Faith

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. - Hebrews 11:1

Lets take a look at faith in this post. Faith is often illustrated with the light switch. You come into a room and flick a switch on with the full faith it will turn the light on. You may not even know how that works, but fully trust it will.

Look at Heb. 11:1b - "...certain of what we do not see." The first time someone ever uses a switch it is faith. Maybe the first month of using it is faith. At some point, rather quickly, it is no longer faith. This person has seen it work consistently every time. They have "seen" it. It is now knowledge rather than faith.

What does this mean for us? When God stretches us with something new we can respond in faith if we choose to follow Him. Tithing is a good example. Tithing is not a law that brings salvation, but a principle of God that can initially stretch us. To begin to tithe may stretch us in our faith. We can't see how this is possible to do. We may start at 1% and work our way up. What will happen over time is we will see God bless us and never miss the 10% we work up to - as long as it is cheerfully given. After a period of time tithing, we will "see" the truth of God's provision. It is no longer a faith act. Faith has become knowledge.

If we are to live a life of faith and not knowledge what do we do? This journey is not a static one. It is an adventure! Being called to faith is being called to something new - perpetually. As a follower of Christ we must be doing a new thing for God always or we are not living by faith. When the scary thing God called us to do, whether tithing or mission work, is no longer scary because we know God will provide, we must allow God to stretch us with the new thing He is calling us to do. This happens in small things - changing our attitude, smiling more or whatever He is challenging us to do - as well as the big things - go to China, sell your big house and downsize so you can give the difference to God, or whatever.

We must be doing a new thing for God to be living by faith. Are you living by faith? What is the new thing you are doing?

update

Katrina and I are headed out to Wisconsin for a Growing Healthy Churches assessment. We are excited about what we will learn and the potential help they can give us. What is even more exciting is that we can become part of this group and help plant more churches. I will be presenting our first sermon at this assessment and will post it here later.

The Bridge Ministry is moving forward. Our location is still in question, but that is not our biggest concern right now. We are continuing to expand our launch team and are looking for more people that are interested in serving God in this ministry. We are focused on reaching the people that don't like going to church, come from an unchurched background or are looking for a place they can serve God. Our Sunday service will be about connecting people to our Relevant God!