Devotion
Faith
Frances Taylor
This passage gives us the connection between faith and hope. When I turn on a lamp, it is with faith. When my son turns on a lamp it is with the knowledge of an electrician. Faith is based on the unknown, once we have knowledge we no longer need faith. We were not there when the world was created, we have no knowledge of how it was done. But we believe, we have hope, that God is the author of creation. We were not there to walk with Jesus and listen to his preaching about the kingdom, but we have faith based on the word of God we find in Scripture. We trust the writings of the apostles. We have hope in his message.
Faith is an interesting virtue. What gives us the ability to have faith? Actually it begins in our infancy. We learn faith from our parents. Parents who tend to their child's needs teach that child that there is someone who can be depended on. This gives them courage to believe. If you have ever known a child whose parents were not present or neglectful, you know that this child has a problem depending on anyone but himself. This inability to trust, to have faith, in anyone can last into adulthood, bringing many problems into his life. When you think about it, parents are the gods in a child's life. The first prayer most of us learn is the Lord's Prayer. How does it begin? Our Father, who art in heaven. If our parents have taught us to be fearful or them or to be unable to depend on them, what must they think of God? Faith must also be nurtured. By sharing with others the ways in which God has worked in our lives, we are nurturing the faith of others. When we listen to the faith stories of others, our faith is nurtured. May we always give witness to the faith and hope that lives in our hearts.
Prayer
Gracious God, you come to us each day with reasons to keep believing in you. Help us to be nurturers of faith for others so that they too may have hope in experiencing the your goodness. Amen.
Devotion
Abraham is Father of All
Frances Taylor
There are questions in every age about the importance of the Old Testament for Christians. Abraham is considered to be the Father of Faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims. We forget that it was Abraham who believed in the doctrine of only one God. It is through him and his descendants that this tradition comes down to us. Another fact that we can overlook is that Jesus was Jewish. He was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died, rose and ascended into heaven as a Jew. Because we believe that he was the Messiah, the Christ, and we follow him, we are called Christian. Without the Old Testament, we wouldn't understand the promise of salvation; we wouldn't understand why it was important for Jesus to be of the family of King David. We would not understand his teaching either, because Jesus quoted from Scripture – the Old Testament – frequently. He told us that he came to fulfill the Scriptures, not to abolish them. In the same way, we can ...
