The Armor of God to Battle Satan #4
The Shield of Faith!
The subject of "faith" is given a huge amount of time and space in the Bible. It would take many hours to look up and read all the verses on the words "faith" and "faithful" and "trust" (a twin word for faith). It is not the object of this study to look at all the passages where the above words can be found in the Bible. Strong's Concordance of the Bible will give you every verse in the Bible where those words can be found. You, your family, friends, your group Bible study could make that a project one day - reading the context of each passage where the above three words are used from Genesis to Revelation. It would take many a Bible study. Here, first, I will present some "nuggets" on what people have said and given examples as to what constitutes FAITH. YOUR FAITH OUGHT TO GET YOU IN TROUBLE AT TIMES. If everybody thinks you are nuts, you may be. It's OK if some think you are. You're probably in trouble if no one thinks you are. Author unknown ...... Faith is resting in the fact that God has an object in leaving me on the scene when I feel useless to Him and a burden to others. Pamela Reeves, "Faith Is" ...... Tradition is the living faith of those now dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living. Jaroslav Pelikan, "The Vindication of Tradition" ...... FAITH is speaking truth in love at the cost of position of relationships. ...... Faith like Job's cannot be shaken because it is the result of having been shaken. Abraham Heschel "Certainty, Difficulty" ...... A weak faith is weakened by predicaments and catastrophes whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them. Victor Frankl "Trials, Strengths" ...... Faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse." Philip Yancey "Vision, Trust" ...... That you are sitting before me in this church is a fact. That I am standing and speaking to you from this pulpit is a fact. But it is only faith that makes me believe anyone is listening. Anonymous preacher "Fact, Belief" ...... True faith goes into operation when there is no answers. Elizabeth Elliot "Difficulty, Doubt" ...... Faith does not operate in the realm of possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends. George Muller "Power, glory" ...... Our faith becomes practical when it is expressed in two books: the date book and the checkbook. Elton Trueblood "Time, Money" ...... Hope is hearing the melody of the future. Faith is to dance to it. Ruben Alves "Hope, Future" ...... DEAD FAITH What you gonna do when the river overflows?! Faith answers, I'm gonna sit on the porch and watch her go. What you gonna do when the hogs all drown? I'm gonna wish I lived on higher ground. What you gonna do when the cow floats away? I'm gonna throw in after her a bale of hay. What you gonna do with the water in the room? I'm gonna sweep her out with a sedge-straw broom. What you gonna do when the cabin leaves? I'm gonna climb on the roof and straddle the eaves. What you gonna do when your hold gives way? I'm gonna say, "Howdy, Lord! It's judgment day." Ben Patterson, "Waiting" ...... A BUCKET FULL If I Had Only Known You Lord, I crawled across the barrenness to You with my empty cup uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known You better I'd have come Running With a bucket. Nancy Spiegelberg and Dorothy Purdy, "Fanfare: A Celebration of Belief" ...... ARE YOU THIRSTY? LEGEND HAS IT that a man was lost in the desert, just dying for a drink of water. He stumbled upon an old shack - a ramshackled, windowless, roofless, weatherbeaten old shack. He looked about this place and found a little shade from the heat of the desert sun. As he glanced around he saw a pump about fifteen feet away - an old, rusty water pump. He stumbled over to it, grabbed the handle, and began to pump up and down, up and down. Nothing came out. Disappointed, he staggered back. He noticed off to the side an old jug. He looked at it, wiped away the dirt and dust, and read a message that said, "You have to prime the pump with all the water in this jug, my friend. P.S.: Be sure you fill the jug again before you leave." He popped the cork out of the jug and sure enough, it was almost full of water! Suddenly, he was faced with a decision. If he drank the water, he could live. Ah, but if he poured all the water in the old rusty pump, maybe it would yield fresh, cool water from down deep in the well, all the water he wanted. He studied the possibility of both options. What should he do, pour it into the old pump and take a chance on fresh, cool water or drink what was in the old jug and ignore its message? Should