Faithmarkers: Biblical Exemplars of Faith to Encourage Believers in These Last Days

By Edna R Payne

Believe it or not, we are living in the last days. So what is meant by last days? It is the era (period) in which major disruptions occur upon Earth and in the cosmos. Jesus said that in these last days, there will be earthquakes in various places (where they are not normally) as well as famines (Matthew 24:7). He also mentions that deception will be at an all-time high, with many coming in His Name (v. 5). He stipulates that these happenings are the tip of the iceberg, just the beginning signs into the last days, the end of this world as we know it (v. 8). Most importantly, Jesus prophesies about true believers, those who follow Him: Persecution, death, and hatred from the world; many who will turn from the faith (Jesus the Christ), betraying and hating each other as a result; the appearance of a multiplicity of false prophets, telling people what they want to hear (yes, in the church!) thus deceiving many into following them while they believe they are following Jesus; an increase in wickedness; and love turning into hate (vv. 9-12). Cosmically, there will be changes in the weather patterns (seasons), accompanied by great signs, such as "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly powers will be shaken" (Matthew 24:29). In addition to the cosmic chaos, the anxiety of the nations will be perplexity at the sound of the sea and its surf--typhoons, raging hurricanes reaching unheard of levels of intensity, and tsunamis (Luke 21:25). Calamities will come as natural events intensify, thus causing greater epidemic and pandemic outbreaks of diseases as well as an economic meltdown like never before experienced throughout the world. If your level of faith cannot get through the circumstances of life now, how will you cope with the escalation of those circumstances that are guaranteed to come? Sit back and take a long hard look at your faith and what it means.

FaithMarkers, before jumping into the lives of specific exemplars of faith, first and foremost explains the true meaning of "faith," according to the Word of God (the Bible). The word "faith" in the Bible (New Testament) is accompanied most often with a preceding preposition that explains the depth of faith--"by faith," "in faith," "into faith," "from/out of faith," and "through faith." Each of these "faith" phrases are explained thoroughly. Faith does not stand alone, but is connected to hope, salvation, righteousness, justification, and love; these connections help you to understand even better the true meaning and depth of what it means to have faith in Jesus the Christ.

Each exemplar experiences unique facets and perspectives of faith, thus giving you a more complete and exhaustive understanding of what it means to have faith--that complete trust in God. Only two of these faithmarkers actually experienced Jesus the Christ in a rather dramatic way. The other eight exemplified deep faith in relationship with the totality of the Godhead, having never had the experience of who Jesus is and the Holy Spirit indwelling them. At the end of each discussion of the exemplars is a Faith Lesson that stresses the "faith" perspective of that exemplar, whether it be "obedience," "relationship," "walking with God," "suffering," "standing with God," or "standing with each other." This book reveals all that is required to have the truest sense of faith that is required to follow Jesus, walk with God, and stand firm in that faith throughout your lifetime.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098341763

Book preview

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PREFACE

Greetings in the Name of Jesus the Christ.

While I was studying the book of Revelation and contemplating the church today, along with so many moral issues confronting our society and the affairs of the world outside of my own little box, I began to question my own faith. I love the Lord and I trust Him, but with immorality running rampant in these United States of America and wars and rumors of wars playing out across the Middle East and Asia, I began to look more closely at what that really means in light of these last days. Will I die for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus if my life was threatened? Will I continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God with boldness and confidence? Will I violate political correctness in order to maintain righteousness in Christ Jesus? When I’m told to bow down to idolatry and to condone homosexuality, will I be like the Hebrew boys who were left standing and thus thrown into the fiery furnace? How do I measure my faith in Jesus the Christ? Is it strong enough to stand the test of these last days? Will I stand firm in my faith, trusting God no matter what, or will I buckle under the slightest pressure from this world and its wickedness? Will I allow the world to compromise my faith in God? Do I have integrity in my faith? One thing that I am most sure of is that I trust the Lord God with every fiber of my being and that trust is growing as I am growing into a deeper relationship with Him, in Christ Jesus.

One day, while I was reading the Word of God, I came across Luke 18:6-8. The last sentence of that Scripture text—But when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on Earth?— was quoted by Jesus. Will He find faith on Earth? That question just stuck in my spirit. I began to ponder that question. And as I reflected on the institutional churches and what I have experienced in them and among professed believers in Jesus the Christ, I began to wonder if faith really is rooted in their lives or has just become a superficial buzz word. My heart was pricked and my spirit was convicted by the Holy Spirit to write a book that would explain the true meaning of faith and encourage its readership to grasp an understanding of faith as well as glean from those who exhibited remarkable faith under the most extraordinary circumstances.

