Faith to Be Strong and Faith to Be Weak _ Desiring God

8/9/2019 Faith to Be Strong and Faith to Be Weak _ Desiring God

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August 10, 1997

Faith to Be Strong and Faith to Be Weak

by John Piper Scripture: Hebrews 11:29-38 Topic: Faith Series: Hebrews

By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they

attempted it, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 Byfaith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and

the prophets, 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the

mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became

mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; [note shift] and others

were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; 36 and others

experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two,

they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute,

afflicted, ill-treated 38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and

holes in the ground.

Blowing Away the Fog About What Faith Is

Christians and non-Christians can have defective views of what the Christian life really is. Preaching the word of God aims to

bring our views of God and his ways more and more into line with the truth. We do this for unbelievers so that you can

embrace Christianity on the basis of a true picture of it, rather than a distorted one; and we do it for believers so that you can

live your lives on the basis of true views of God and his ways, rather than distorted and deluding and discouraging views.

This passage is tremendously important for blowing the fog of confusion away from what faith is and what kind of life it

guarantees. There are many who teach today that the life of faith will bring health, wealth and prosperity, and where those

things are lacking it's because faith is lacking. That never seemed to square with what I saw in the teachings of Jesus or his

apostles, and I can recall the first time this chapter walloped me with its incredible impact on this question. I hope it has the

same effect for good on you this morning.

I will try to make five brief points on the basis of these verses.

1. Through our faith God can and does work miracles and acts of providence to bring practical earthly help and deliverance to

his people.

That is the point of verses 29-35a. What I mean by "miracles" is works of God that involve some extraordinary interruption in

the natural cause-effect way that nature works. The writer refers, for example, to the dividing of the Red Sea (verse 29) and

the falling down of the walls of Jericho (verse 30) and the shutting of the mouths of lions when Daniel was in the lions' den

(verse 33), and the quenching of fire by Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, when they walked through Nebuchadnezzar's

furnace (verse 34), and the resurrection of the son of the widow of Zarephath (verse 35a). All these are what we usually call

miracles. God breaks into the normal way things work and in an extraordinary way makes them work differently. And in ever

case here the people of God were helped or rescued from danger or death.

That's one way God works through our faith - namely, by miracles. But I also mentioned "acts of providence." Through our

faith God helps us by acts of providence. What I mean by "acts of providence" is works of God that control situations but in a

less extraordinary way. Looking on, you would not necessarily say that a miracle happened, but by the eye of faith you see th

"invisible hand of God" - as R. C. Sproul calls it.

For example, the writer refers to Rahab not perishing because she had heard of the power of the God of Israel (Joshua 2:9-11)

and cared for the Jewish spies (verse 31); and to David conquering kingdoms and establishing righteousness (verse 33); and to

Elijah escaping the sword of Jezebel (verse 34); and to Gideon being strengthened in weakness (verse 34); and to others putting

foreign armies to flight (verse 34); etc. In all these cases God is the one who is working behind the scenes, but no miracles are

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more ordinary acts of providence - come about "by faith." You see that:

(verse 29) By faith they passed through the red sea . . . (verse 30) by faith the walls of Jericho feel down . . . (verse 31) by

faith Rahab . . . did not perish . . . (verse 33) by faith [they] conquered kingdoms . . .

The point is that God works through faith to do miracles and acts of providence to bring practical, earthly help and

deliverance to his people. That's the first point. Here's the second point.

2. God does not always work miracles and acts of providence for our deliverance from suffering; sometimes by faith God

sustains his people through sufferings.

That's the point of verses 35b-38. Or another way to put it would be to say that having true faith in God is no guarantee of

comfort and security in this life. Now it is absolutely crucial for you to see that the miseries God's people sustained in verses

35-38 come by faith, not because of unbelief. See this in two ways. First, in verse 33, notice that the list begins with ". . . who by

faith conquered kingdoms . . . etc.," and without a break continues into all the miseries of verses 35-38. It is by faith that "other

were tortured . . . and others experienced mockings and scourgings, etc." All this misery is received and endured by faith.

The other way to see this is in verse 39 which looks back on all the sufferings of verses 35-38 and says, "And all these [that is, a

suffering people], having gained approval through their faith, did not receive [yet in this life] what was promised." In other

words the suffering and misery and destitution and torture of God's people in verses 35-38 are not owing to God's disapprova

Rather God's approval is resting on them because of their faith. The miseries and sufferings were endured, not diminished, by

faith.

Let's be specific, so we get the full impact of what this is saying. Verse 35b: "Others were tortured." God does not always turn

the hearts of torturers away from their torture of his people, though he could. Someone might say, "Well, the torturers have

free will and God cannot intervene. He has limited himself." That is simply not what the Bible teaches. The Bible frequently

portrays God restraining and ch anneling the evil of men's hearts. For example, in Genesis 20:6 King Abimelech almost

committed adultery with Abraham's wife, but didn't. Why? God says to Abimelech, "I also kept you from sinning against Me;

therefore I did not let you touch her." God restrained the evil intent of Abimelech's will. If God can do that to Abimelech, he

can do it to the police chief who is about to torture a Christian in the back room of a Mozambique jail. But he doesn't always

do it. That is what verse 35b says. And when he doesn't, it does not mean that the suffering Christian does not have faith. Nor

that God doesn't love him, as we will see in chapter 12.

