Hebrews 11:1-40
Faith in Action
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 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 from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
John 14:6-7
Jesus is Truth, the Way, and the Life
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Luke 9:57-62
The Cost of Following Jesus
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
John 16:33
You Will Have Troubles in this World
33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Reality can be defined as the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them...An illusion is something we often consider not real...An illusion is something the senses do not pick up on and cannot perceive...Followers of Jesus consider both as we explore His mystery...
Sigmund Freud did not believe in God...Freud worked and studied the mind...He had his own thoughts on reality, especially after studying the mind...And the mind is a difficult thing both to study and to understand...And the mental and mood disorders he studied were difficult to explain and understand to others, when he studied them...
Freud gave some of his thoughts on religion, after studying the mind...He said that religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires....He also said that devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one....He also said that religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis ... mankind will surmount this neurotic phase, just as so many children grow out of their similar neurosis...
So man created faith out of an illusion...An illusion that is an instinct...And in this instinct those mature in their faith are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses...By having faith then we are guarded in a sense to having neuroses and mood disorders, according to Freud...As I read these things from Freud, it is like he is telling me and others that religion and faith are in our wishful thinking...That Jesus somehow can keep us away from troubles, away from fears, and can guard us from anxieties and neurosis...
Freud was a smart man...He said that religion was not a reality, in the sense that one can explain it and touch it...And from this same premise that Freud believes in different things, why can't I ask a similar question, is/was his atheism an illusion?...Did his atheism put up a hedge around anything that he believed in?...
And reality is the here and now and what we can see and hear and sense, right now...The Hebrew author goes against the grain of Freud's thinking and says that faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see...This is what the ancients were commended for...By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible...The Hebrew author gives us a much more positive view of faith than does Freud...I believe the people who were examples of faith in Hebrews, believed their faith to be real...
If one believes that religion is all about one's faith, we can ask this question...Is faith a reality or is faith an illusion?...Is the faith I have in Jesus an illusion?...Is the faith I have that He resurrected from the dead an illusion over a neurosis and the fears I have?...Faith can be looked at in different ways...Faith give us the ability to hope...But that hope is really different...Pope Francis in his theological thoughts, called "Lumen fidei" or "The Light of Faith," argues that faith without truth is an illusion, while truth without love is cold and oppressive....
Faith needs Truth...And I believe that Jesus is Truth...And I also believe like G. K. Chesterton that Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried...When we think of the suffering and pain on the cross, we know that the authors only touched on the surface of atonement and what Jesus had to go through to save us for eternal life with Him and His Father...There are thousands of questions around Him hung on the cross, then His death for our sins on the cross...Then even more questions on His resurrection, and then His ascension to heaven...
We know that there are troubles in this world and their is the cost of following Him...It is not easy...The road is very narrow...The road is not a comfortable one...Just reread the Sermons on the Mount and the Sermons on the Plain...Jesus makes it clear to everyone that there is this cost to following Him...Was suffering and dying on the cross an illusion?...I do not think so...These ideas are not illusions...They are firmly grounded in His followers...They are the Truth...They are a most interesting kind of illusion, when one thinks of illusions, in the way that I read Freud...What accompanies the illusions of the cross are that we will have troubles in life, along with pains and sufferings...If one believes that this illusion is all about a comfortable life on earth, their faith will be a most confused one...And this here lies our hope, in these words, "But take heart! I have overcome the world."...