You Belong in the Hall of Faith!

The enemy wants us to settle.  The enemy wants us to settle for something other than what Jesus is holding out to us.  He wants us to settle for a fast-food version of religion rather than a Steak House feast with our LORD.  He wants us to settle for a life in the church pew listening to what someone else heard from God rather than also having a two-way conversation with Jesus ourselves. The enemy wants us to settle for being satisfied in the grip of worldly attractions and the culture’s gadgets rather than experience real agape love and freedom from sin’s grasp.
The enemy wants us to settle for some “acceptable” form of pornography rather than developing a loving intimate marriage.  The enemy wants us to settle with admiring those lives in the Hebrews 11 “Hall of Faith”, like a baseball fan admiring those statues in the center field of Yankee Stadium, instead of imagining our own likeness in bronze in the center of heaven. “Those are giants…men of old…special.  I could never be that...I could never be that much like Christ.  I could never be that holy. I could never be used by Him for something eternal.”  The enemy wants us to admire that great faith at a distance never entertaining the thought that the Hall of Faith is little more than just a museum of ancient relics.  

But the Hall of Faith still has spots on the wall for your own life’s portrait…Nah! That would just be a prideful thought.  We settle.

But in settling it is not pride we are eschewing; it is the very blood of Christ we are shaking off like a dog shivering off a cold bath.  God fully intends to hang a portrait of you or I next to Enoch or Noah or Abraham.   Oh yes He does!

And in writing your story into Hebrews 11, hanging your portrait on the wall, God is glorified!

“But I could not do that.”  What is missing from that sentence?  What is missing!

My friend, “I could never do that” is the victory cry of Hell! It is the victory cry of the enemy because of who is missing.  Who is missing from that sentence is Jesus. That is why “I could never do that” is the victory cry of the devil. If we put Jesus in that sentence it changes everything, doesn’t it.  That name turns the enemy’s victory cry into a whimper.

We say we want faith in Christ, and of course we do.  But Dallas Willard says that what we really need is to have the faith of Christ. We need to have the same kind of dependence and reliance on the Father that Christ had. Jesus came to earth to model that faith for us.

“But I could never have that kind of faith!”  Well, would you like to have that kind of faith?  Could you bring yourself do desire that kind of faith?  Andrew Murray in the School of Obedience writes,” The land of promise that has been set before us is the blessed life of obedience…” but “some are ready to say, ‘This is not a land of promise we are called to enter but a life of burden, difficulty and failure.’”

Up goes another victory yell below, can you feel the earth rumble beneath your feet?

“Do not say so my [friend]!  God calls you indeed to a land of promise. Come and prove that He can work in you…Come and see what blessing God will give to him who, with Christ, gives himself to the uttermost unto the ever blessed and most holy will of God.  Only believe in the glory of this good land of whole hearted obedience:  in the God who calls you to it, in Christ who will bring you in, in the Holy Spirit, who dwells and works all there. He that believeth entereth in.  Faith [is] the sufficient power for all obedience.  I give you these five simple words as expressive of the disposition of a believing heart entering on that life in the good land:--I see it, I desire it, I expect it, I accept it, I trust Christ for it.” Andrew Murray (Read those wise words again, but slowly!)

How absurd these words now sound as we stand next to Jesus: “I could never do that.” What low expectations we have of our savior!  Let us see, desire, expect, accept and trust Christ for our own obedience just as we did for our new birth in Him. “Having begun in the Spirit why do you seek to be perfected by the flesh?”

J.P. Moreland and Clauss Issler say: “If we wish to move to a worldview like Jesus-that this is a God-bathed world- we will need to begin entertaining what we now consider impossible.”

“I could never have a life like that.” 

“But with God all things are possible.

“I could never be used by God like that, accomplish something for Christ like that.”

“But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

“At the core of Biblical trust is a growing personal [friendship] with God, not just relying on our perception of reality…Jesus is providing a vision, painting a picture of what life fully lived in His kingdom looks like. Thus we should read these statements as invitations to a journey of growth…They should not be read as impossible burdens Jesus is putting on our backs!  Accordingly the proper response is not : This is impossible. I could never get to this point. Rather it is:  I hunger to enter more fully into this and I will seek and learn toward that end.”  Moreland and Issler 

C.S. Lewis said it this way: “Farther up and farther in.”  

Dallas Willard defines belief as “a willingness to act as if something were actually true.”  No wishing here!

See it. Want it. Expect it. Accept it. Trust Jesus for it. Farther up and farther in!

“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.”  Yes! Progress! That is what is expected of us. “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me.”

“The ultimate goal of Jesus’ commands is not that we observe them by doing good works. The ultimate goal is that God be glorified.” John Piper

Don’t settle!  Don’t settle to live your life vicariously through the guy up in the pulpit—let Christ live His life through you!

Don’t settle for just sending money to some missionary on the other side of the world—also seek to bring all things under the reign of Christ here at your place of work, in your family, in your neighborhood, in your heart.

“His divine power has granted us everything that we need for life and godliness.”  What does that leave out?

“He has granted to us His very great and precious promises so that through them we may become partakers (partners) in the divine nature.”  WOW!

Don’t settle for anything less!

Your picture belongs on that wall! 

And God will be glorified.

I love you all!