Tag: Abraham

Wait for it…

The Battle of Bunker Hill was a sobering moment in our history.   Though technically a British victory, it came at a high cost.  The untested Colonial militia held off the frontal onslaught of Howe’s British seasoned regulars and made them pay dearly before the defender’s lines splintered and broke.  Legend attributes the order, “don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes,” to one of the Colonial officers.  Painfully aware of their low ammunition and lack of bayonets, the colonists calmly awaited the shock of battle, drawing the British into to close combat before firing.  Can you imagine the intensity of that moment?  How hard it is to wait.  We prefer to engage our battles at a comfortable distance.

What is true in warfare is equally true in the combat of faith.   We like to exercise our faith at a safe distance, outside of conflict and trial and uncertainty.  But faith tested is faith strengthened.   In scripture, Abram’s faith is repeatedly tested.  Through famine, through prosperity, through barrenness and through birth, God tests and grows Abram’s faith.    Waiting is one of the ways God tested Abram.  Waiting can be a severe test of our faith.  Consider how many times the scripture instruct us to wait before the Lord.  Yet we often grow impatient.  Impatience with the means or timing of God’s promises tempts us to use accelerants of our own devising.   But accelerants are explosive and deadly.

Join us this Lord’s Day, June 25, as we examine the testing of Abraham’s faith from Genesis 16 and consider the temptations we face when God seems silent.  We meet from 5:00 – 6:30 pm in The Commons at St. Andrews Anglican Church at 8300 Kanis Rd in Little Rock.  Click here for directions.

Come with a friend you and join us for fellowship and conversation. We look forward to seeing you there.

Warp and Woof

Mathematics has axioms – presuppositions, accepted without proof — which form the basis for all subsequent mathematical proofs.   Likewise, Christianity demands certain presuppositions.  As a revealed religion, Christianity’s presuppositions, its axioms, must be accepted on faith.   But this often seems to be an intellectual cop-out.

An appeal to faith in a recent conversation with a friend and skeptic brought charges of “philosophical laziness.”  “No so,” I answered, but I also had to admit that the exercise of faith is not binary. Faith is not either on or off, absolute or absent, and not black and white.   Faith has contours.  It has a warp and woof which creates contours in quality, character, and shading.  Faith has axioms, but it also demands proofs.  It has doubts, but it asks questions.  It waxes and wanes, but does not fail.  It is a gift, but it must be exercised and grow directed by the Spirit through a process of sanctification.

Abraham is the paradigmatic man of faith in Scripture and Genesis 15:6 is the core profession of his faith.  But even in this passage we see the contours of Abraham’s faith as it is received and exercised.

Join us this Lord’s Day, June 18 as we examine the faith of Abraham from Genesis 15 and consider the contours of our own faith.  We meet from 5:00 – 6:30 pm in The Commons at St. Andrews Anglican Church at 8300 Kanis Rd in Little Rock.  Click here for directions.

Come with a friend you and join us for fellowship and conversation. We look forward to seeing you there.