6-21-2018

Good Morning All,

    Galatians 3:11; “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith”.

     One of my favorite movie series is the “Indiana Jones” series.  I really liked “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”  In it, Indiana and his father are trying to find the Holy Grail.  When he finally comes to the cave that it was secreted in, he has three tasks to accomplish in order to recover the grail.  The first is about being penitent before God, the second is knowing the name of God.  The final task was to take a “step of faith” which appears to be an attempt to cross a distance of many feet, too far to jump.  As he looks down he sees nothing but the deep of the abyss.  He must get to the room with the grail or else his father will die.  In a scene with some pretty good acting, you can see the anguish of fear and doubt on his face as he takes that step of faith.  As he steps out, he lands on a bridge that looks like the abyss below.  The pathway was there but he didn’t see it at first; he had to walk by faith to cross the abyss to the grail.

    That last task, the step of faith, really applies to us in real life as well.  We stand at the edge of the abyss and God invites us to come to him; in order to do so, we must take a step of faith.  And it is a step of faith.  Almost everything we learn in this world will tell us that to take that step is a mistake.  “If you can’t see it you can’t believe it”; this is what the world will tell you.  So we live a life alone.  You cannot see love, or trust, or compassion or any other emotion that we experience. 

    So we don’t love, not really anyway, we manipulate and use others to accomplish our own goals and dreams.  We don’t trust because we know everyone is like us, willing to lie and cheat to get what we want.  We have no compassion unless we can get something out of it in the end.  This life is filled with sadness, hopelessness and shame.

    Yet God still loves us and sent his Son to die for us.  He did this to show us that the path we can’t see really is there.  He did this to provide that path. He does this so we have somewhere to go when the pain and sadness of this life is just too much to bear.  God gives us the path and we walk it by faith.  He gives us the desire to believe that the path is the right one.  He gives us the faith to see what true love, true trust and true compassion is. 

     There will be many times when we will have to walk in that faith.  There will be troubles but we can rest assured that we will live by faith, trusting in God’s grace to pull us through.  It is his love that keeps us going and gives us hope.  We take that step but we know that the bridge is there and God goes with us every step of the way.

Gracious Lord, all we have is faith.  This is what gets us through and moves us forward.  Be with us as we walk through this life on the path that you give us.  Be with those who are especially struggling with life today.  Give them the certainty of your grace and bring them through their trials strengthening their faith as they go.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret