Hebrews 11

I posted previously that in our Senior High Girls study on Sun. mornings we've been studying key characters in the story of the Old Testament. This past Sunday we recapped the last 4 people we've studied (Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses) by telling stories and tying each story together with transition so that we begin to see the Old Testament and the people of the OT as members of a fluid, beautiful story. My girls, once again, shocked and amazed me with how much they have retained even from the first week. (No wonder we won the trivia game...only group to get all their questions right!!)

So, I'm studying for their study next week on Rahab - faith in action. The study leads me to Hebrews 11 where the author is telling how key characters in the Old Testament have not just verbalized their faith in God, but have actually put their faith in action because of their belief in God's promises. It even goes on to say that they didn't even receive God's promise, that this is the stark contrast between the OT and us...we have God's promises fulfilled to us in Jesus Christ!!

I am a full believer in the fact that to be saved, one must only confess with the mouth and believe with the heart. BUT! there's a but. Doesn't the love you've found in salvation compel you to DO SOMETHING?? It must, it must. I don't ever want to become so complacent in my faith that I am teaching young girls to believe in God's promises and, by faith, act them out if I am not 110% acting out my faith everyday. I believe Hebrews 11 and James 2 have a lot to say to me about this...and I'll be studying them until I feel I have a good grasp on this faith in action. I'll post later about how the study goes this Sunday :)

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them ffrom a distance, admitting that they were foreignersand strangers on eatrth. People who say such things show that they are lookking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-a Heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called thehir God, for he has prepared a city for them. " Hebrews 11:13-16