The Faith of Joseph

Heb 11:22  By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

Gen 50:24  And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Gen 50:25  And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
Gen 50:26  So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Exo 13:18  But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 13:19  And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.

Joseph made a prophecy- the children of Israel would be brought out of the land of Egypt and taken to the land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When that prophecy was being fulfilled he wanted his bones taken from Egypt to that promised land.

It was by FAITH that Joseph made that prophecy. His FAITH that it would come to pass was a REAL ABIDING FAITH!

He BELIEVED!

We need to BELIEVE every single word of GOD!

JESUS SAID--

Joh_14:3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Joh_14:28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

If we have FAITH we KNOW HE WILL COME AGAIN UNTO US!

Were Joseph's bones taken from Egypt to the promised land a year after his death?

No.

We they taken two years after his death?

No.

Were they taken 100 years after his death?

No.

Were they taken 200 years after his death?

No.

What about 300 years after his death?

No.

Think about the length of time involved here. YEARS! Many, many years!

It came to pass just as Joseph prophesized.

How many people knew of that prophecy and as the years passed decided that Joseph's bones would just remain in Egypt forever, just like they would? It's safe to say a lot of people had to have believed they'd never be freed from Egypt's enslavement. It came to pass.

Jesus WILL return.

It's been thousands of years since Jesus made that prophecy, THOUSANDS of YEARS!

And Jesus isn't slack concerning that promise! 

Once that promise is fulfilled it means a whole new world.  It means something completely different from what we can imagine. It means the END of humanity as we know it, and while that is a GREAT thing because SIN and all its horrors will be no more, it's also the end of the chance for ANY more humans to be saved. The number of people that are saved from Adam to the last person will be all there are and NO MORE.  

Humans are sinners.
Humans have a Savior.
Humans will be saved.
Our Savior will save ALL that come to HIM, but ONCE He returns, ONCE it is all finished, all humans will be saved that are going to be saved.  No more will squeak in under the wire. There won't be any second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on -- chances.  All the chances will be over.

Just imagine what it has to take for our GOD to make the final determination that all who choose salvation have made that choice, and all who don't choose salvation never will choose it.

Throughout our lives people have had to make awful choices concerning who lives and who dies in a group of people. This is a decision that haunts many of them for the rest of their lives- and that's a human being who has the excuse of not being infallible. A human being can make the decision and then fall back on 'they did the best they could', and it'd be true.  God has to be make this decision and it has to be a perfect decision and one that will include ALL HUMANS that would choose SALVATION. There will come a time when GOD knows that any future human beings will NOT choose to be saved and that there is no more reason to wait, none.

He tarries, but He's NOT slack concerning the promise He's made to us.

Just as Joseph had FAITH when he made his prophecy.

We NEED to have FAITH that ALL JESUS' PROPHECIES WILL COME TO PASS!

We need to BELIEVE!

Our SAVIOR WILL RETURN FOR US! This is the truth! This is the Gospel of Salvation through HIM!


ALL IN HIS LOVE!

PLEASE Lord help us have the FAITH we need to believe fully in YOU and YOUR PROMISES!

PLEASE.

ALL BY YOUR GRACE!

Issac and Jacob- Blessed Using Faith

Heb 11:20  By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
Heb 11:21  By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.

Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. Giving a blessing Isaac  had to do so using FAITH.

Gen 27:27  And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:
Gen 27:28  Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:
Gen 27:29  Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.

God give thee.

The blessing was for GOD to give Jacob the things that only God can give to a person.

We believe that we can give so much to each other but it is truly God who gives. Our pride has us believing we orchestrate so much, and Satan would have us believe that we do. Satan wants us to believe we have control over so much. Our pride gets us into so much trouble. We try to manipulate things an we are allowed to do so but only because God allows.  God is in CONTROL.

God BLESSES.

Through FAITH we believe in God's blessings.

By Faith Jacob believed God would bless those he blessed.

We all have to pray by FAITH, don't we?

When we pray we are talking to God. We, through FAITH, are speaking to God. 