he waste all the water on the hopes of those flimsy instructions written, no telling how long ago? Reluctantly he poured all the water into the pump. Then he grabbed the handle and began to pump, squeak, squeak, squeak. Still nothing came out! Squeak, squeak, squeak. A little bit began to dribble out, then a small stream, and finally it gushed! To his relief fresh, cool water poured out of the rusty pump. Eagerly, he filled the jug and drank from it. He filled it another time and once again drank its refreshing contents. Then he filled the jug for the next traveller. He filled it to the top, popped the cork back on, and added this little note: "Believe me, it really works. You have to give it all away before you can get anything back." Charles R. Swindell, "Living Above the Level of Mediocrity" ...... FAITH is engaging in the deepest joy of heaven, knowing His unfathomable love for me as I walk through the thorny desolate now. Pamela Reeve, "Faith Is" ...... Faith Someone Once Said ... * Faith is like muscle which grows stronger and stronger with use, rather than rubber, which weakens when it is stretched. J. O. Fraser * Faith is the Samsonian lock of the Christian; cut it off, and you may put out his eyes and he can do nothing. Charles Haddon Spurgeon * Not a great faith we need, but faith in a great God. J. Hudson Taylor ...... DEFINITIONS of Faith * The art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. C.S.Lewis * Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. St.Augustine * Faith is voluntary anticipation. Clement of Alexandria ...... FAITH Biblical Definitions of Faith * Believing there will be a fulfilment of those things that are told us by the Lord Luke 1:45 * Believing that it will be just as was told us Acts 27:25 * Not wavering at the promise of God, but being fully convinced that what He has promised He is able to perform Romans 4:20-21 * Judging Him faithful who has promised Hebrews 11:11 * The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen Hebrews 11:1 ...... WHY God Responds to FAITH Houston pastor John Bisango describes a time when his daughter Melodye Jan, age five, came to him and asked for a doll house. John promptly nodded and promised to build her one, then he went back to reading his book. Soon he glanced out the study window and saw her arms filled with dishes, toys, and dolls, making trip after trip until she had a great pile of playthings in the yard. He asked his wife what Melodye Jan was doing. "Oh, you promised to build her a doll house, and she believes you. She's just getting ready for it." "You would have thought I'd been hit by an atom bomb," John later said. "I threw aside that book, raced to the lumber yard for supplies, and quickly built that little girl a doll house. Now why did I respond? Because I wanted to? No. Because she deserved it? No. Her daddy had given his word, and she believed it and acted upon it. When I saw her faith, nothing could keep me from carrying out my word." FAITH AS A LIGHT TO OTHERS Not long after the first Moravian missionaries had left for the West Indies, John Wesley, unconverted at the time, found himself aboard ship alongside another group of them. It was January 25, 1736, and the weather was rough. Three storms had already battered the boat, and a fourth was brewing. Wesley scribbled in his journal, "Storm greater: afraid!" But the Moravians were trusting God so simply and so completely that they evidenced no signs of fear, and they even persevered in their plans for a worship service. In the middle of their singing, a gigantic wave rose over the side of the vessel, splitting the main-sail, covering the ship, pouring water like Niagara Falls between decks "as if the great deep had already swallowed us up:" The English passengers screamed as the ship lurched and pitched between towering waves. A terrified Wesley clung on for dear life. But the German missionaries didn't miss a note. Wesley, awestruck by their composure, later went to the leader and asked, "Weren't you afraid?" "I thank God, no." "Were not your women and children afraid?" "No," replied the man. "Our women and children are not afraid." Back in London, Wesley was so struck by their sturdy faith that he attended a Moravian meeting on Aldersgate Street on May 24, 1738. He later said, "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given to me that He had taken away my sins, even mine." Wesley became a famous evangelist and social reformer, with the world as his parish. But he himself was won to Christ by the power of a small group whose faith in Christ was strong enough to keep them unflappable in a