CityView Magazine

12 | September/October 2015 Hebrews, enslaved under Pharaoh--his adopted grandfather! Why? Hebrews says, "he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was look- ing ahead to his reward" (v. 26). e city of Jericho was defeated by a prayerful march around its walls 7 times. Not one shot had to be fired for God's people to win. e prostitute, Rahab, welcomed Is- raelite spies into her home because she believed the future belonged to Israel's God, not her own people's god. So she showed hospitality to the Israelites and trusted and hoped in their God for her future. at's faith. And there are so many other peo- ple and things this passage mentions, particularly about those who went through enormous suffering because of their faithfulness. It says, "some faced jeers and flogging, while others were chained and put in prison. ey were stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword" (v. 37). But you know what Hebrews says of them? "e world was not worthy of them, and they will gain a better resurrection" (v. 38, 35). is is what faith in God looks like according to the ancients in the scrip- tures. It is open and transparent. It takes risks. It involves journeys, march- es and hospitality…and even suffering sometimes...all for the love of God and his grace. We learn from their witness. So who else have you learned your faith from? Who else has talked to you about God's love in Jesus? And who else has shown it in their lives? I learned a lot about the Christian faith from watching my mother over the years. She is so passionate about be- ing a good pediatrician for her patients. She really cares about them. She wants to get to know her child patients and she always goes above and beyond what is expected in order to treat them well. She is also active in the community, vol- unteering her time for different organi- zations and agencies that li people up. All of this, she sees as an extension of her faith. I also learned a lot about the Chris- tian faith from watching my dad over faith Your Faith is Not Your Own the first man to be taken straight to heaven. Enoch's faithful life pleased God. Noah built an ark when there was no forecast for a great storm. ere was also nothing that backed up his actions except for God's word. And yet, he still trusted in it and built that ark. Abraham could relate. He was called by God to go out of modern day Iraq on foot, and travel to a land he'd never seen before, with his wife who was old. en God said, they would have a child on top of that! Moses took risks and trusted God with his life too. He grew up in Phar- aoh's palace, having all the privileges of living in a rich family. But he gave it all up to liberate his own people, the BY REV. SCOTT FOSTER Each one of us stands on the shoulders of those that have gone before us in life and in faith. We could not have survived without the sacrifice of those that preceded us or have a Christian faith without the example of other Christians in the church. And that's what Hebrews 11 is all about. I t first defines what faith is, "being sure of what we hope for and cer- tain for what we do not see" (11:1). But then it gives us a picture of what this looks like in people's lives. Because faith in God is not abstract. It's not something that we just come to real- ize one day either. Instead, it is learned through others, particularly those that have gone before us. And when we take the long view of their lives, we see what they trusted in and what they hoped for. In this passage, we see that Abel trusted in God, for he offered some of his most valuable lambs as an offering to God. It was a better sacrifice than his brother Cain's and God judged Abel to be a righteous man. It was similar with Enoch, who was

• Cover