FAITH.

A real belief.

Why would you talk to someone that you don't believe is really there?
Why would Isaac and Jacob ask blessings for their own if their was NO ONE to fulfill that blessing? They HAD FAITH.  They BELIEVED.

Today  we question God so much of the time.  We dare to question His reality, why because it makes us feel superior somehow to do that, to believe that there is NO ONE to rule over us, NO ONE created us, NO ONE has the power over us or anything we do.  We put ourselves FIRST and yet SO MUCH is out of our control completely. You'd think those things would give us a clue, wouldn't you? The fact that we control NOT even the breath we breathe, NOT the beat of our heart,  OUR own stature and on and on and on the list goes. And if you think because a doctor can prolong a life- restart a heart, artificially breathe for someone, that they are in control - think again.   God allows those hearts to be restarted and allows that breath to keep going. How do I know this? Because people do NOT live forever on heart and breathing machines- if they did we'd have storage for them wouldn't we? There'd be bodies of people well in to their hundreds now and there aren't. People love to imagine they have so much control, but they really don't. They make choices but who gives them the choices to make? The choices don't exist on their own. 

People will go to great lengths to deny GOD, but in the end they have NO answers. God IS THE ANSWER.

Through FAITH great men of God asked God to bless those they loved.  They believed GOD would give that blessing.

Do we believe God gives blessings?
Do we have the faith we need?

We need GOD to give us the FAITH. We believe and we NEED HELP for our UNBELIEF!

Abraham's Living Faith

Heb 11:17  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
Heb 11:18  Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:
Heb 11:19  Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

By Faith.
By Faith.
We've been studying about Faith and we need to keep on studying Faith.

Sometimes we believe that once we've read something or studied it several times that it doesn't bear studying more, but the truth is, unless we are living all the truth we've ever studied we need to keep on studying.

Abraham LIVED faith.

Abraham was rewarded with the son promised to him, a son that by all normal conventions should have been denied him forever. That miracle son was born and that birth had to be amazing. The celebrations that had to have taken place, I mean, just imagine the way Abraham and Sarah had to feel when Issac was born.

God's promised son for them had finally arrived just as God said He would.

The road to that fulfilled promise was filled with a lot of bumps but it was a road that led to truth. We have to live on that road no matter how bumpy it gets. Even when the road seems washed out we have to believe that it isn't, that maybe it's ten feet under water but it's there! Faith.  God is THERE always! God is there! God is HERE! God is forever!

Abraham had his promised son and then…

Everything that Abraham imagined was turned completely upside down.

Do you imagine Abraham had to have thought that his faith had been tested to the fullest for all he'd endured waiting for Isaac? I mean years and years and years of having his faith tested and then…

Another test, the biggest test of his faith ever.

We aren't told much about the emotions going on with Abraham, we can only go on how we might feel, but we are NOT LIVING FAITH as Abraham was LIVING FAITH.

By all accounts Abraham should have been horrified, yet again, we are determining our reactions. Could Abraham's trust, his faith, have been so perfect that he wasn't the least bit horrified?

Gen 22:15  And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
Gen 22:16  And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
Gen 22:17  That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Gen 22:18  And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

He did NOT withhold his son, and HE COULD HAVE! He had that choice! He could have denied God's request. He was NOT forced to offer up His son to God. So many believe that God forces situations to get what He wants out of them but He doesn't!

The angel of the LORD said- because thou hast done this thing…

BECAUSE HE DID IT!

He didn't HAVE to do it!

Abraham's real faith, his living faith.

Do WE have this LIVING FAITH?

WE NEED IT!

All by the GRACE of God! All through HIS LOVE! Please LORD give us the FAITH WE NEED, faith as the faith Abraham held, all in YOU!

