There was a professor at a University once. He was noted for being a staunch Athiest. He made it his lifes work, every year, to make everyone believe as he did. And, ever year, those who sat on the fence with their faith would become Athiests. And, at the end of every year he would say "Does anyone still believe in God? If so, stand up now!"

And of course, no one would. And he would respond "GOOD! If any one of you had stood up I would have called you a FOOL! If God was real, I could drop this chalk and he could stop it from breaking." The few christians in the room were too terrified at this point to do anything. And, of course the man dropped the chalk and it broke.

However, one year he asked the question. And one man, still unconvinced by the man's arguments of the year stood up. The professor shouted. "YOU IGNORANT FOOL! Have you learned NOTHING! God cannot possibly exist! I have demonstrated this time and time again! And I'll do it again now.  If God exists, I could drop this chalk and he could prevent it from breaking. "

The Professor dropped his chalk. It didn't break. It hit the floor and rolled away. The Professor, flabbergasted, stared at the student and then ran from the classroom. The young man walked to the front of the class room, picked up the chalk, and proceeded to spend the next hour answer questions and sharing his faith in Jesus Christ.

That, ladies and gentlemen is faith. And that one thing. This all important thing. This most UNTANGIBLE thing is the first stop on the road of salvation. It's the ONE THING that will save you when all else fails. Now, I don't mean save you from death. Though it certainly could. But it is the one thing that will save your soul. Or, at least start you there.

There are 4 steps to saving your soul.

1: Faith
2: Obedience
3:Repentance
4:Perseverance

Each one leads to the next. In this formula. If you have FAITH in God, you will be OBEDIENT to his call to be REPENTENT of your sin and PERSERVERE through your trials.

At the moment I want to focus on the first step. Faith. No where in the Bible will you find "Joseph was saved by his obdience" etc etc.

No, it's always "He was saved by faith." or "Made Righteous by faith." And we'll start right there. With the someone that I can think of that was made righteous by his faith. Infact, we're going to look at THREE people who were made righteous and saved by their faith.

First: Abraham
Second: Job
Third: David

Three men. All three men are famous to people who have read the Bible or the Torah. Two of them are intregal to Jewish culture and history. One is the father of their entire nation!  But, first we'll start with Abraham.

Several thousand years ago, there was a man in the land of Ur, who's name was Abram. Now, Abram, and his wife Sari, were some of the wealthiest people in the whole entirety of the east. Abram had massive flocks of goats, herds of cammels, many yokes of oxen. And a HUGE family.

A more faithful man to God you couldn't find in the entire world. And because of this, God had a plan for him.

Genisis 12:1-3 (NIV)

1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."

And so, what did Abram do? He got himself up, called to Sari, and said "Hey Sari! You're never gonna believe what happened!  God came to me and said I was going to be a great nation! We're leaving! Common, get Lot and let's go!"

And he did! Just like that! That is the first demonstraton of Abram's faith. And, common, let's face it. That's a pretty big one. Granted, several thousand years ago, God was, as humans understand it, more vocal than he is now. But even still, that's a hard path to take. To pick up everything you own, leave your family and go to a land that is who knows how far away because God told you to do it.  And when he arrived in Canaan he built an altar when God stated "This is the land I will give you."

This was hardly the last thing to happen to Abram, but the next is quite possibly one of the most important. It has had far reaching effects on the world, and continues to occupy the global political scene.  God told Abram "You will be a nation, and I will give you an Heir." 

Genisis 15:2,3:  2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."

But God said "NO, Abram. Just wait, and in my time, Sari will be with child."

We all know what happens next. Sari gets impatient, and tells Abram to sleep with her servernt Hagar. From there he gets Hagar pregnant and is given the son Ishmael. The father of the Arabs. Was this a mistake on Abrams part? The Bible never says. It wasn't the original plan. Of course not! God didn't say "Go ahead, commit adultry to fulfil what I have said will come to pass."

