Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Faith”
Our Bible verse for today: “We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Faith is a secure belief in God, even though we can’t see Him.”
In the late 1970s, during the early part of my career in the U.S. Navy, I was stationed in Pensacola, FL on the U.S.S. Lexington. It was an old WWII aircraft carrier which at that time was being used to train student pilots. Pensacola was the location of the U.S. Navy pilot training school.
From time to time I would have a reason to be inside the pilot school building. Up and down the hallways mounted on the walls there were floor to ceiling posters which explained the various principles of flight. These were simplified explanations of the principles of physics which made it possible for an airplane to actually fly.
As I wandered down those hallways reading those posters, the thing that impressed me was that every one of those principles involved invisible forces that could not be seen, they could only be experienced. The forces of thrust, acceleration, lift, and gravity were invisible to the naked eye and yet, the evidence of their reality was clear in the fact that the airplane could fly. The young pilots knew from experience that the invisible forces of flight were real.
That’s actually a pretty good description of the Christian faith too. The spiritual realm is invisible to us. As noted yesterday, our human senses are incapable of detecting or experiencing it. Likewise, God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all invisible to us. And yet, the reality of their existence is proven by experience. Over thousands of years untold millions of people have had their lives radically transformed by means of faith in Christ. The physical experience of this invisible reality is too powerful to deny.
Without faith, those young pilots would remain earthbound forever. But with faith in the invisible realities of the principles of flight they gain the power to soar through the air at 35,000 feet and to do it faster than the speed of sound.
Likewise, without faith human beings live stunted, small lives. But with faith in the invisible realities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Christians have the power to live lives now that are profoundly different and better than any life they would have had otherwise and, they even gain life for all eternity.
There’s a lot to be said for living by faith and not by sight.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 