All These Died with Faith

Heb 11:9  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise

Abraham by FAITH stayed in a STRANGE country- not his homeland. What's so important about that? A lot of people today are constantly on the move. A lot of people I would imagine have lived in the same place all their lives- happily. Yes, we've seen lots of movies and such about people wanting to leave their small dinky towns and go to the big city, and vice versa, but a lot of those movies end with the people wanting to go back to their birthplace.  There is something special about living in the same place your ancestors have. The roots run deep.  For Abraham having to leave all his family and his homeland and go to the land of promise sounds like a good thing- a promised land, but at the same time he was called to do it ALL by faith.  That land wasn't an easy land to live in, he had NO real home but tents. This wasn't luxury at all. He was enduring all this THROUGH FAITH. His life was a life of endurance living for a promise of a future for all his descendents.  He had FAITH. He lived pleasing God because He lived for others! Seriously. He was all about loving his fellow man and THIS is what God demands of us.

Abraham BELIEVED in GOD'S promises! He BELIEVED. He would NEVER EVER live to see his descendents number as the sand of the sea, or the stars of the sky but HE believed GOD would make this happen. He BELIEVED what seemed toe be impossible from a human standpoint.

Many men have lived with the idea of their lineage ending with them. If they are an only son without heirs. They live and die with this as a reality. Abraham was childless with his wife and it was only through her he would have a legitimate heir.  They passed their childbearing years and still they believed. There were a few doubts, but NEVER an outright disbelief. There was a lack of understanding, a trying to figure it out in their own way, but never a REAL disbelief, never!

Heb 11:10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

No. He wasn't wandering the earth looking for this city.  He was looking FORWARD to being an occupant of GOD'S Holy City. He knew that GOD had this city and He was promised this city just as WE are promised this city- all by the GRACE of GOD.

Heb 11:11  Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Sarah had FAITH as well. Did she laugh, did she question, did she try to work things out her own way? Yes to all of those. But she didn't lose her FAITH. She didn't lose her belief in GOD to do as He said He'd do.  We too live in a world that causes us to question, to doubt, to laugh and try to work things out our own way, but honestly none of that means we don't truly believe in GOD. Satan will try EVERYTHING to lead us to despair- a full doubt, a full disbelief one that is never retracted, one that never allows for a glimpse of hope.  As long as we have HOPE we can have FAITH, we can have BELIEF.  Sarah had faith, she had that bit of hope and that's all it took.  She placed her hope in GOD, not in herself, not in her husband, but in GOD.

Heb 11:12  Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

Their faith was rewarded.

They didn't have a whole passel of children to start out the fulfillment of the promise. Abraham and Sarah didn't conceive child after child after child more than was possibly normal.  They had ONE child together. A SINGLE child was born to them long after they were past a human's ability to conceive. God ALONE performed the miracle within both of them to bring forth their promised child. God brought Abraham's seed back to life, and Sarah's womb as well.  Abraham was as good as dead concerning the ability to have children.  Sarah was also as good as dead concerning the same. Yet life came from them both, SOLELY by FAITH in GOD. Had they lacked faith they would NOT have realized the promise as it was beginning to be fulfilled.

Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

They ALL died believing!
They ALL died without receiving the promises fully realized.
They ALL had FAITH enough to believe the promises would one day be fulfilled even if it were far off.
They ALL believed, they embraced the promises being fulfilled at a much LATER time.
They ALL believed they were STRANGERS.
They ALL believed they were PILGRIMS ON EARTH.

Heb 11:14  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

They ALL sought a COUNTRY.

Heb 11:15  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
Heb 11:16  But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

They ALL by FAITH knew that the country offered by God in the future was better than any country they could possibly live in here on earth.
They ALL desired a HEAVENLY country.
They ALL desired to live with GOD in HIS country, in the CITY He prepares for them and no other.

They ALL DIED with this hope in them, every single one of them.

This FAITH, this AMAZING FAITH, we too need this FAITH, this BELIEF, this LOVE of GOD that goes so far beyond what we can truly imagine. Seriously, we need this FAITH.

God needs to be so real to us that we truly understand that we are PILGRIMS here on EARTH. We are STRANGERS here on EARTH. This sin corrupted earth is NOT the home we were designed for, not at all!