Another example: God does not always lessen the agony of his children, but permits them to experience not just suffering, bu

horrific suffering. Verse 37: "They were stoned, they were sawn in two." Now this is almost too horrible to think about. It is th

way tradition says that Isaiah died. Imagine how forsaken you might feel if death lies in front of you, and a person devises a

way for your death to be as horrible as possible. That has happened and it has happened to people of whom the world was no

worthy (as verse 38 says). God could stop that - without nullifying any human responsibility. That is the point of verse 29-35a

God can and does do miracles and acts of providence to relieve his people and deliver them, but not always.

This is perhaps clearest by contrasting a phrase in verse 34 and one in verse 37. In verse 34 the second clause says, "escaped the

edge of the sword." So some by faith "escaped the edge of the sword." Then in verse 37 the fourth clause says, "They were put

to death with the sword." So in one instance by faith they escaped the edge of the sword, and in another instance by faiththey died by the sword. Acts 12:1-2 says, "About that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church, in

order to mistreat them. And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword." But the next verses tell the story

how he arrested Peter for the same purpose, but God intervened and miraculously delivered Peter. One died by faith. The

other escaped by faith.

So the second point is: God does not always work miracles and acts of providence to deliver his people by faith, but sometime

by faith God sustains his people through horrendous sufferings. From the first two points the third follows.

3. Having faith is not the ultimate determining factor in whether you suffer or escape, God is - God's sovereign will and wisdo

and love.

To me this is immensely comforting. It is a great relief to know that there is a higher explanation for my pain or my pleasure

than whether I have enough faith. Would it not be horrible to have to believe that on top of all your suffering you had to ad

thi it t b b I l k f ith


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John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, heserved as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is au thor of more than 50 b ooks.

would live." We will say, rather, "Trust in God, because whether you live by faith or die by faith God will take care of those wh

trust in him. To live is Christ, and to die is gain."

And ultimately, it is God, and not we, who decides when and how we die. He has his purposes. They are hidden from us. And

faith means, we believe they are good.

Which leads to point four.

4. The common feature of the faith that escapes suffering and the faith that endures suffering is this: both of them involve

believing that God himself is better than what life can give to you now, and better than what death can take from you later.

When you can have it all, faith says that God is better; and when you lose it all, faith says God is better. The clearest illustratio

of this in today's text is verse 35: "[by faith] women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not

accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection." What does faith believe in the moment of

torture? That if God loved me, he would get me out of this? No. Faith believes that there is a resurrection for believers which

better than the miracle of escape. It's better than the kind of resurrection experience by the widow's son, who returned to lif

only to die again later.

In other words, faith is utterly in love with all that God will be for us beyond the grave. Faith loves God more than life. Faith

loves God more than family. Faith loves God more than job or retirement plans or ministry or writing books or building the

dream house or making the first million. Faith says, "Whether God handles me tenderly or gives me over to torture, I love him

He is my reward (11:6), the builder of the city I long for (11:10), the treasure beyond the riches of Egypt (11:26), and the possession

that surpasses all others and abides for ever (10:34)."

The great challenge of the book of Hebrews, and the mission of our church, is to cultivate and to spread a death-defying

passion for God. The preaching, the Sunday School, the small group ministry, the relationships of love, the soccer camps, the

prayer gatherings, and the untold ministries inside and outside aim at this: to cultivate and to spread such a deep and satisfyin

relationship with God that we rest in him whether living or dying, whether comfortable or miserable. Our aim is to cultivate

and spread the unshakable confidence that God is better than what life can give us and what death can take from us.

This leads to one final point.

5. Those who love God more than life and suffer willingly awaiting something better than what this earth can offer, are God's

great gifts to the world.

Look with me at verse 37b and 38, ". . . they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute [no promise of preppy

blouses or cool slacks], afflicted, ill-treated (men [people] of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and

mountains and caves and holes in the ground." What does it mean that the world was not worthy of these obscure, destitute

unsightly, seemingly-cursed people? What does that mean - the world was not worthy of them? It means they were a gift to

the world and the world does not deserve it.

Many things in this life are utterly opposite from the way they seem. And here is one of them. When the precious children of

God are permitted to suffer and be rejected and mistreated and go destitute, afflicted and ill-treated, God is giving a gift to the

world. He is gracing the world. He is shedding his love abroad in the world. Because in those who suffer and die in the

unshakable assurance of hope in God, the world is given a message and a picture: "The Lord himself is better than life. Turn, O

turn and believe."

Who would have thought it - that the suffering are a gift to the world?

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable

his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that

he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans

11:33-36)

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From Impact To Story. How ToExplain Your Organization’s RealImpact Through A Story

Ban the word “impact” from your non-profit vocabulary.

