Faith, the gift that comes from hearing . . .

In reading through the New Testament, Hebrews 11 was my portion for today. It is about faith and those who are sometimes called the ‘heroes of faith’ because they illustrate what faith in God is like. This passage shows that all those who put their faith in God did so because they heard Him speak to them.

Today’s devotional reading came from another passage that parallels this. It says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” This sent me back to Hebrews 11 for a closer look and then a reread of Romans 10 and I noticed something about the interaction between God speaking and those who hear Him. This English word “BUT” is a “marker of emphatic contrast and shows how God works and how people respond to Him. The Romans passage says:

 “For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

“For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

“But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’

“But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’

“But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.’” (Romans 10:11–21)

Faith is a gift from God. This is not like ordinary trust, such as believing the sun will rise every day because it always has, or that my toaster will work because there is electric power in the outlet, or even trusting another person because they have proved themselves reliable. God is reliable and has a positive track record, but that is not the basis for faith. He speaks and in hearing Him speak, either through Scripture or through someone preaching or speaking of Jesus Christ, faith is bestowed. Believers simply know it is God and know what He said is true — and they demonstrate their faith by doing what God tells them.

Noah heard God tell him to build an ark. Abraham heard God telling him to leave his home and go elsewhere. Sarah heard God promise her a child (she laughed, but she had a baby). Going through the list that includes Moses, Gideon, and many others, the pattern is there. Faith is initiated by hearing God, then doing what He says.

However, the above passage says everyone hears, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” That does not mean that everyone follows through. This passage from Romans also says, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel.”

In God’s sovereign will, He speaks but does not force people to listen and obey. He held out His hands to Israel, then calls them “a disobedient and contrary people” because they rejected His way and decided to live their way. Did they not understand Him? Odd, but understanding isn’t necessary for faith. Think of Noah building an ark when it had never rained and Abraham having a son when he and Sarah were far too old to bear children. God told them to do what seemed odd, but they did it.

Certainly, salvation is of God. Without the gospel and what Christ has done, there is no hope for any of us. Can God make us believe or force us to understand? I’m sure He could, but personal experience tells me this is not how He works. There is a mystery in this faith thing; He bestows it and the ability to believe it, even to people who do not seek Him or ask for Him, and yet there is also a heart ready to hear and obey it. If not, salvation does not happen, and this faith-gift fails to take root.

Verse 13 says, “Everyone who calls upon the Lord will be saved” and the next verses say they need to hear the gospel so they can call out to God and believe him, but right after that, verse 18 says, “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” I cannot completely comprehend this, but one thing I do know, if anyone hears God speak, faith will pick the right option, whereas disobedience will not.

^^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, thank You for giving faith substance, for accepting the task of making the invisible God visible and for taking our sin on Yourself so we can be forgiven. You have done all we need to give us reason to trust us, and yet we are not saved by reason, but by faith. Oh, what a wonder You are —  and what a wonder is this grand plan of God to save those who call upon You. Thank You for speaking to me and for the grace needed to hear and believe You!

Why do we hate the ‘S’ word?

I’ve been married twice. My first husband had a couple of addictions and I was too selfish to help him, so that marriage did not last. Soon after, Jesus came into my life, but I was still living by my ‘I wants’ without knowing much about obedience. My second husband was not a Christian when I married him and for several years I resisted both him and God, wanting to be the boss in my own life. Eventually, my husband was saved, but I was still trying to run things, and blamed our problems of marriage on everything else but my desire to control everything.

I understand why women, even Christian women, hate the ‘S’ word. The following verse produces frustration, anger, excuses, and other negatives. It did for me too, until someone explained God’s definition that word . . . 

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” (Ephesians 5:22–23)

Submission to God is being set free from the tyranny of sin, and sin is simply always wanting my own way. Submission to my husband is the same thing. God wants to set me free from the tyranny of always insisting on my own way. For a spoiled brat like me, that was not good news — until I began to realize how having my own way is not only sinful and selfish, but a terrible oppression.

That realization didn’t make it any easier to do what the Bible says. Most people, even Christians, do not realize the power of sin or how deep-seated it is within our hearts and minds. It is like having a cancer that will not go away. Just when it is conquered in one place, it pops up in another. However, knowing I battled sin and not my husband certainly put me onto something. I could taste freedom, just a little.

Then the Lord showed me that marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church, a far bigger thing than just the relationship between a man and a woman. God created it to be a demonstration, a model. For me, the Christ and church relationship is easier to understand. It makes sense that He is the head of the church. It makes sense that the church organizes its life around Him. Not that it happens perfectly. Church members can slip out of the will of God without realizing they have slipped, yet none of us think that the church should ignore God’s commands.

