For eight days I’m posting excerpts from each of the eight chapters in Back to Basics: Eight Foundations for Kingdom Living, the book I co-authored with Doug Roberts and Ben Pasley.
Each day I’m also going to give one 50% refund on the price of the book to the first person to gift a copy of Back to Basics to a friend from our merchandise page at our store.. Early elf gets the deal! You won’t know if someone else has already nabbed it on a given day unless they post a comment to brag about it.
Doug built a fire and enjoyed some time alone listening to the wind in the trees and the laughter and songs from the nearby camps. The sky was black and bursting with stars when he finally saw his companions re-appear in the warm circle of the campfire’s light.
“How did it go?” asked Doug.
“Well, our hands smell all gross and fishy now,” Ben answered in pretend disappointment.
“Pretty good then!” celebrated Doug.
Tim explained how quiet it was on the lake, as all the daytime hip-hop fisherman and mountain bikers had gone home, and how most everyone else must have been eating s’mores, leaving a private heaven of dry-fly fishing for rainbows from the canoe.
When everything was put away and Ben and Tim entered the RV, Doug was sitting at the table. He wasted no time as they took their seats and gathered their things.
“The next foundation in our life that we need is faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, ‘Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.’ Let’s break that down into two parts.
“First there is the assurance of things hoped for. If we see that faith is a title deed of the things that the Lord has for us, or ownership of what God has predestined for us to have in Christ, then it is like when you go out and buy a vehicle. They give you a title. If you pay cash for it, the title is a clear title in your name. You own it. It is yours to do with what you want.
“Our eternal destiny is something that God has already paid for and given to us completely and freely. We have ownership of it by faith. We have the title deed to it. Faith is the title to our ownership.”
Tim thumbed through his Bible, landing on the book of Hebrews. Ben listened carefully as Doug continued.
“Secondly, concerning faith, there is the evidence of things not seen. This is faith in action; it is the living substance that gives concrete form to what we have in Christ. It gives body to what couldn’t otherwise be seen—it shows to be true what we believe.
“So, we put these two ideas together: faith is the title deed of the things we hope for and the evidence of the things not seen. I think we miss out on a lot of what God has for us because we really don’t take ownership of that which God has freely given us in Christ, and not truly claiming it, how can we make it evident in our lives? When we take ownership of it, then it is ours and we can do whatever we want with it.