May God make this very real to us, very, very real!

Please LORD help us! SAVE US!

We believe Lord, we have Faith, help our unbelief, help our lack of faith. PLEASE LORD.

BLESS US!

All in YOU!
In YOUR love always!

Abraham's Faith

Heb 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.

By Faith.
Can you even imagine being told by someone to go somewhere but not exactly where.
Let's say you get a phone call and the person tells you to pack up and leave your home to start out for a new home, but they don't tell you where to go, just to start walking. You'd hang up right? You'd probably even laugh and think what a loony on the other end of the phone.

No, Abraham's situation wasn't the same at all. He didn't get any message from another human being, He received a message from GOD HIMSELF. Yet if Abraham did NOT believe GOD was who He said He was, if Abraham hadn't had complete FAITH in GOD, He would NOT have listened.

What amazing FAITH!

Gen 11:27  Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
Gen 11:28  And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
Gen 11:29  And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
Gen 11:30  But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Gen 11:31  And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Gen 12:4  So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Gen 12:5  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Terah took Abram and Lot and other family members from UR of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan.

Obviously God didn't think Abram was done moving.

God didn't call Abram's father to lead Abram further. God called Abram himself. God SPOKE to Abram-

Get thee out of thy country.
Get thee away from thy family.
Get thee away from thy father's house.

Go to a land that I (GOD) will show you.
I will make you a great nation.
I will bless you.
I will make your name great.
You will be a blessing.

God talked with Abram.
Abram listened.

God talked.
Abram listened.

God told.
Abram obeyed.

Every part of Abram's life as he'd known it for a really long time was about to change drastically.  Drastically how? He didn't KNOW where He was going!

He had to go, but He wasn't given an exact location, He wasn't told how long it would take, He wasn't told it would be problem free.

Did Abram have a choice?

YES!

Abram was NOT forced.

Again, people love to say that if God spoke directly to them that they'd do whatever He said too. Yet God speaks to us all. His will has been revealed to us in His Word and we don't listen to even a smidgen of what He tells us.

And people will go on and counter saying that's not the same. But it is.

Abram didn't have God's Word to read, to study, to live.  God had to speak directly to those who were forming the Fathers of His chosen people, the Fathers of the ONE who would one day be a descendent from whom GOD would bring forth His ONLY SON. 

We cannot allow ourselves any pity for not being spoken to directly by God, we CAN'T! We cannot long for the voice of GOD to speak to us directly as if we'd suddenly obey Him because we hear the sound of His voice. It is such a miracle that we even have HIS written Word as we do and yet people don't believe that it's all that important, they treat it so flippantly, so lightly.

Abram heard God and obeyed.
We need to hear God and obey.
We need to OBEY.
So many read and read and read, they hear but they do NOT obey. They think obeying is old school, obeying was done away with in the Old Testament.  God did NOT give us the entire Bible without reason. It's His WORD and we must OBEY.

More tomorrow all by the GRACE of our LORD and SAVIOR!

From His love may we live!

ALL in HIS LOVE!

ALL IN HIM!

Noah's Faith

Heb 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.

By Faith.

Noah built an ark. We all know that story. There was even a modern day movie, a comedy, that dealt with the idea of God asking someone to do something that seems totally ludicrous, yet that person does it.  Noah was told by God things that would come to pass and Noah listened. He didn't have to listen. He wasn't force to listen to God, no one is. Situations can occur that seem to make it hit home that God would have a person do a certain thing and when that person resists God tries to impress upon that person just how much He really wants that thing done. Can the person still refuse? Yes. If God could force a person to do something He wouldn't need to tell them, and He certainly wouldn't have to do various things to try and impress upon a person that they should do that thing- He'd just force them. God doesn't work through forcing the will. God wants us to have FAITH in Him, a real abiding faith that goes way beyond merely believing there is a possibility of God.