Yet we resist this one. A neighbor said, “When my husband starts acting like Christ, then I will submit to him.” What she meant is what many women struggle with: marriage where their spouse fails to do their part in this model of Christ and the church:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” (Ephesians 5:25–28)

As today’s devotional says, it is easy for a woman to reverence a man who loves her and it is easy for a man to love a woman who reverences him. All of us desire to live in a perfect world!

I must be honest. It would be easier to be a submissive wife if hubby did everything God wants, but as I read the Bible and as I better understand myself and my own sin, I realize that perfection in this world is not going to happen; it is reserved for heaven. The best I can do is not insist everyone else or everything in my life is the way I want it. That is childish and selfish. Instead, I’m accountable to do my part.

How many commands in the Bible ask for attitudes and actions that require faith? How much of what God wants is not about circumstances being lined up to suit me, but about trusting Him? Is it 50% or closer to 100%?

A life of faith is 100%. I cannot say I trust God and then add, “except for. . .” Even though I’ve said that, it is ridiculous. If I can trust God to raise me from my coffin and take me to heaven, can’t I trust Him for everything else? My only rationale is that I want my own way, that I trust me more than God. What nonsense!

This is the tyranny of sin. In wanting my own way, I miss out on the incredible wisdom of God. I cannot see His promises fulfilled. Faith means nothing unless I can let go of my reasoning, my selfish desires, my desires to be in control. Faith means nothing if ‘I know better than God’ and make up a million excuses why I don’t need to submit to my husband, or to anyone else, and become blind to the reality that I am not submitting to Almighty God either.

^^^^^^^^

Jesus, of all the truths You have taught me, this is perhaps the most precious and the most practical. When I am in Your will, my home and marriage is likely the closest thing to heaven on earth. Every time I choose otherwise and the tyranny of sin raises its ugly head, that bliss is ruined and I need to run back to You in humility and repentance. Thank God You still welcome me and continue to teach me how Your grace sets me free.

One more reason to rely on God

Exodus 1-4

Chinese martyr Watchman Nee said that God had to teach him when to speak up and then when to shut up. Serving God is not always a matter of using personal judgment, but of listening for His direction. This is true for everyone and was even true for Moses.

As the Israelites multiplied greatly in Egypt, the current Pharaoh enslaved them because he didn’t want them to become strong enough to leave. He also tried to have the male babies killed, but the midwives refused to cooperate and when Moses was born, his mother hid him in a basket at the edge of the Nile. He was found and adopted by a princess, yet God's providence allowed him to be nursed and raised by his own mother.

As a grown man, he saw the oppression of his people and tried to help one of them by killing an Egyptian oppressor, but Pharaoh found out and he fled for his life.

Many years later, when Moses was 80 years old, God revealed Himself to Moses as I AM. After a long conversation God finally convinced Moses back to win the freedom of his people. God gave him miraculous signs and the help of his brother Aaron, yet Moses was fearful and reluctant thinking that no one would listen to him.

The Lord said, “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

God said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Without reading the entire story, Moses sounds like a humble man who feels undeserving to be given this task. But that is not his problem. He tried to liberate one of his people once and wound up running for his life. That was many years ago, but he knew the history in Egypt; the Pharaoh was an oppressor with a large army and lots of power. All Moses could think of was his own inadequacy and the size of the challenge.

Throughout chapters 3 and 4, God keeps diverting this man's focus to His power and His adequacy. Finally He became angry at the excuses Moses offered. . .

But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”

Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”

“Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, ‘Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and sput the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.’" (Exodus 4:10-15)

As I think about this, I recognize the danger of trying to go ahead of God, or to do anything, great or small, apart from His direction or help. What Moses did earlier in killing the Egyptian, right or wrong, should have taught him that self-effort does not work. Instead, it made him fearful, so much so that he repeatedly says 'no' to any challenge, even from Almighty God. He could not get his thoughts off his own failure nor could he focus on the fact that the God of the Universe would give him all he needed to do the job. His self-effort to do the job should have taught him to rely on God, but instead played a part in setting him up for disobedience.

I'm almost shaking as I remember all the times I've been like Moses. Ambition and zeal have pushed me into doing what I think is God's will only to later find out that my motivations were more about my own ideas and that I was not relying on Him as I should. For the most part, God did not throw egg on my face, but I came out of these episodes with a greater sense of my own failure. This is a good thing -- as long as it isn't one more excuse to make life all about me. That is what Moses did, and that is what made God angry with him.

 
The good news is that God knows what to do with those whose zeal makes for hasty choices and whose fear causes huge reluctance. Through the challenges, Moses eventually realizes that he is serving a God for whom nothing is too hard, and whose strength is perfected in our weakness!