As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
The most moving chapter in the Bible for me is Hebrews 11 in St. Paul exhorting all to the call of Faith as emulated by our Patriarchs in Christ. This has always been the foundation of my relationship with God, and was a most bizarre event when my best half's dad, had been preaching at her and all he could confine to that torture that "WITNESSES" were what mattered in two or three Witnesses.
Yes Witnesses matter as the Last Two Witnesses, and as in Court of Law, but when it comes to Christ, that Judgment is for hell, and I would conclude that most of you desire a relationship with God which is not based upon the penal process of proving what you are, and for that matter, you believe God, and are not like the parental who had no Faith and was busy looking scientific proof to trust, instead of Trusting God's Word.
Faith is a beautiful entity for Faith is alive. What is so wonderful about Faith is that St. Paul teaches by Holy Ghost Inspiration, is what joins us not to only God, but to Adam and Eve, to Abel, to Moses, to Joshua and Caleb. To Hannah, to Samuel, to King David, to the Mary the mother of Christ.
Each of these wonderful people had Faith, in God Promised them a Savior and they believed, so this made Abel righteous and Enoch favored as they desired a relationship with God which was Spiritual and Real. They were saved, because they had Faith that Jesus would come to forgive them of all their sins.
Our Faith unites us with the Shepherds in the Field, the Wisemen, Joseph the father figure of Jesus, John, Peter, James, Matthew, Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan wife at the well, all these believed the Jesus before them was the Savior, and we are united with them in Faith, and they were forgiven of all their sins, because they believed Jesus was the only begotten son of God.
It was St. Paul, who became the great first fruit, Luke being another, who believed the Patriarchs in their Faith and believed that Christ had come by the Faith of the Apostles who brought the Gospel to the world. By Faith, Joan of Arc led armies in France so that people would not disappear in the children of Reuben. By Faith, the Protestant Martin Luther, liberated Christianity from the bonds of popery. By Faith, the Scots declared themselves of the Lost 10 Tribes. By faith thee Americans in the sons of Joseph, in their Founders, brought forth a Protestant Christian Nation on the foundation of the Pilgrims and Jamestown.
By Faith, you have heard in the life God provided you, the Word, and you have been moved to believe, and you are joined to this great company of witnesses professing their Faith for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not all of this is parting the Red Sea, not all of this is Christ upon the Cross. Not all is St. Paul crucified, but sometimes St. Paul stoned in a lonely place and revived from the dead, and sometimes it is Faith which has us mocked for being a Christian in Faith now, persecuted by the Christophobes, and sometimes it is leaving what were our sinner friends, and taking the hand of Christ and walking upon the path to eternal Life.
Faith is one on One. Faith is not two or three witnesses supporting your story. Faith is your confession as the lone witness professing Jesus is your Lord.
Hebrews
Faith
11 1 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. 2 The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. 3 By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.
4 By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That's what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice. 5 By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. "They looked all over and couldn't find him because God had taken him." We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken "he pleased God." 6 It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. 7 By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn't see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God. 8 By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. 9 By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. 10 Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations - the City designed and built by God. 11 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. 12 That's how it happened that from one man's dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions. 13 Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. 14 People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. 15 If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. 16 But they were after a far better country than that - heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them. 17 By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him - 18 and this after he had already been told, "Your descendants shall come from Isaac." 19 Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that's what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar. 20 By an act of faith, Isaac reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau. 21 By an act of faith, Jacob on his deathbed blessed each of Joseph's sons in turn, blessing them with God's blessing, not his own - as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff. 22 By an act of faith, Joseph, while dying, prophesied the exodus of Israel, and made arrangements for his own burial. 23 By an act of faith, Moses' parents hid him away for three months after his birth. They saw the child's beauty, and they braved the king's decree. 24 By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house. 25 He chose a hard life with God's people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors. 26 He valued suffering in the Messiah's camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff. 27 By an act of faith, he turned his heel on Egypt, indifferent to the king's blind rage. He had his eye on the One no eye can see, and kept right on going. 28 By an act of faith, he kept the Passover Feast and sprinkled Passover blood on each house so that the destroyer of the firstborn wouldn't touch them. 29 By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned. 30 By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and the walls fell flat. 31 By an act of faith, Rahab, the Jericho harlot, welcomed the spies and escaped the destruction that came on those who refused to trust God.
32 I could go on and on, but I've run out of time. There are so many more - Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . . . 33 Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, 34 fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. 35 Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. 36 Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. 37 We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless - 38 the world didn't deserve them! - making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world. 39 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. 40 God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours. 113 Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world.
We are all made One in Faith in Jesus the Christ, by our Spiritual Comforter, the Holy Ghost in the great family of God.
Faith is your declaration that you are innocent by the Blood of Christ. That is your testimony, which Christ vouches for you before the Father and Holy Angels. Your life in God is the evidence of whether you are honest or lying, for you are proven by your actions, and by Faith that Jesus is Faithful and True, you will be of a family in Heaven, eternal and like God, Who requires that you believe Him.
Nuff Said
agtG
