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We Live By Faith

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For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith… For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants… (vv. 13, 16a)

We live by faith! Faith, as the author of Hebrews says, is “The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Faith is the confident belief that the one who made us can be trusted, ultimately, eternally, whatever happens, whatever suffering or tragedy may come.  

My father used to tell how he began helping his dad in the fields down in the panhandle of Texas when he was ten years old. Dad said Grandpa started him out with a team of red mules, Kate and Jewel, they were called: “Oh, they were a pretty team, a soft, sandy red, the color of the Texas sky at sunset. And how they could pull; some said there wasn’t a better team anywhere in the country.

Once in a while Grandpa would drive the red mules when he went into town. Dad said, “It was comical to see those old girls going down the road, their heads bobbing up and down, and their long, pointed ears flapping against their necks. That was their motion, a kind of natural rhythm that helped to propel them along.”

One day when Grandpa was on his way home from town with the mules, a sandstorm blew up suddenly, as they often did in that part of Texas. The dirt and dust were so thick he couldn’t see his hands in front of his face. Grandpa simply dropped the reins and said, “Take me home, girls.” They had to go more than five miles, down the main highway, onto a side road, and around several bends, but those old mules knew where they were going, and they brought him home.”

How many times in your life have you had to drop the reins because you couldn’t see the road ahead?

How many times have you faced overwhelming circumstances that gave you no options in any direction?

How many of us have endured intolerable physical pain or debilitating mental anguish that rendered us powerless?

How many of us have watched as the casket of one of our nearest and dearest was lowered into the grave and felt a grief so painful we could hardly breathe?

We were among a large group of friends gathered for the burial of a dear friend recently, and watching as the pallbearers carried his casket from hearse to the grave. His little ten year old granddaughter began to weep profusely. Her grandmother put her arms around her and held her. We all wept with her.

Faith?

It is elusive sometimes. How many of us have prayed, “O God, I can’t go on — and have gone on anyway? Faith!

Faith is not only a belief, faith is an action. It allows us; indeed it compels us to go forth like Abraham in response to an urgent call, an inner nudging “not knowing where we are going,” only knowing that the one who made us, the one who is urging us on, will make a way.”

In 1977, about ten years before she died, I asked my grandmother, Nellie, then in her early eighties, if she would allow me to tape record some of her family stories. Grandma had plenty to tell. She told me about her grandmother, my great-great-grandmother, Catherine Isbell, who with her three oldest sons claimed 640 acres of Black Jack woods in the Oklahoma land rush of 1889: 160 acres each, as the Homestead Act allowed.

They immediately set about clearing some of the timber so they could plant crops, and they began to build a house. It was a combination dugout, like the sod houses they were accustomed to in Kansas, and logs, which had been a rarity in the prairie country from which they had come. In a few years there was a general store, which also served as the post office, a church, and eventually a school. Catherine was the moving force behind all of the building -- especially the church. She insisted that there be a place for the children to attend worship and Sunday school.

Catherine never missed an opportunity to witness to her faith: to tell how God had blessed her throughout her life. All of her extra money was sent to missions. When Catherine visited her grandchildren, she always held what she called "family worship." She would gather everyone around her and tell stories from the Bible, and then, as Grandma tells it, "We would all join in singing the old gospel hymns that were her favorites." Grandma said, "My folks were not much for going to church, but when Grandma Catherine came, she took my oldest brother Elmer and me to church every Sunday. Pa let us drive the horse and the spring wagon to church by ourselves after Grandma Catherine had gone home. One Sunday, the wagon got stuck in the mud as we were crossing the creek. That was the end of going to church for a while, but Elmer and I never forgot." Elmer later became a Baptist preacher.

There were not many doctors in that part of the country in those days, so Catherine became the community midwife. She helped to deliver over 100 babies in her time. She always prayed during the deliveries and the Lord always answered her prayers. Catherine was very proud of the fact that she never lost a mother or a baby.

Catherine got pneumonia at the age of 83. The way Grandma told it, she was out making garden on a cold day when she shouldn't have been. It had rained the night before, and she crawled around on the damp ground and took sick. She was unconscious by the time her daughter Liza and grandson Elmer arrived from Texoma. They called the doctor, and when he arrived he gave her a shot in the arm, which revived her.
When she came to, she was angry. She raised her head up, looked around at everyone and said, "Ohhh, I was almost in heaven! I could see across the river; I could see over there, and it was beautiful. And then the devil came along and poked his spear in my arm, and here I am back in the world!"

When Grandma finished, I knew something about myself that I hadn't known before. I knew where my faith came from. Faith is handed down from one generation to another — and it grows and matures as we face the inevitable hardships and sorrows that come into every life.
UPCOMING WEEKS
In addition to the lectionary resources there are thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...
Proper 23 | OT 28 | Pentecost 18
30 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
30 – Children's Sermons / Resources
29 – Worship Resources
34 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Proper 24 | OT 29 | Pentecost 19
29 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
27 – Children's Sermons / Resources
20 – Worship Resources
29 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Proper 25 | OT 30 | Pentecost 20
34 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
32 – Children's Sermons / Resources
26 – Worship Resources
31 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Plus thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...