Ten faithmarkers were selected for this writing. I did not choose them randomly. After much prayer and meditation, I felt in my spirit that these were the ones about whom I was to write. The journey has been remarkable and exciting and breathtaking. It required hours and hours of meditative study in the presence of God. It required every ounce of my theological understanding and analysis. And it required rewrite after rewrite. And in the midst of it all, the Holy Spirit profoundly ministered to me and I was, yet again, transformed in the renewal of my mind and heart.

THE COSMETICS OF THIS BOOK

This book is for the general readership of believers in Jesus the Christ. Therefore, I feel obligated to consider that not everyone may understand how to interpret Scripture references and/or the research documentation, footnotes.

Scripture references are in this book because this book is predicated on the Scriptures—the Word of God. When the word read is before a Scripture reference(s), I encourage you to look up that Scripture reference(s). You will not see the word read before a directly quoted Scripture—whether translated directly from the Hebrew or Greek or from one of the designated English translations.

There are more than ten English translations of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament, and sometimes those translations can vary slightly or greatly. I chose to translate directly from the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures to avoid those discrepancies, carefully analyzing the text and key or significant words. A few Scripture texts that I translated resulted in a different interpretation because the translation was different. However, whenever one of my translations is in line with at least one of the published English translations, it is duly noted. I encourage you to look up all Scripture texts that are referenced or quoted in this book. It is a matter of accountability and affirmation.

The following examples give Scripture text references and what they mean: (Genesis 3:1)—Genesis, chapter 3: verse 1; (Deuteronomy 5:1-15)—Deuteronomy, chapter 5: beginning at verse 1 and continuing through verse 15; (1 Thessalonians 2:1-4b, 8-10, 15)—1 Thessalonians, chapter 2: beginning at verse 1 and continuing through verse 4b, beginning at verse 8 and continuing through verse 10, verse 15. (Sometimes a verse that is quite lengthy is divided into sections [a, b, c, etc.] to make referencing specific parts easier.) I did not abbreviate any of the Scripture references, as I normally would, because I do not want the reader to be hindered or frustrated in trying to figure out what Bible books they represent. However, you will see v. and vv. throughout this book; v. is the abbreviation for verse and vv. is the abbreviation for verses.

There are some instances, especially in Chapter 1, wherein I use Greek and Hebrew transliterations. Transliteration is representing a Greek or Hebrew letter with its English counterpart for pronunciation. All transliterated words are italicized. I do not want you to be intimidated by the Greek or the Hebrew, therefore, I have transliterated their words when used. I encourage you to embrace the meanings of these words in the contexts of their own original languages, as explained in this book.

Whenever I use pronouns for which Jesus the Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit are the antecedents, I am inclined to capitalize them in reverence to God. In addition, when writing about the will of God and the word of God, I am inclined to capitalize will and word for the same aforementioned reason.

As you’ve probably noticed, I stipulate Jesus the Christ versus Jesus Christ (except in quotations). The reason for doing this is because I do not want anyone to think that Christ is Jesus’s surname. Christ is an adjective that describes who He is—Messiah; Anointed One. Therefore, Jesus the Christ emphasizes who He is, with Jesus meaning the Lord saves. We are following the Lord who saves, the Anointed One—Jesus the Christ.

A word or phrase enclosed in brackets [ ] in a quote means that the author of the book or article inserted it, and therefore is not part of the original quote. Parenthetical references document from whom or what this author has obtained information (except biblical references).

Finally, both Word of God and Bible are used. I frequently refer to the Bible as the Word of God to avoid getting bogged down in religious ownership. The Scriptures do not belong to Christianity (or any of the publishing companies) and are not exclusive to it. The Scriptures are the Word of God first and were written before Christianity was birthed. They are not exclusive to any one religion or entity, but God’s instruction manual and guidelines as to who He is and how He expects us to live as His created beings. Thus I use Word of God frequently, to open Him and myself up to the whole world.

My prayer is that this book will encourage you to press full ahead, completely trusting in God to renew your faith in Jesus the Christ and, most importantly, to transform you into a deeper likeness and image of God as you build a deeper relationship with Him, in Jesus the Christ.

INTRODUCTION

When calamities, confusion, and chaos permeate our world and our lives, how do we survive? How do we maintain a sense of sanity when it seems as though insanity is prevailing? How do we wrap our minds around the devastating earthquakes, cyclones, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, and tsunamis, coupled with droughts, famines, floods, and massive forest fires? How do we cope with devastating diseases and illnesses, food shortages, skyrocketing oil prices, higher food prices, unemployment and job losses, a teetering housing market, and the wavering stock market? Where and when does it all end, and what are we, who believe wholeheartedly in God through Jesus the Christ, to do? HAVE FAITH!!!

FAITH. A small word with such an enormous punch. So enormous is this punch that it is central to our walk with Jesus the Christ. Faith is not a buzz-word for churches/church-goers to exploit. To believe truly in God is to believe that He is absolutely trustworthy. That is faith. Faithful is who God is—trustworthy.

