A Season of Faith
[Read Hebrews 11:1-3]
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
If you’ve ever heard something too good to be true you’ve undoubtedly decided to investigate it further. We’ve all been burned. Maybe it’s by the bait and switch of the advertisement getting your hopes up only to discover the conditions of the fine print upon arriving at the store, maybe it’s the online profile picture that was taken a decade ago and sent through numerous filters before your first date, maybe it’s the product that seemingly worked so well for everyone else on social media, but has failed to give you any results. Regardless of the reason, when you hear the claim that is too good to be true the skepticism in your mind causes you to crave knowing more, a desire to further interact with the claim, and see it for yourself.
The hope of the promise of Jesus seems too good to be true. That God would still choose to love us and desire a relationship with us in spite of the fact that we have all rebelled against him makes little sense on the surface. That there is a purpose to our life and meaning for the reason we have been created. That God is not a distant deity but an intentional creator of you and all of creation. While we must cling to that which we cannot see, the hope of Christmas is that we look back to when the unseen God became visible, uniting his divine nature with our humanity and that we have hope because of the work of Jesus on our behalf, available to us through faith.
Pastor Brian Pursley
Lakeside Community – Algoma
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
If you’ve ever heard something too good to be true you’ve undoubtedly decided to investigate it further. We’ve all been burned. Maybe it’s by the bait and switch of the advertisement getting your hopes up only to discover the conditions of the fine print upon arriving at the store, maybe it’s the online profile picture that was taken a decade ago and sent through numerous filters before your first date, maybe it’s the product that seemingly worked so well for everyone else on social media, but has failed to give you any results. Regardless of the reason, when you hear the claim that is too good to be true the skepticism in your mind causes you to crave knowing more, a desire to further interact with the claim, and see it for yourself.
The hope of the promise of Jesus seems too good to be true. That God would still choose to love us and desire a relationship with us in spite of the fact that we have all rebelled against him makes little sense on the surface. That there is a purpose to our life and meaning for the reason we have been created. That God is not a distant deity but an intentional creator of you and all of creation. While we must cling to that which we cannot see, the hope of Christmas is that we look back to when the unseen God became visible, uniting his divine nature with our humanity and that we have hope because of the work of Jesus on our behalf, available to us through faith.
Pastor Brian Pursley
Lakeside Community – Algoma
Comments
Post a Comment