Faith Foundations

I feel so blessed and truly fortunate to be able to worship in the church of my choice and to meet openly with other believers. Sunday in our S.S. class we had a regional missions director who was telling us of the opposition that many of our missionaries face. Then last night in church we had a missionary to Israel (He is of Asian descent--Ed Kim). You wouldn't think it would be difficult to talk about the gospel in that country, but in fact Jews who accept Christ are persecuted and missionaries there also face much difficulty.

In our Wednesday night services our pastor is doing a series on Faith Foundations from Hebrews 11. This past Wed. night it was about Noah. I don't think I had ever really considered how much faith it took for Noah to build the Ark.

• He trusted God for what was Unprecedented--there had never been rain, much less a flood, and certainly not an Ark--especially considering its dimensions.
• He took a stand when it was Unpleasant--he overcame discouragement & criticism; also the project took a very long time and he had to finance it.
• He gave a witness when it was Unpopular--In Genesis it says he was a preacher, and was no doubt preaching and witnessing while he was building.

God will put us into situations where there is no precedent or parallel established. I know I have faced some challenges with my adult son, and I really didn't have any previous experience to draw upon to deal with some of the issues. But God is faithful and all He wants is for us to be faithful and to trust Him with all of the situations that come up in our lives.

I guess you've now had my Monday Morning Message. Thanks for listening.