away from home on a trip and leaves his servants in charge, after giving to each one his own work to do and after telling the doorkeeper to keep watch. Watch, then, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming- it might be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or at sunrise. If he comes suddenly, he must not find you asleep. What I say to you, then, I say to all. Watch!”

11.4 I Rejoice Because I Go To The House Of The Lord

(Psalm 122)

I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the Lord’s house.”
And now we are here,
standing inside the gates of Jerusalem!

Jerusalem is a city restored
in beautiful order and harmony.
This is where the tribes come,
the tribes of Israel,
to give thanks to the Lord
according to his command.
Here the kings of Israel
sat to judge their people.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
May there be peace inside your walls
and safety in your palaces.”
For the sake of my relatives and friends
I say to Jerusalem, “Peace be with you!”
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God
I pray for your prosperity.

11.3 Our Citizenship Is In Heaven; There Our Body Will Be Glorified

(Philippians 3:17-21)

Keep on imitating me, my brothers. Pay attention to those who follow the example that we have set for you. I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ’s death on the cross. They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world. We however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body, using that power by which he is able to bring all things under his rule.

11.2 Life Means Christ, So Dying Is A Gain

(Philippians 1:20-26)

My deep desire and hope is that I shall never fail in my duty, but that at all times, and especially right now, I shall be full of courage, so that with my whole being I shall bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For what is life? To me, it is Christ. Death, then, will bring more. But if by continuing to live I can do more worthwhile work, then I am not sure which I should choose. I am pulled in two directions. I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing; but for your sake it is much more important that I remain alive. I am sure of this, and so I know that I will stay. I will stay on with you all, to add to your progress and joy in the faith, so that when I am with you again, you will have even more reason to be proud of me in your life in union with Christ Jesus.

11.1 Dead or Alive, We Belong To God

(Romans 14:7-11)

None of us lives for himself only, none of us dies for himself only. If we live, it is for the Lord that we live, and if we die, it is for the Lord that we die. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For Christ died and rose to life in order to be the Lord of the living and of the dead. You then, who eat only vegetables – why do you pass judgment on you brother? And you who eat anything – why do you despise you brother? All of us will stand before God to be judged by him. For the scriptures says,

“As surely as I am the living God, says the Lord,
everyone will kneel before me,
and everyone will confess that I am God.”

10.4 God’s Eternity And Men’s Frailty

(Psalm 90:1-12)

O Lord, you have always been our home.
Before you created the hills or brought the world
into being,
you were eternally God,
and will be God forever.

You tell man to return to what he was;
you change him back to dust.
A thousand years to you are like one day;
they are like yesterday, already gone,
like a short hour in the night.
You carry us away like a flood;
we last no longer a dream.
We are like weeds that sprout in the morning,
that grow and burst into bloom,
then dry up and die in the evening.

We are destroyed by you anger;
we are terrified by your fury.
You place our sins before you,
our secret sins where you can see them.

Our life is cut short by your anger;
it fades away like a whisper.
Seventy years is all we have –
eighty years, if we are strong;
Yet all they bring us is trouble and sorrow;
life is soon over, and we are gone.

Who has felt the full power of your anger?
Who knows what fear your fury can bring?
Teach us how short our life is,
so that we may become wise.

10.3 The End Victory Is God’s

(1 Corinthians 15:52-58)

When the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die. So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: “Death is destroyed; victory is complete!”

“Where, Death, is your victory?
Where, Death, is your power to hurt?”

Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets it power from the Law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

So then, my dear brothers, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless.

10.2 Now An Earthy Tent, Later An Eternal Home

(2 Corinthians 5:1-10)

For we know that when this tent we live in- our body here on earth- is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live, a home he himself has made, which will last forever. And now we sigh, so great is our desire that our home which comes from heaven should be put on over us; by being clothed with it we shall not be without a body. While we live in this earthly tent, we groan with a felling oppression; it is not that we want to get rid of our earthly body, but that we want to have the heavenly one put on over us, so that what is mortal will be transformed by life. God is the one who has prepared us for this change, and he gave us his Spirit as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.

So we are always full of courage. We know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord’s home. For our life is a matter of faith, not of sight. We are full of courage and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord. More than anything else, however, we want to please him, whether in our home here or there. For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him. Each one will receive what he deserves, according to everything he has done, good or bad, in his bodily life.