Faith Does Things!

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God's people had faith, and when they had walked around the city of Jericho for seven days, its walls fell down.

Rahab had been a prostitute, but she had faith and welcomed the spies. So she wasn't killed with the people who disobeyed.

What else can I say? There isn't enough time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Their faith helped them conquer kingdoms, and because they did right, God made promises to them. They closed the jaws of lions and put out raging fires and escaped from the swords of their enemies. Although they were weak, they were given the strength and power to chase foreign armies away.

Some women received their loved ones back from death. Many of these people were tortured, but they refused to be released. They were sure they would get a better reward when the dead are raised to life. Others were made fun of and beaten with whips, and some were chained in jail.  Still others were stoned to death or sawed in two or killed with swords. Some had nothing but sheep skins or goat skins to wear. They were poor, mistreated, and tortured.

The world did not deserve these good people, who had to wander in deserts and on mountains and had to live in caves and holes in the ground.

Hebrews 11:30-38

Faith that is real is surrounded by amazing deeds. It is foolish to try and separate faith from the works that evidence that faith. There is no man or woman of faith who "just believed" the Lord without that belief resulting in actions that were worth writing about.

Today, we love to identify the things you don't have to do to be Saved. We try to separate faith from the deeds that reveal the veracity of it.

In some ways we are like an Olympic swimmer who never gets back in the pool. To be "saved by faith" and then display no evidence of it is remarkably shallow and perhaps very deceptive.

Here is what you have to do to be Saved: Trust in the Blood of Jesus and His death on the Cross and relate to Him in such a way that every Word you hear from His lips becomes your obsession. Let obedience to the will of Christ become your overwhelming desire.

Never consider whether a specific command of Jesus is "essential" to your salvation. Are you really planning on standing before the Lord on the day of judgment and answer for the things He clearly told you to do, but you decided to ignore them because they weren't essential?

If your name was added to the list of people of faith in Hebrews 11 how would God describe the evidence of your faith?

"Lord, show me what to do today because of the faith that I have in You. Speak a Word to me today so that I may obey it. Amen!"