MP3: https://planetarystatusreport.com/mp3/20230719_WHAT_IS_FAITH.mp3
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READING 1: GENESIS 22: 1-19
READING 2: 1 PETER 4: 12-19
READING 3: PSALM 42
“Oh Lord, how do I stay steadfast in this place?”
Oh Lord, how do WE remain steadfast in this place? WE sojourn, Dear God, at Your request per Your plan. WE ARE alive, because Your breath is in US, because You WILL IT! WE exist, and WE ARE in pain. Jesus, Your Father sent You to this World to save the sinners, Your Father made a way for His flock, in spite of our GREAT SHEPHERD, we STRAY. We wander off the path, We long for shinier gods, We lust for the world and its promise, and in all this, SATAN is waiting, as a wolf, ready, to take Your children and turn them to stone. Lord in Heaven WE ARE struggling, WE ARE hounded by the demons, WE ARE CHASED by evil men, We should take comfort that You are there, but the offers of Satan are many. Lord, help us in this wilderness as You helped Abraham, help us to be AS STRONG as Your saints, help us to remember that You are always HERE. God, WE renew our faith IN YOU, WE will pray with open hearts, WE will nourish ourselves with YOUR WORD, and we know, as the darkness falls, that YOUR LOVE is our LIGHT. In Your name we serve, Jesus Christ, AMEN
READING 4: JOB 7
READING 5: MARK 11: 22-24
Discussion:
AIRBORNE SCHOOL – 1997: it was hard, ground week was a real pain. Tower week no longer used the “towers”, and jump week …
Jump week was one of the best weeks of my life. 5 jumps, at least one was a night jump, and I was stick-leader: so I stood in the door, and jumped first.
Back then I was an Atheist … I saw “right and wrong” but developed my own connected way it “made sense”, absent God.
But Dan, the Atheist? – he could jump out of that plane, with no fear, because he believed that the specialist or PFC or sergeant that packed my chute knew what they were doing – I had faith in strangers, so much I could jump out of a plane.
Many years later, 2011 I think, I was driving across the cascades early in the morning, and as I drove down the pass, on that empty road, I had a sense of vertigo – a feeling that I was out of control, and that my life was, and that I was going to careen off the road into the chasm below. Something had changed – and it wasn’t just my age.
What is faith?
It seems like a simple question, and it should have an easy answer, right?
Is faith attending church services regularly?
Is faith paying a tithe or donating to some random minister on channel 23?
Is faith an exercise, a ritual, a habit – or is it something deeper?
- some recent events involving my faith (blog hosting, needing to find a place to live, etc) … my connections to these things and my fear of “losing” them seemed greater, yesterday, than my faith … I got angry … I stared at a checking account with 3 bucks in it … I emailed a friend for beer money … a friend with greater and stronger faith than mine
- if my faith were strong? – would I even question that You, Lord, would not find another home for me?
- if my faith were strong, would it not be easy for me to forgive, to let go of my anger?
- if my faith were strong, would I not be someone who helps You, as a disciple, to bring the Word of God to ALL?
- if my faith were strong, would I drink so much beer?
- If my faith were strong enough, why would I be afraid to strip myself of the few possessions I have left, and wander out into the world, with a bible and with hope and knowledge that I am saved?
There is a LOT in this simple word: FAITH
There is more than I understand.
If we have faith, as Christians, we can change the world in a million important ways …
If we have faith, we can walk into a room and say, without fear:
“I am a Christian, and I believe in God, and I know He loves us, all of us.”
Moment of Silent Prayer:
Lord’s Prayer:
Go out into the world and let your daily work be an example of living faith.
Here is a song for understanding what life was like for men like Abraham …