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The Immediate Word

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George Reed
For November 2, 2025:
Thomas Willadsen
Nazish Naseem
Dean Feldmeyer
Mary Austin
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For November 2, 2025:

CSSPlus

John Jamison
Object: This message involves roleplay. You will need a chair for Zach to stand on, unless it is ok for him to stand on a front pew. For the best fun, you will also want to have an adult volunteer play the role of Jesus and walk in when it is time. Whether he is in costume is up to you.

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John Jamison
Object: You will need one or more pictures of people recognized as saints. You may find some pictures by Googling “public domain pictures of saints” and printing images from the results.

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Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
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Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 and Psalm 119:137-144
Walter Elwell in the Shaw Pocket Bible Handbook notes of righteousness that it is, “Right standing, specifically before God. Among the Greeks, righteousness was an ethical virtue. Among the Hebrews it was a legal concept; the righteous man was the one who got the verdict of acceptability when tried at the bar of God’s justice.” God is a righteous God, even when is people are not righteous.
Frank Ramirez
One of the features of Synagogue worship is the Shema. The Hebrew word is “Hear!” and is the opening for Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” God’s people are commanded to “hear” these words. They come from the Lord. And these three scriptures invite us to hear God and each other, something that is lacking in our society today.
Wayne Brouwer
Fred Craddock tells of a vacation encounter in the Smokey Mountains of eastern Tennessee years ago that moved him deeply. He and his wife took supper one evening in a place called the Black Bear Inn. One side of the building was all glass, open to a magnificent mountain view. Glad to be alone, the Craddocks were a bit annoyed when an elderly man ambled over and struck up a nosey conversation: “Are you on vacation?” “Where are you from?” “What do you do?”
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Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18 and Psalm 149

StoryShare

John E. Sumwalt
Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, but your commandments are my delight. Your statutes are always righteous; give me understanding that I may live. (vv. 143-144)

When I was an associate pastor in Janesville, Wisconsin one of my responsibilities was to give a lecture on spirituality once a month at a drug treatment facility. The students who attended were persons who had been convicted of drunk driving and were required to attend the class as a condition of their sentence. Attendance was always good.
Frank Ramirez
Call them the good old days. Call it the Golden Age. It’s not unusual for people to look back in their youth, or to the youth of their country, as somehow more perfect, honorable, or simpler. C.S. Lewis was always skeptical about claims that chocolate was better in one’s youth. It wasn’t better. Our taste buds were stronger and more receptive.

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Janice B. Scott
The Roman Catholic Church's canonisation of Edith Stein some years ago, fuelled considerable controversy. Edith Stein was born and bred into a Jewish family, becoming a Roman Catholic Christian at the age of 31. She was also a leading German intellectual in the early thirties, during the run-up to World War 2, although she gave up that career in order to become a Carmelite nun. But she didn't deny her Jewish roots, for in 1933 she petitioned the Pope, Pious XI to write an encyclical in defence of the Jews.
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Call to Worship:

Jesus didn't reject anyone, even those who were liars and cheats. By a simple act of friendship Jesus turned Zaccheus' life around. In our worship today let us consider friendship and all that it means.


Invitation to Confession:

Jesus, there are some people I don't like.
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, there are some people I reject.
Christ, have mercy.
Jesus, there are some people I keep out of my circle of friends.
Lord, have mercy.


Reading:

SermonStudio

Carlos Wilton
Theme For The Day
The world offers many blessings, but none of these things will save us: only the blessing of God in Jesus Christ can do that.

Old Testament Lesson
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
Daniel's Apocalyptic Dream
Perry H. Biddle, Jr.
Comments on the Lessons
John W. Clarke
This chapter of Luke brings us ever closer to the end of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus enters Jericho, just fifteen miles or so from the holy city of Jerusalem. It is here that Jesus transforms the life of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. This is one of the few stories that is peculiar to Luke and is a wonderful human-interest story. The fact that Zacchaeus is willing to climb a tree to see Jesus is a clear indication that he really wanted to see and meet the carpenter from Nazareth. His eagerness to see Jesus is rewarded in a very special way.
Scott A. Bryte
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
Mark Ellingson
This is a story written for people who had been or were about to be persecuted, if not enslaved. (The book of Daniel was probably written in the mid-second century B.C. during a period of Seleucid [Syrian] domination in Palestine.) It tells them and us how their ancestors had once faced a similar slavery under the oppression of the Babylonians centuries earlier. The implication was that if these ancestors could endure and overcome such bondage, so could they and so can we.
Gary L. Carver
Ulysses S. Grant fought many significant battles as commander of the Union forces in the War Between the States. He also served as President of the United States where he probably engaged in as many battles as he did while he was a general. Toward the end of his life he fought his toughest battle -- with cancer and death.

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