Many do that don't they? They believe in the possibility of God but not the reality.
Many do believe in God but they believe in a false God, a God of their own making and NOT the God of our Bible. They'll come up with all sorts of things that show they are right to believe the way they do, but it'll still be a false God they are worshipping, all the while believing it to be the REAL God. 

No, you do NOT want to believe that is possible.  You want to believe that as long as a person is genuine in their belief they need nothing more. Yet you can have a lot of people who are genuine in their devil worshipping, does that mean they are acceptable to God? You can have a lot of people believing in God but if they use their belief to twist God into something acceptable to them, rather than their needing to be acceptable to God, then they will not be saved.

We don't like to hear that, we don't, I know I don't. I like to believe that God, who knows the heart, will understand the sincerity behind a person's belief and that's all that matters. But what matters is the truth. Remember the verse about 'devils believing and trembling'?  We have to believe in God and all HE is, ALL HIS TRUTH.

Noah's faith.
Noah was an heir of righteousness by faith.
His faith was accounted righteousness.

Rom 1:17  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Rom 1:19  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Rom 1:23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man

People change the GLORY of the UNCORRUPTIBLE GOD into an image made like to CORRUPTIBLE MAN.

We are GUILTY of bringing God down to our level of comprehension. We are GUILTY of questioning GOD as if He is just a another human being in a slightly different form.  We don't want to believe there is a RIGHTEOUSNESS by FAITH, a REAL righteousness that comprehends that God is AGAINST ALL ungodliness, all unrighteousness. We want God to wink at the unrighteousness and ungodliness we commit because we have this delusion that we are that magnanimous and would wink at others unrighteousness and ungodliness. We ONLY wink at other people's unrighteousness and ungodliness because we want ours winked at! We want to believe that everything is acceptable to God and there really is no line between right and wrong, because we want to live in the wrong yet be accepted as righteous!

We are called to live by faith and that faith must be in GOD and ALL HE SAYS HE STANDS FOR! If God has a wrath against unrighteousness who are WE to say that He does not! We lie when we say that! We lie when we believe that God has to accept unrighteousness, He doesn't, HE WON'T! 

We cannot laugh off our sins! They are grievous! THEY KILLED GOD'S ONLY SON! So how dare we shrug them off! Did Jesus shrug off sin? NO! He preached among all sinners and did so to bring them the comprehension that they need to SIN NO MORE. He forgave them but did NOT accept their sin. He never said, I forgive you now make sure you ask for more forgiveness when you sin next. He NEVER SAID THAT  so why do we want to believe He did?!  The very awful danger of being accepting of unrighteousness, of being accepting of sin is undermining the truth that it is a deadly poisonous thing that has the potential to lead us so far astray we NEVER even want to seek forgiveness, true forgiveness and we sure don't believe we even have to, we want to believe God will forgive automatically without any thought on our part. It's a LIE!  Sin is EVIL, unrighteousness is EVIL and we are to SIN NO MORE, but if we do… if we take that deadly poison and inject ourselves with it we'd better fall to our knees before God and BEG His forgiveness and HEED CHRIST'S WORDS-  GO AND SIN NO MORE! 

STOP ACCEPTING SIN, ANY SIN, ALL SIN! STOP IT!

HATE ALL SIN! DESPISE ALL SIN before it's too late and you're caught in a deadly trap so many are going to fall into - changing the glory of the UNCORRUPTIBLE GOD, into an IMAGE like a CORRUPTIBLE MAN!

God is not corruptible like we are, God will never die, God will never condone evil, never condone sin, never condone unrighteousness and He sure does NOT want us to do that!

The FAITH of NOAH was counted as RIGHTEOUSNESS.

We need FAITH and the RIGHTEOUSNESS that comes by FAITH in our GOD.

We cannot hold TRUTH in unrighteousness. We cannot KNOW the truth and not believe in that TRUTH but corrupt it to suit our evil. We can't!

Noah's faith was a faith that we need to look upon as an example. Surrounded by a world filled with corrupt people, He held fast to GOD'S Righteousness. He didn't succumb to the crowd mentality that shouted for Him to be evil like them.  They didn't believe in God as Noah did.  They changed things to suit their own selves. They believed they'd be fine because they were in the majority.

