What is FAITH?

The writer of Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen ("Kang James version" lol).

Making something easy to understand is not the general philosophy of preachers and teachers in the church. Why do they have to make everything so deep! It's already deep enough without our foolishness attached (1 Corinthians 1:25). We have to realize that man cannot understand the mysteries of God no more than we can't understand how a baby's bones are formed in a mothers womb! (Ecclesiastes 11:5)

And when it comes to the issue of faith, man has made this issue hard to conceptualize. Simply put...Faith Is Trust In God. So...plainly....where ever you see the word faith you can substitute it for the word TRUST or [MY] COMPLETE TRUST IN GOD!

So now Hebrews 11:1 should read:
Complete Trust in God is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence things not seen.

Now the word Substance is translated in the New International Version (NIV) as confidence or assurance.

So now Hebrews 11:1 should read:

Complete Trust in God is the assurance or confidence of things hoped for and the evidence things not seen.

Trusting in God is knowing without a shadow of a doubt that God in Heaven is real. It is to completely know that what God has said will happen just like He said. That Confidence and assurance just means that you know that you know that you know! Have you ever had inside information….to the point that you could stake your life and all your possessions on that inside information. Like going to Vegas and being a professional card counter to the point where you know what everybody else has in their hands….or like playing dominoes and knowing what bones all your opponents have. That's confidence…that's assurance!

The confidence of knowing about having everlasting life in Heaven. The assurance and knowledge that Jesus suffered, bleed and died for all our sins…and then rose again only to give hope to the world that through Jesus every one could be saved if they really wanted to be saved.

So… my mind is always amazed at the amount of people that turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to historical records and references that Jesus ever existed. Now maybe they can except that Jesus existed but they can't wrap their minds around the fact that He can to save the world from God's eternal judgment. "A man can save us?" But even if you didn't read the bible there is a significant amount of evidence and historical record available that point and tell directly about Jesus. Even other religions (falsely but none-the-less) acknowledge Jesus i.e. Islam. So, there is evidence… since we weren't there to see it with our own eyes, there is an overwhelming amount of material (books, artifacts, eye-witnesses and testimonies) that denotes the evidence that Jesus existed…or that He is the Son of God…or that Jesus is the ONLY way to reconcile ourselves with God the Father!

Do we need more evidence?

Man has believed far more things on less evidence!

Evidence?

What is the evidence of things not seen?

Ok…it's windy out side….you look at the trees….the trees sway rather violently…then you look and the fence…it's shaking rather violently…Can you see the force that is making the tree and the fence sway and move so violently…NO!

But now the tree and the fence have now fallen to the ground. Is that not evidence from something you can't see? You can't see wind. But it's evidence is overwhelming.

Air…it's evidence is that you are still breathing. Can you see air?

Gravity?

Atoms?

DNA?

Molecules?

Can you see them… NO…but man told you they are there so you believe it…right?????

GOD?

HEAVEN?

There is EVIDENCE of things not seen and you know that they are there right in front of your face! Just because you don't see heaven don't mean it ain't there!
Interesting how man will discover what God has made and now all of mankind will pay homage and give respect to the man that discovered and not to the One who Created!

Just dang interesting!!!!!!

What's more interesting, man will believe what man says but it's dang near impossible for man to believe what God has said and is saying. We believed and embraced Sir Isaac Newton's gravity theory because he was dumb enough to sit under an apple tree only to get hit on the head with one, but we can't see that God was the One who but this whole earth in order and set it's boundaries (Genesis 1:2). Now man will only teach that Newton discovered Gravity. What since does that make to acknowledge someone who discovered gravity verse the One who Created gravity. Foolish man!

OK here's a hypothetical example:

I write, record and commercially release a piece of music only to have it re-discovered and re-recorded by another artist. This artist gets on T.V. and the reporter says how did you come up with those lyrics, or how did you come up with that hook, how did you come up with that chord progression?

Now, notice the conversation is not with the creator but with the one who discovered.

Or how about when man discovered that the world was actually round.

Or how about when Christopher Columbus discovered America?

Or how about when Scientist said that man was an evolution of a monkey?

Or that the plants were set in place by a Big Bang?

Rubbish!!!!!!

The foolishness of believing what man has said rather than having the confidence and assurance of knowing what God has said and done has put man in a rather self-destructive place as man will ignore the evidence of God. Thus they will not trust in God.

TRUST IN GOD!

HAVE FAITH IN GOD!

Marcus Coleman