Contagious Faith

Monday, September 18, 2023

It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.  It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.  It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger.  He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.  It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.  It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground.  But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned.  Hebrews 11:23-29

The entire life of Moses is encapsulated in the word “faith”.  And yet the story of Moses’ life is not primarily about one man’s faith, but rather how faith is honored by God’s validation, and passed along to others who need to know a faithful God.  Moses is the story of contagious faith.

A man who helped pass along the faith to me when I was still in elementary school described how one “acquires” faith as more like plunging-into, rather than grabbing it, as you would pick up a baseball bat.  This is because a bat becomes your possession; plunging-into faith means you’re surrounded by it, possessed by its essence, and carried along where it will lead.  Read the Exodus account, and you will see that is so in the way Moses led and encouraged Israel.

The process with Moses grew and tested his faith throughout his life.  Born to Hebrew parents, released to God’s care in a basket floating down the Nile, found and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, and raised in the palaces of Egypt’s dynasty as a prince, Moses eventually discovered his heritage and turned his back on the riches of Pharaoh’s kingdom, in favor of the suffering he would find with slaves.

This image, and how the writer to the Hebrews casts it, brings into view one further analogy from baseball’s core:  keeping your eye on the ball.  Anyone who has ever had a baseball coach has heard those words.  When you step up to the plate for your turn at bat, it’s with the intention of hitting the ball so you can run the bases.  It is easy to get distracted with the crowd cheering (or booing).  The catcher will engage you in conversation if he can, to keep you from concentrating on hitting the ball.  The pitcher hides the ball until the moment of release, so you can’t see what he’s up to.  The sun can get in your eyes, or the waving trees beyond the fence can draw your attention from the one task for which you’ve practiced, learned, and are standing there facing nine opposing players…to smack that ball into the middle of next week.  And it won’t happen if you don’t keep your focus on that little white ball with red-stiches holding it together, screaming towards home plate at 80-90 miles-per-hour.  Keep your eye on the ball!

For You Today 

Keep your eye on the ball.  This is what faith whispered in Moses’ ear when the crunch time arrived.  Would it be a life of luxury, served on a gold platter in Pharaoh’s house…or a hard walk in slave sandals?  The “ball” in this case was a question that every person on planet earth must answer eventually:  Who are you going to serve?  If you want to serve Pharaoh, with this world’s approval and treasures, you will not serve the King of Glory.  Jesus has the last word on that:

No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”  Luke 16:13

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Turning Away

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Friday, December 21, 2018

Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ.  Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering.  Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things.  You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy.  You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.  So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord.  Remember the great reward it brings you!  Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will.  Then you will receive all that he has promised.  “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.  And my righteous ones will live by faith.  But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”  But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction.  We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved,  Hebrews 10:32-39(NLT)

Covenant-breaking, the act of starting-out in faith, and then turning away from that faith, is not a light subject.  Nor is it a subject you will find lacking in the Scriptures:

Moses warned God’s covenant people Israel:

…and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, I will punish you.  I will bring sudden terrors upon you—wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away.  You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them.  I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies.  Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!  “And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins.  I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze.  All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit.  Leviticus 26:15-19(NLT)

Jesus warned his followers about being shallow seed (Luke 8:13), and gets really specific a few chapters later about people who profess faith, and then, through spiritual laziness allow unbelief to take over:

“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.  “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest.  But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’  So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order.  Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there.  And so that person is worse off than before.”  Luke 11:23-26(NLT)

In his debate with the chief priests and elders at the temple (Matthew 21) Jesus warned them that the kingdom would be taken from them because of their turning-away from God.  The same about his Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:24), where those who took the position of disciples later got disillusioned and just quit due to unbelief.  Jesus’ teaching at this point can be summed-up in one simple, but chilling statement:

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.  Luke 16:13(NLT)

Timothy was warned by Paul about the shipwreck of faith (1 Timothy 1:19), even naming Hymenaeus and Alexander, two disciples who turned away.  He also warned the young pastor (1 Timothy 4:1ff) about disciples getting overwhelmed by seducing spirits, dwelling on one obscure or interesting sideline kind of issue (like somebody else’s sin), and getting lost by taking your eye off the priority of serving. 

Peter, the impetuous disciple, became quite a leader, warning the flock about (of all things) a lack of patience:

You already know these things, dear friends.  So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing.  Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  2 Peter 3:17-18(NLT)

Turning the leaf back over from unbelief to faith, trusting in God, staying the course in and out of season, remember the great reward Hebrews offers to faithful servants.  God’s choice for His servants isn’t wrath, punishment and pain.  Rather, God wants to bless us – but we’ll never see it if we turn away!

For You Today

Have you been walking through a rough patch?  Is it getting so you only dwell on the sins and failures of others, and the loneliness that accompanies serving Christ? 

Take heart as we give the Apostle Paul the last word today:

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.  Galatians 6:9(NLT)

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com