The Devotional - A Look at the Book #771

 

by Jesse Abel

A Word from Papa “J”

Let me ask a question here; “does wisdom have a voice?” Easily we overlook that wisdom has a voice and as a reminder God the Holy Spirit reminds us to listen to the voice of wisdom. Is this important? Ever hear your parents say in the past; listen to me when I talk to you! Proverbs 8:5-9

Good Morning

All of the words of the Holy Bible are inspired of God and for you and me to believe this is more than the inaccurate faith that is found in the daily activities of the world around us. Worldly faith is frail and limited – one look in the mirror should prove that. Of course if one is proud and arrogant there will be nothing worthy of faith found in this character since it is biased and void of a good conscience.

In saying this however is not to imply that people of the world cannot be found faithful, such as; being faithful in marriage, at work and other projects like sports and religion. So partial faithfulness is as good as it gets for the average person living out the worldly expressions of faith. All of us have a faith and all of us can be found being faithful and faith; as frail and limited as it is has an object. Otherwise faith is not faith since the object is not always available or visible.

I thought I would take some time to go through the Epistle of Hebrews, but we will see how far it goes. I am starting with the first verse of chapter eleven. Hebrews 11:1 which along with the many subjects of interest found in this epistle is among the top themes.

The writer explains biblical faith in these few words; in the New King James version there are fifteen words; other translations use up to nineteen words, but the point I wish to make is that to understand biblical faith a person does not need a doctorate in theology, only the words found in Hebrews 11:1.

Worldly faith always has an object, in biblical faith; FAITH is the object. Notice Hebrews 11:1. Faith is the substance, or the evidence, or the realization, or assurance that the promise(s) of God is/are TRUSTWORTHY. In worldly faith we look at the object which is our evidence to have faith or be faithful and is based on our promise to be trustworthy.

In biblical faith we know that Jesus Christ is the evidence; God promised a redeemer, so then the entire world is challenged to look at the Him, 2 Peter 1:16-21 He becomes our confidence or hope. Biblical faith does not look at an immediate object like worldly faith, but at a past testimony about His Son, about His present intercessory ministry in heaven and the future promise of His soon return. Hebrews 1:1-4 (God the Father’s testimony of His Son); Galatians 2:16 KJV (my favorite); Philippians 3:3 (no confidence in fleshly faith) and 1 John 2:28 (realized faith in Jesus Christ).