1 Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Hebrews 11:1-3 “1 Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see. 2 The elders in the past were approved because they showed faith. 3 By faith we understand that the universe has been created by a word from God so that the visible came into existence from the invisible.”

N.T. Wright

“I had thought we were alone on the hillside. It had been misty for some of our walk, and at other times sharp little squalls of rain had spat in our faces. But we had kept going, knowing there would be some difficult climbing later on (a rocky crag, likely to be icy at this time of year) but hoping we could get through.

We reached a small plateau, and as we did so the sky cleared for a moment. As we looked around, we noticed quite a large party some way ahead of us. They must have been going at least a couple of hours longer than us, since they had already come to the difficult bit, and appeared to have negotiated it successfully. In fact, the last in the line were near the top of the crag, their red jackets standing out against the snow and ice.

I took out the binoculars to have a closer look. As I brought them into focus, there was a sparkle of light from where the climbers were. Sure enough: ice-axes. They had discovered they needed them to get up the crag. Just as well we had brought ours. Now we knew, looking ahead to the others, what we would be facing, what we would need to cope with it — and the fact that it was possible. They seemed, particularly those who’d already made it up the crag, to be enjoying it.”

Hebrews 10:39 “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

Hebrews 12:1-3 “Run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne.”