Faith

An old Scotsman operated a little rowboat for transporting passengers. One day a passenger noticed that the old man had carved on one oar the word faith, and on the other oar the word works. Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of this. The old man said, “I will show you.”

He dropped one oar and plied the other called works, and the boat went around in circles. Then he dropped that oar and began to ply the oar called faith, and the little boat just went around in circles again.

A farmer found a little girl that was lost in his meadow. The farmer said to her, “Do not cry; I’ll take you home.” The little child snuggled up to him, and with a smile, said, “I knew you would; I was waiting for you.”

“Waiting for me?” said the man. “What made you think I was coming?”

“I was praying you would.” she said.

Spurgeon told of an evening when he was riding home after a heavy day’s work. He felt weary and depressed, when as suddenly as a lightning flash he thought of 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” He said, “I should think it is, Lord,” and burst out laughing. He said that it seemed to make unbelief so absurd.

The mighty Niagara River drops 180 feet at the American and Horseshoe Falls. Above the falls there are violent rapids. Before reaching the rapids, where boats are still able to navigate, there is a bridge for pedestrians. There is a sign mounted to this bridge that says: “Do you have an anchor? Do you know how to use it?”

A Christian must have and use faith to avoid spiritual shipwreck.

Source: Today’s Best Illustrations, Vol. 2, Elesha Hodge

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

I visited one who was ill in bed; and, after having buried seven of her family in six months, had just heard that the eighth, her beloved husband, was cast away at sea. I asked, “Do not you fret at any of those things?” She said, with a lovely smile upon her pale cheek, “O, no! How can I fret at anything which is the will of God? Let Him take all besides: He has given me Himself. I love, I praise Him every moment.”

Source: John Wesley's Journal, April 21, 1764

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Virginian Colonel Byrd was condemned to death by the Cherokee Indians. In that tribe there was a chief who had been a friend to him. That chief said, “This man is my friend; before you can get at him, you must kill me.” The Cherokees let him go free. 

The believer is held safely in Christ's hand. Before the believer could lose his salvation, Christ would have to be overcome; and that is impossible.

Source: Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, Paul Lee Tan

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Missionaries Dick and Margaret Hillis were caught in China during the Japanese invasion. The couple lived with their two children in the inland town of Shenkiu. The village was tense with fear, and every day brought terrifying reports of the Japanese advance. At the worst possible time, Dick developed appendicitis, and he knew his life depended on making the long journey by ricksha to the hospital. On January 15, 1941, with deep foreboding, Margaret watched him leave.

When G. Campbell Morgan was a young man he visited two elderly ladies each week to read the Bible to them. When he read Matthew 28:20, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” He said, “Isn’t that a wonderful promise?” One of the ladies quickly replied, “Young man, that is not a promise. It is a fact!”

All of God’s promises are fact.

Source: The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: The Complete New Testament, Warren Wiersbe

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Vance Havner told a story about an elderly lady who was greatly disturbed by her many troubles—both real and imaginary. Finally, someone in her family tactfully told her, “Grandma, we’ve done all we can for you. You’ll just have to trust God for the rest.” A look of absolute despair spread over her face as she replied, “Oh dear, has it come to that?” Havner commented, “It always comes to that, so we might as well begin with that!”

Source: Unknown

Submited by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

The Old Testament contains sixty major prophecies and 270 ramifications about the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled every one of these predictions. The probability of Jesus fulfilling merely eight of the sixty major prophecies is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.

A German botanist, who was traveling in Turkey, saw a rare flower hanging from an inaccessible precipice. He offered ten piastres, then twenty, then half-a-sovereign, and, finally, one pound, to a tempted but hesitating boy, if he would be slung over with a rope and cut the plant. The boy, struck with a new thought, said, “Wait a moment, and I will go for my father to come and hold the rope; then I will willingly go down and get it.”

In April 1988 the evening news reported on a photographer who was a skydiver. He had jumped from a plane along with numerous other skydivers and filmed the group as they fell and opened their parachutes. On the film shown on the telecast, as the final skydiver opened his chute, the picture went berserk. The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death, having jumped out of the plane without his parachute. It wasn’t until he reached for the absent ripcord that he realized he was freefalling without a parachute.

Faith is worthless in itself. If faith is not properly founded, it can lead to nothing other than disaster. One night cars sped along the main highway between Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi. The drivers had faith in their cars and in the bridges over the streams. They passed over some bridges at fifty or sixty miles per hour. Everything was lovely, the concrete spans stood firm over the rivers and bayous, and the cars went on their way. Suddenly, the twin taillights in front of a truck melted into the road and disappeared.

Some years ago a bargeman and a collier were in a boat above the rapids of a cataract, and found themselves unable to manage it, being carried so swiftly down the current that they must both inevitably be borne down and dashed to pieces. One was saved by grasping a rope that was thrown to him. The same instant that the rope came into his hand, a log floated by the other man. The thoughtless and confused bargeman, instead of seizing the rope, laid hold on the log.

Three boys gave their definition of faith. One said, “Faith is taking hold of God.” The second said, “Faith is holding on to God.” A third said, “Faith is not letting go!” Each boy was right.

Source: Knight's Treasury of Illustrations, Walter B. Knight

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends.”—George Mueller

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Sir Isaac Newton had a friend who was an atheist. The friend did not believe in God, but preferred to take the position that the universe just happened. One day the friend was visiting his learned colleague and Newton showed him a model of the solar system. The sun, the planets, and the moons were all in place. The sizes of the spheres were in proportion and the planets and the satellites revolved around the sun at their relative speeds. The friends admired the model. “It's intriguing,” he said, “who made it?”

“Nobody,” said Newton, “It just happened.”

George Bernard Shaw is perhaps most renowned as a free thinker and liberal philosopher. In his last writings we read, “The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, led, instead, directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshipers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.” Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God.

A safari hunter was startled by the loud screeching of a bird. When he caught sight of the bird, it was darting back and forth around its nest. He was perplexed by all the racket until he noticed a huge snake moving up the tree. The hunter could have easily aided the bird with one shot from his gun, but he was captivated by the drama before him. As the snake slithered up the tree, the bird became silent and flew from the nest. It now seemed as though the snake would dine without resistance. But, before the reptile could reach the nest, the mother bird returned with a leaf in her beak.

"The most significant contribution we make in life, is the passing of our faith to the next generation."—Unknown