As we discussed on Monday, there are a number of problems with using the word “impact” in your non-profi

fundraising and communications materials. Chiefly that using the word on its own is ambiguous and doesn’t act

explain to donors what their gift is going towards.

You’ve Defined Your Impact. Now What?

Let’s say you went through the suggested exercise in Monday’s blog post and you established metrics that ref

the steps your organization is taking to fulfill your mission and vision.

How do we now roll those metrics into our communications and fundraising appeals?

The tradition path to reporting impact might be something like the average non-profit annual report – a slough

numbers. But the problem with this is that the average donor won’t really understand what those numbers peo

So we might throw in this sentence, “Look at the impact you’ve been a part of!”

But still the question remains – do your donors really understand what you’re trying to tell them? Chances are

they are not.

One solution to this is to tell stories that support your explanation of your organization’s impact.

Stories provide your audience with contextualized, bite-sized information that they can easily understand and

empathize with. More importantly, stories give donors a sense of the micro-level of their impact – one individu

life – and when they can imagine that, they can imagine countless others like that one person who they’ve help

How To Find A Story That Illustrates Impact


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Finding a story that illustrates your organization’s impact isn’t as challenge as your might think.

In fact, once you’ve determined that metrics that reflect your impact you are well on your way to finding a

story! Your next step is to find an individual whose personal experience supports that metric.

For the sake of considering an example, let’s think about a non-profit organization whose mission is to help lo

income men and women find work.

Their impact metric (and maybe the only metric they need to measure) is how many men and women have fou

employment as a result of the organization’s support.

The impact story that they would want to look for and tell is that of a man or woman who has gained employm

by working with that non-profit.

The thing about explaining impact and telling stories about your organization’s impact is that doesn’t have to b

complicated. It can actually be very simple.

I suspect that if you moved towards more meaningful communication with donors, you would see greater culti

in some of those relationships.

- vanessa


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AFGHANISTAN: NATIONAL ADVOCACY FOR SUPPORT CENSUS

As you are fully aware, census is a complex and large-scale operation to be

carried out, usually every decade, but in the case of Afghanistan for a quarter

of a century no census was taken.

In most countries there is a history of census taking an experience, which

has been established over a long period of time. In Afghanistan that is not

the case. There is no authentic background information following 23 years

of war.

Finally, there is the impact of war itself on the infrastructure and people.

Many people have migrated out of the country or displaced within the

country, now returning back to re-establish their lives.

Given the absence of reliable data on the size, composition and

characteristics of Afghan population, conducting a census of population and

housing was very much needed.

In order to provide basic socio-economic data required reconstruction in the

country, to ensure equitable distribution in terms of gender and other issues,


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to provide statistics critical for local area development, to enable election

teams to perform their job efficiently. CSO decided to conduct a population

census in two phases, with the financial and technical assistance from

UNFPA.

In planning the census in following factors were considered:

• Estimated population size

• Ethnic composition and logistic issues

• Literacy

• Transportation and communications

• Topographic conditions

• Provincial administration, and

• Personal and technical expertise.

The first phase of the census consists of the following activities:

• Establishing legal basis for the census.

• Establishing the administrative set up.

• Preparing the census calendar and work plan.


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• Preliminary listing of households and housing units and completing

cartographic work to enable demarcation of enumeration areas.

•

Question finalization and questionnaire design.

• Recruiting and training of staff, and

• Preparing for data processing.

The success of the census will depend on how will the various activities

which are described are integrated. In addition, it has been mentioned that in

post-conflict situation like Afghanistan, where majority of population are

illiterate collecting reliable data is not an easy job and require considerable

amount of publicity and advocacy to get support for the census.

Considering this reality the advocacy programme for the census is

multivariate and consists of the following:

• Getting cooperation of the provincial authorities, that is the provincial

and district governors.

• Describing the objectives/importance and the need for census to

village elders through arranging meeting with them.

• Conducting meetings with the students and school teachers.


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• Explaining the objectives and importance of the census to public after

the Friday Prayer in the mosques.

•

Using mass media such as TV and newspapers at the national and

provincial levels.

• Distribution of pamphlets to district governors, village clergyman and

illiterate people in the village.

• Organizing meetings, with public in market days.

The prelisting phase was started on a pilot base in Kunduz province and then

gradually expanded to other provinces. So far out of 32 provinces in the

country prelisting has been completed in 15 provinces and also nomadic

population of Afghanistan was prelisted in their summer places of the

residence.

In this phase the following information is collected:

• Number of households.

• Number of household members by sex.

• Number of household members aged below 18 by sex.


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• Distance from district center, health center, school, source of

irrigation water etc, for each village.

•

Language spoken in the village, existence of nomads near the village,

and on sample details of relationship to head of household age and sex

of members of households.

Upon completion of prelisting operation in a province provisional total are

made available to the government and UNAMA electoral teams.

It is planned to provide data users with more detailed information after

conducting, coding, editing and computer processing completed province by

province on a rolling bases.

In conducting the first phase of census we have received financial as well as

technical support from UNFPA and we are very thankful to UNFPA for the

support.

Documents

Faith to Be Strong and Faith to Be Weak _ Desiring God