storm. ...... An Old Story One of our oldest sermon illustrations still provides a powerful illustration of the personal nature of faith. A far-famed tightrope walker came to Niagara Falls and stretched his rope across the thunderous currents from Canada to the United States. Before the breathless multitudes, he walked, then ran, across the falls. He did the same blindfolded, with drums rolling. Then, still blindfolded, he pushed a wheelbarrow across the falls. The crowds went wild, and the aerialist shouted to them, "Who believes I can push a man in this wheelbarrow across these falls?" A gentleman in the front waved his hands, shouting, "I do! I believe!" "Then," said the walker, "come and get in the wheelbarrow." To no surprise, the man's intellectual assent failed to translate into personal belief. ...... Anyone Else? A man slipped and fell off a cliff while hiking on a mountaintop. Luckily he was able to grab a branch on his way down. Holding on for dear life, he looked down only to see a rock valley some fifteen hundred feet below. When he looked up it was twenty feet to the cliff where he had fallen. Panicked, he yelled, "Help! Help! Is anybody there? Help!" A booming voice spoke up. "I am here, and I will save you if you believe in me." "I believe! I believe!" yelled back the man. "If you believe me, let go of the branch and then I will save you" The young man, hearing what the voice said, looked down again. Seeing the rock valley below, he quickly looked back up and shouted, "Is there anybody else up there!"' ...... FAITHFULNESS Someone Once Said ... * Faithfulness to principle is only proved by faithfulness in detail. Frances Ridley Havergal * My dear Senator, I am not called to be successful, but faithful. Mother Teresa, to Senator Mark Hatfield who, while touring her work in Calcutta, asked, "How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?" * Dependability: Fulfilling what I agreed to do even though it requires unexpected sacrifices. (Proverbs 15:4) Bill Gothard ...... Old Faithful Old Faithful is not the largest geyser in Yellowstone National Park, nor does it reach the greatest height. But it is by far the most popular one. Why? It is regular and dependable, hence its name, "Old Faithful." ...... FAITHFUL WITH WORKS Two frogs fell into a tub of cream. The one looked at the high sides of the tub which were too difficult to crawl over and said, "It is hopeless." So he resigned himself to death, relaxed, and sank to the bottom. The other one determined to keep swimming as long as he could. "Something might happen," he said. And it did. He kept kicking and churning, and finally he found himself on a solid platform of butter, and jumped to safety. (Ah, that reminds me of the "faith" chapter of the book of James - chapter two. Though Martin Luther of the reformation called the book of James "an epistle of straw" he could not have been more wrong; James gives the other side of the coin of true Biblical faith - Keith Hunt) ...... An illustration of the balance between faith and works lies hidden within any tree. Leaves use up nutrients in the process of photosynthesis. As the leaves consume nutrients in the sap, a suction is formed, which draws more sap from the roots. Without the sap, the leaves and branches would die. But the continual flow of this sap comes only as it is used up by the work of the leaf. Likewise, through faith we draw life from Christ. But a continual supply of fresh spiritual nutrients depends on our willingness to "consume" the old supply through our acts of obedience, through our works. ...... FAITH TESTED This piece was heard on National Public Radio's Morning Edition on November 2,1988: In 1958, America's first commercial jet air service began with the flight of the Boeing 707. A month after that first flight, a traveller on a piston-engine, propeller-driven DC-6 airliner struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger. The passenger happened to be a Boeing engineer. The traveller asked the engineer about the new jet aircraft, whereupon the engineer began speaking at length about the extensive testing Boeing had done on the jet engine before bringing it into commercial service. He recounted Boeing's experience with engines, from the B-17 to the B-52. When his travelling companion asked him if he himself had yet flown on the new 707 jet airliner, the engineer replied, "I think I'll wait until it's been in service awhile." ...... Even enthusiastic talking about our faith doesn't mean much if we aren't also willing to put our lives where our mouth is. ........
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