7-27-2020

Good Morning All, 

     Habakkuk 2:4b; “but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

    What do you live by?  Some people live by sight.  They claim that they must see it.  They claim that they must have visual contact to assure that something is real or not.  If they cannot see it; it does not exist.  Yet how many things do we not see but we know they exist?  They may be small or far away or exist in total darkness; yet we know they exist.  We experience the result of the actions of these small particles.  We know electrons exist by the shock we get from them; yet we never see them.  So, living by sight might not be that great.

     Some live by touch.  They need to feel things to know that they are real.  They need the wind in their face or the spray of the rain to know it is real.  If it cannot be held or touched it is not real because reality has substance.  Yet how do they explain the pain of a heartbreak?  How do they explain sadness or happiness?  We know these exist, but we cannot touch them.

     Some people live by knowledge.  They claim that they must have complete understanding of something for it to exist for them.  If they do not understand it, they reject it.  Everything must fit into their way of thinking.  The problem with this is that it leaves no room for the fact that none of us can ever know everything.  How do we explain new ideas or objects?  We can only deny them if we follow the idea that if I do not know it then it cannot exist.  It also leaves no room for learning. 

    So how do we live?  Scriptures tell us that the righteous shall live by faith.  But what does this mean?  The easiest way to think of this is that faith means the desire to trust in God’s promise.  The righteous are those who God has declared to be holy, separate from the sinful world.  So, we live, separated from the sinful world, because we trust in God’s promise of forgiveness and salvation.  We trust God to deliver on his promises and we separate our self from the world.  This can be a challenge.  When all your friends call abortion a choice, fidelity an old-fashioned idea, or homosexuality a lifestyle, what do you do?  God calls these sins and calls us to flee from them.

    They are sins because they go against God’s will and design.  They destroy the gifts that God has given to us.  They pull us back into the pit of despair that God has pulled us out of.  There are others than the three listed and the three listed are not any worse than any others.  Sin separates us from God.  It is that simple.  Yet God brings us back into his family by forgiving our sins.  By faith, by trusting God’s promise to forgive, we remain in that family, but we must remain faithful to God’s promise and his call to righteousness and holiness.  We are to be his people in this world, a light in the darkness, hope for the hopeless and comfort for the hurting.  We live by faith because we trust in God’s promise.

Wonderful Father, your mercies are new to us each day.  Thank you for giving me the ability and the desire to trust in your promise.  Thank you for declaring me righteous in your sight.  Help me to live the life that you have laid out for me.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret