Pond on Donegal Creek
Message Summary: “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). I do believe today and like Moses desire to persevere because I indeed, by faith, see Him who is invisible.
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“He (Moses) persevered because he saw Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27b).
Charlie and Rosie Goumas are friends from when we lived in New England who are both blind. We met them at a Vision New England conference in Boston sixteen years ago when they stopped by a display we had for Daily Encouragement. We visited for a few minutes and they signed up to receive our daily messages. At first, before we began podcasting, they listened to a reader on their computer that converted the text to a synthesized computerized voice.
Charlie and Rosie have done very well living their lives in a sighted world. They both serve the Lord and have a positive, faith-filled outlook. They met at the Perkins School for the Blind, the oldest school for the blind in the United States. As a child Rosie met Helen Keller who had also attended the same school many years earlier.
One Sunday morning they took the train from Boston and came to visit us in Taunton, Massachusetts about 40 miles away. We had a warm time of fellowship as they attended our church and shared a meal with us afterward. Rosie is an outstanding concert pianist and played for our congregation a beautiful arrangement of “How Great Thou Art.” I took the photo of them sitting on our back porch before they went back to the city.
In regards to faith the sighted and the unsighted share a similar experience. We “see” Him who is invisible. William Newell writes, this is “Faith defined in a phrase!”
In a sighted world where “seeing is believing” one of the great challenges is living the life of faith in an unseen God. Following Christ is indeed a walk of faith, of believing in One whom we cannot see in the physical world around us, although there is an abundance of evidence for His existence. Earlier in Hebrews 11 we read, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (v.3).
Dedicated Bible readers recognize Hebrews 11 to be the “Faith Chapter.” Our daily verse powerfully gives us a glimpse of the faith of Moses in a short phrase: “He persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.”
Spurgeon writes, “This is what you and I must do: feel that it is but common sense, sanctified common sense, to be looking out for that which will endure forever, and to let these temporary things go, if it be needful that they go, that we may win the crown that does not fade away.”
People of faith thus identify with what is an apparent contradiction, seeing the invisible, which is even more stunning in the Greek, which uses the same root word for “saw” and “invisible”. We understand the inspired Biblical writer is describing faith’s ability to see with the eyes of the heart what is unseen with our physical eyes.
After the resurrection Jesus speaks forth a blessing to all of us who would follow Him on the basis of faith and not sight: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Peter, an eyewitness to the life of Christ as He carried out His earthly ministry, states in his epistle: “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Peter 1:8).
“We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). I do believe today and like Moses desire to persevere because I indeed, by faith, see Him who is invisible.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Father, as we live by faith and not by sight we see much of what the world does not see because we see it through eyes of faith. By faith we see a risen Savior who died for us and who is now interceding on our behalf. By faith we see the coronation day when all the saints will be gathered in the clouds to meet Jesus in the air. By faith we believe that life’s trials will be worth it all when we are ushered through the pearly gates, when we gather with the saints of all the ages to praise our glorious Savior around the throne. It is by faith that we come to Jesus and it is by faith that we will stay the course. For it is not the one who runs the swiftest nor the one who runs for a day, but the one who endures to the end who will be saved. The struggles of this life diminish and will not overwhelm us when we walk by faith and not by sight. Navigate our steps as we journey here below. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
“Open The Eyes Of My Heart” Video Oslo Gospel Choir
“Faith Is The Victory” Video Fountainview Academy
Several weeks ago we wrote a message about “Ageism In The Church”. This morning I received this thoughtful article from Paul Wilkinson, a Canadian reader. “How A Youth-Obsessed Christianity is Discarding Its Elders”
Send a message to Stephen & Brooksyne
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