Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Ummm…Ok….so….have you ever read a bible verse that just jumps off the page at you?
I mean you settle in with your favorite bible study and your bible and if you are lucky a cup of coffee or tea. You get all comfy and begin to read and soak in all the words and then you come to THAT verse. It just leaps off the page and grabs you. You might even spit your coffee or tea out (heaven forbid!)
Yep, well, that was me. I woke up not feeling so well.
No, that isn’t exactly correct. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
NOPE! NOPE! NOPE! That won’t do either. Let’s get real. I woke up down right cranky! I was having a “Pity Party – Table for 1!” kind of morning.
So, I pull out my bible. Grab my favorite bible study. Start sipping my wonderfully warm love in a cup and BAM! God hits me right between the eyes with a verse.
Actually, it wasn’t even a full verse. It was a phrase. Just three simple words. I read this verse before. I heard preachers use this verse before. I, however, am sure I have never noticed these three little words. If I didn’t know better, I would swear God just wrote them in my bible today to catch my attention. I even checked other versions and yep, they were still there!
So, the words come out of Hebrews 11:37. Paul is talking about all the people that kept the faith. He was trying to encourage people to keep the faith through everything they go through. He starts the chapter off saying, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrew 11:1). He then proceeds to use the entire chapter to give examples of all the saints who kept the faith.
I was getting into it. I was amen-ing Moses, Jacob, Abraham, Rahab and all the rest. Then it got to others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection (v. 35.) All of a sudden there they were, three words. They were “sawed in two.”
Let me repeat that for you. Sawed! In! Two!
Now, I don’t want to get all gory and gross here, but I need to pause for a minute. People! There were no mechanized saws back then. No chain saws, radial arm saws, chop saws! Nothing but good old fashioned metal blades with some teeth. This was not going to be a quick death!
After spitting out my coffee all over myself, I could hear God say, “And you thought you were having a bad day!” Kind of put things into perspective for me.
You see these words are not just words in the bible that happened a long time ago. Unfortunately, there are Christians all over the world standing for their faith and facing brutal deaths.
As I write these words, I look at my book shelf and see five different bibles. These aren’t the only ones in our home. This also doesn’t include my two bible apps that both have several dozen different translations. Yet, there are people in other countries who are over joyed to see one page smuggled to them.
We all have problems. We all go through trials and tribulations. We all see so many types of pain in our lives. Problems like losing a child, watching a loved one slowly die of cancer, a divorce, rape, physical or emotional abuse abound around us and happen to us.
When we think we can’t go on any more. We just can’t handle any more. Keep the faith! So many other saints have gone before us. We can follow their examples. Like verse 2 says, “This is what the ancients were commended for.” Add your name to the ancients! You have come through so much and kept the faith. Those around you will be looking to you also!
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