Today we live in a world that has accepted so much evil and turned it into something that people call good, and those same people call those who still believe in the evil of evil, wrong, and they persecute them.

Our world is filled with the same kinds of people that existed in the days of Noah.  People barely know what God's righteousness really is.  They forget about Jesus' tirade in the temple against the money changers, preferring to just remember that Jesus ate with sinners- likening His doing that as His accepting sin. He NEVER accepted SIN, He loved SINNERS and offered them REDEMPTION FROM SIN, wanting them to SIN NO MORE.

Please LORD help us to have the FAITH of NOAH, Help us to have faith that will be counted for RIGHTEOUSNESS, FAITH IN OUR SAVIOR WHO IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!  Keep us from EVIL LORD, keep us from ever accepting SIN as being good in any way. Help us to always recognize the sin in our lives and seek forgiveness, repenting, and by the grace of our LORD heeding HIS words to sin no more!

ALL THROUGH YOU!
ALL FAITH IN YOU!
ALL LOVE!

Enoch's Faith

Heb 11:5  By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

BEFORE God took Enoch, Enoch had a testimony-- 

What is a testimony?

(Webster)
Affirmation; declaration.
Open attestation; profession.
Confirmation.

If you give a testimony you are giving the truth as you know it, right? If you go to court and give a testimony, you are giving the truth as you perceive it. My testimony, your testimony, their testimony, a testimony is something you believe to be true beyond a doubt. Enoch had a testimony, Enoch had a truth and that testimony, that truth was that he PLEASED GOD. The truth.

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to PLEASE him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Enoch had FAITH!

Enoch PLEASED GOD!

Enoch believed that GOD is, was, and will always be.
Enoch believed that GOD is a rewarder of those who DILIGENTLY seek HIM.

Enoch's testimony, Enoch's truth was that God was everything! Enoch had no doubt, no room for doubt at all. This TRUTH was what TRANSLATED Enoch from earth to heaven to be with God without seeing death.

This example is for US.

FAITH pleases God- believing please God.

If you've ever had anyone lose faith in you WRONGLY, you can only imagine on a tiny scale how God feels. If you've ever had anyone stop believing in you WRONGLY, again, you can only imagine on a tiny scale how God feels. It doesn't feel good at all, it feels awful. You feel so incredibly helpless and frustrated because you know you didn't do this thing that has brought about others losing faith in you, no longer believing you.  No matter what you say or do it's gone, that faith is gone. It's one thing to have people lose faith in you when you've actually done something to warrant that loss of faith, but when you've done absolutely NOTHING, you are truly helpless. You can hope all you want that someone will believe in you again, but you have no guarantee that will happen, but that hope is what you do have.

God did NOTHING to lose our faith in Him, not a single thing, yet we chose to lose faith in Him. We willingly gave up believing in Him and all He represents.  We lost the right to be with HIM, to know HIM as He wanted to be known. We gave up that right willingly when we decided WRONGLY that He wasn't being honest with us, that He was keeping something from us. We had NO proof, NO reason to believe that He would not give us all good things and yet we chose to believe lies rather than truth. And before you say YOU didn't do that, that Eve did, you are being awfully arrogant to believe you would have done differently. We are all a part of this and the weakness that Eve revealed is a weakness we all share.

We accused GOD falsely and then we turn around and HE still LOVES US! HE FORGIVES US! And what does He want in return?  He wants us to BELIEVE in HIM AGAIN! He wants us to have FAITH in HIM AGAIN!

And we can't go by sight, we can't go by feelings. We can't go by the things we are called to endure in this world. We have to go by the TRUTH, and the TRUTH is GOD IS ALL LOVE and all that entails.

PLEASE LORD HELP us to have this faith that we need! Enoch had FAITH that pleased YOU perfectly! Please LORD give us this faith! PLEASE in YOU, all in YOU always!