But did that ruin things? Did God go "Oh, gee, didn't see that coming?" Hardly. He renamed Abram "Abraham." Which means "Father of Many Nations." And Sari, now named Sarah, became pregnant and they had Issac. From there, Sarah had Hagar cast out because she did not want Issac and Ishmael to be joint-heirs of Abrahams wealth.

But, though Abraham sinned in this way, though he went against what God had told him to do, he still blessed Abraham. He became the father of two great nations. These nations...these sons are constantly at war. All one has to do is look at the Gaza Strip. This has been going on for time immemorial, and will continue till the end of time. But GOD STILL JUSTIFIED ABRAHAM THROUGH HIS FAITH!

He didn't move against Abraham. He made it known that there would be consquences. Ishmael would have his hand aginst all nations and all nations would be against him, and that is exactly what's happening today. But the Jewish nations endures, and the Arab nations endure. They are some of the most populous in the entire world. If that is not blessing Abraham and making him righteous through faith then nothing is. And, infact, it's through this man that God saved the whole world! It was from the Jewish Nation that Christ arose.

If you think about it, the entire plan of salvation was set in motion when God said to Abraham "Get up, and go! You are a part of my ETERNAL PLAN! All of it! I'm using you as one of the corner stones!" And, Abraham, believing in what God said, got up and went.

If that's not faith, than, not to be stereotypical here, but if that's not faith I don't know what is.

Next, is Job. Job was God's servent. God himself said so. Infact, Job was so good, that God pointed him out to Satan when Satan presented himself before the lord with all the other angels. See here:

Job 1:8 "Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

This promted Satan to challange God on Job's faith.  And God accepted the challange.

Throughout the book, we watch Job as he goes from one of the wealthiest men in the east to one of the most destitute. In one fell swoop, Satan destroys his family, his crops and his livestock. But, Job refuses to curse God or give up on his faith. Infact, this struggle prompts him to come up with one of the most famous quotes in the bible.

Job 1:20 "At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:

"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart. [c]
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised."  "

Job REFUSED to sin. He wouldn't do it. He would not blame God for the short comings that were going on in his life. He knew that God was in control. He had FAITH that God was in control. He knew that he had no control over what happened and that anything that would befall him or lift him up would happen on God's time, and no one elses. Which is good because things were about to get worse for Job.

God again called all the Angels before him. And again, Satan presented himself and God pointed out Job. But this time, Satan wanted to go even further. Forget harming livestock or family. For get destroying crops or killing servents. Satan was playing for keeps this time. The perliminaries were over, and it was time to move on to the main event. 

So Satan proposed another idea:

Job 2:4 4 "Skin for skin!" Satan replied. "A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face."

In other words, Satan was saying: "So he's still praising you and giving you control? So what!? All you allowed me to do was harm things AROUND him. Let me do something TO him, and we'll get a differnent answer." And God allowed Satan to do this.

Satan inflicted horrible boils, and sores all over Job's body.

Now, you need to understand boils for a moment. When someone says "gee, I have a boil". That's nothing. That's a zit. What we're talking about here is full blown "chronic furunculosis" . This is a condition where the boils persist. Now, if you can immagine it for a moment, do so:

Job, covered in head to toe, with read, swollen bumps. His lymph nodes are going to be swollen and sore. Those boils are going to have white or yellow heads on them that burst, leaking puss and bacteria evreywhere. Chances are they are going to be on his back,  stomach, armpits, buttocks, nose thighs....they'll even appear on your lips and eye lids.

Not only are these thigns painful and full of bacteria which will spread, but, as I think is the case with Job here, when they burst the smell they put off would be noxious. Infact, given what happens to Job, and what I've leared about boils, he may have even been afflicted with Smallpox. Though, perhaps not as there is no record of his friends being afflicted when they meet up with him.

So, with all these boils, open, weeping sores and infected wounds, Job sits himself down in a pile of ashes and scrapes himself with a pot, presumably to ease the itchyness of the boils. That's when his wift makes herself known. She comes out and tells him to stop being so stuborn and to curse God and die.

Curse God and die. What absolutely fantastic advice. Could you immagine saying that to someone in your family who's having a hard time. "Well, sorry about your losing your job. You should curse God and die over that."