Before we can harness faith and actively engage it in our lives, we must first understand what it is. We must know what it is not. And then we must be willing to take on faith in such a way that gives God room to work it in our lives and in our world.

This book discusses the scriptural basis of faith and recognizes faithmarkers for building and strengthening our faith. Faithmarkers are those persons to whom we can look in Holy Scripture, who had deep relationships with God and trusted Him in all sorts of humanly impossible situations and in challenges that seemed impossible to overcome.

Chapter One defines the biblical basis and understanding of faith. There are many Scriptures that define and allude to faith as God sees it. We will look at the word faith in both its Hebrew and Greek scriptural contexts. Faith lives large in Scripture, however, so many of us have such a superficial understanding of its phenomenal impact.

Chapters Two through Eight open up our understanding to ten role models of faith. There are many faith models throughout the Scriptures. These ten were chosen because they represent profound circumstances and strengths as well as a broad spectrum that runs the gauntlet of faith. Their stories, circumstances, and struggles are different, and yet the thread of faith is strong and unwavering against the challenges in their lives.

FAITHMARKERS—A PREVIEW

God approaches you when you least expect Him and commands you to do the utterly impossible. How do you respond to God when He commands you to do something that will cause you to be labeled insane, to be rejected by family, friends, and the community and the world at-large? How do you believe God in a humanly impossible situation, wanting to obey Him and have the strength to withstand total humiliation, ridicule, and rejection? Noah did! And the request that God made of him had to have been extremely mind-boggling!

What do you do when God tells you to leave your job, your family, your home, your town, and your country, and He does not tell you, immediately, where you are going? How do you take that quantum leap into the unknown of your life? How do you explain this craziness to your family and friends when even you do not understand? Abraham did just that! For him it was like being blind-folded and blind-sided to suit God’s purposes in a humanly impossible way. Not only did He push Abraham into the unknowns of his life and journey, but God dared to promise Abraham that he (in his old age) would be the father of many nations! And Sarah (his old and barren wife) would give birth to princes and kings!

You are a female and God not only makes you a prophetess, but appoints you as the only female leader of judges in a male hierarchical society. God appoints you to be a minister to His people over against all church traditions of leadership. How do you respond? When Deborah was confronted with a threat to her people, she put her trust totally in God. Her faith prevailed even when the faith of her male commander-in-chief waned.

Job had no idea that he was a pawn in a wager between God and Satan. Job, a righteous servant of God, was put to the test regarding his faith. God permitted Satan to test Job’s faithfulness, with the exception that he (Satan) not take his life. How do you withstand the major calamities that are plaguing you, one right after another—members of your family die in very close proximity to each other; you’re diagnosed with a serious and possibly fatal disease; your spouse loses his or her job; your house goes into foreclosure because you can no longer keep up with the mortgage payments; a tornado comes through your town and wipes out your home and all that represented your life. What do you do? Do you doubt God, even though you know that you absolutely did not do anything wrong in your walk with Jesus the Christ to deserve this? Do you blame God for not being there to protect you from these persecutions and sufferings? Do you listen to your family and friends when they allude to you having made God very angry? How did Job face such devastating travesties in his life?

What do you do, how do you react, when you find yourself in a situation in which you must choose between Almighty God and another god? You are a prisoner of war or temporarily living in another country (as an employee or missionary) whose religion is not Christianity. That country resents your religion and bans you from exercising your beliefs over against theirs (even privately). You are ordered to outwardly observe their religious holidays and you cannot just pack up and leave that country. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (their Babylonian names)—the Hebrew boys—refused to serve or worship the gods of the Babylonians while in captivity. They risked burning to death in a fiery furnace. And Daniel, who interpreted the Babylonian kings’ (Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar’s) and the Persian king’s (Darius) dreams, risked the lions’ den for refusing to worship false gods, but openly prayed to and worshipped Yahweh—the God of Israel; God of the universe.

A female virgin, one who never had sex in her life, was engaged to be married. An angel approached her and declared that she was going to have a baby. And not just any baby, but one that would not be conceived by her husband or any other male of the human species. She was going to conceive a boy, immaculately, by the power of the Holy Spirit, who would be the Son of God and the Son of Man! How would you respond to a miraculous situation in your life that cannot be explained by any natural and/or legal means? She didn’t understand it; she couldn’t wrap her mind around it; it was huge in her face! And yet, Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus the human being, responded in the midst of uncertainty and bafflement with, Let it be with me just as you have said (Luke 1:38b).

You are a Muslim in America. You are true to the Koran and serve Allah openly day and night. You preach Mohammed as the greatest prophet that ever lived. You know about Jesus, and deeply acknowledge Him