ice and worship haVe no relation to faith at all. Do you expect God to meet you face to face in every worship serv ice? Do you have the same expecta tion in your private devotional times? “He that cometh to God” — why do you approach Him at all, through wor ship, the reading of His Word, or prayer, if you don’t expect to meet Him? If you don’t have that expecta tion, you don’t really believe that He exists — or else you believe that He will not reward your seeking by let ting you find Him. That is the reason for the low level of spiritual awareness prevalent today. Hebrews 11:7 — By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Terry, “Sometimes God calls believ ers to demonstrate their faith with a practical act of obedience. Noah start ed to build his ark (Gen. 6:14-22) before there Was any concrete evidence of a coming flood. In fact, the disas trous rain did not start until after Noah had gathered specimens of all living creatures into the vessel (7:1- 16). God evidently purposed to give those around Noah an opportu nity to repent, since he is called a ‘preacher of righteousness’ (II Pet. 2:5) and the uneblieving inhabitants of his world were ‘judged’ by Noah’s faith as demonstrated in his obedi ence.” Hebrews 11:8 — By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. Terah, Abraham’s father, had start ed out from his homeland in Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, taking Abraham, Sarah, and Lot with him. Instead of arriving in Canaan, he settled in Haran, Mesopo tamia, far to the northeast of Canaan, beyond the Euphrates River (Gen, 11:27-32). Abraham, however, did not allow his father’s example, or the fact
that he was settled and prosperous in Haran (12:5), to keep him from pull ing up stakes and answering God’s call to go to an unfamiliar land. Noah and Abraham both faced the unknown when they obeyed God, and both went through difficult experiences before God made His deliverance clear to them. Hebrews 11:9 — By faith he so journed in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tab ernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. Abraham knew the trials of wan dering, hostile neighbors, warfare, in gratitude from his protege Lot, and— bitterest of all — years of despair over his own childlessness. But God prospered him materially, blessed his relationships with other people, and sent him a son in his old age. Abra ham and his wife Sarah had failed at times to rely on God and to believe His promise. Their attempt to solve the problem of their childlessness (Gen. 16) was especially unhappy, but God often graciously gives His children more than one chance. When God fin ally announced that Sarah herself would bear a child (17:17), her first reaction was unbelief (18:12), but this attitude was quickly replaced by faith ('Hebrews 11:11). In spite of this crowning blessing, Abraham never saw the fulfillment of God’s promise. He never inherited the land of Canaan — nor did his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, or his great-grandson Joseph. Yet each be lieved God’s promise would be ful filled in the future and each “died in faith” (Heb. 11:13), leaving the bless ing to his children (11:20-22). The patriarchs looked forward not merely to an earthly inheritance, but also to that spiritual or heavenly country to which they were going. They were not merely s t r a n g e r s among the Canaanites (Gen. 23:4, 47:9), but strangers in Canaan, even though their descendants would in herit the land, for they were citizens of “another country.” Everyone who has responded to God in faith ought to have an acute case of “home-long
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