And, apparently, Job feels the same way because he says:

Job 2:10 "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"  That is faith. That right there is faith. During his entire ordeal, Job never lost faith in God. Infact, at the end of it, God rewards him. He is MULTIPLIED. He is able to have more sons and daughters, and grand children and great grand children. His flocks are doubled, his fields are pleanty again. Job had FAITH.

Lastly we come to David. Everyone knows who David is, but it's not the KING David I'm going to be focusing on, though he certainly had faith when, you know, his SON was trying to kill him. It's the child I want to reflect on.

You see, when David was a child Isreal was at war with the Phillistines. The Phillistines lived south of Israel, along the sea. They were, apparently, not so much a country as a collection of City States. THis makes sense if you consider that they were closely tied to Mycene, which was a part of Greece. And Greece existed as loose collection of city states. However, the Phillistines were more infulanced by the Caananites than anything, so thats where the bulk of their culture came from.

However, I digress. During a period, Israel, under King Saul, was at war with the Phillistines. And they had a champion named Goliath. He was termed to be a giant. That is realitive. By todays standards, he'd still be big, but not so large as to be terrifying.

He had strong armor, and impressive weapons. And he proposed a challange.

1 Samuel 17: 8-9 "Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us."

In other words, he threw down the gauntlet. One on one combat winner take all. And who was it that stepped up? Saul's general? no. Some amazing young officer? No. King Sual himself? Hardly. He spent most of his time cowering.

It was a young boy of Jesse who came to the fore. David. David was a simple sheapard. And it was this young boy, probably around the age of 12 or 13, who said "I'll do it. I'll fight Goliath."  And Saul....Saul was flabberghasted! How could this one, young sheapard defeat the mightiest warrior of the age? David had a simple answer, as children often do.

1 Samuel 17:37   "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."  That was it. David had faith that God would deliver him. And, so, Saul gave his blessing and attempted to suit David up in his own, personal armor. But it was far too big, and David had other ideas.  He removed the armor, because he couldn't get used to it and instead took a staff and 5 smooth, flat stones from the stream near by, and a sling.

He appraoched Goliath who took umbrage to this. He felt it was an insult to send such a small boy against him. He thought that Israel was playing at games. And he cursed David by his false gods.

It was David's turn to be angry. He looked at Goliath and said:

1 Samuel 17:45-47

"You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

That was the last straw for Goliath. He turned to attack, but David reached into his bag, fitted one of the stones into the sling, and let fly the stone. By the power of God, and David's faith therein, the stone hit Goliath in the forehead, and sank deep into his body. Goliath collapsed. Dead. David then severed his head and presented it to the army of Israel.

The Phillistines, however, ran. Scard out of their minds they ran. And Israel gave chase, killing many and persuing them across the land. When they returned, Saul asked David who he was, and....I can immagine Saul's shock when David said hewas no more than the son of a farmer from Bethlehem named Jesse.

David had faith. Abraham had faith. Job had faith.  But do you see what else they had in common? They all had a problem. Abraham didn't know wether to leave his home or not. Or what would happen if he did. Job didn't know if his friends were right and he should curse God, or if he was doing the right thing by refraining from doing that. And David faced the mightiest soldier in the entire Philistine army. But their faith won them through.

God brought them victory, fullfilment and contentment all through their faith in His power. This is an EXTREMELY important lesson to learn. A HUGE ONE. Not only does faith in God take work, not only does it take effort to practice and grow and nurture, but it's an intregal part of the Salvation Plan that God has for you.

It's the First step. The fist step is the most important. It's Faith in God, and Faith in Christ that move you down to the second step. Repentance. Next we'll examine what that is, and that that looks like. But for now, pray for greater faith.  Even if your faith grows, and it grows and grows, and becomes the size of a mustard seed, you will have greater faith than most, and God will give you more than you could ask. Faith as small as a mustard seed will work miracles, move mountains.


Thank you, and God Bless. The second piece of this series will be written soon. I hope you enjoy it.

Have a good day.