Faith is the Key - April 19, 2008

Good Saturday morning! We expect a fine, warm day out here today. I have seen the campers and boats appearing, not unlike the dandelions in my lawn... a sure sign of spring. I read in Luke this morning the story of the Roman officer who believed in Jesus, and never met him. The story goes that this officer sent some Jewish leaders to ask Jesus to heal a valued slave of the officer's. As Jesus was on the way to the officer's house, he sent servants to tell Jesus not to bother since the officer was not worthy to have Jesus in his home. Upon further explanation, the officer says that Jesus can heal from there because the officer recognizes Jesus' authority and gives an example from his own situation. You and I are familiar with the story and I have written about it before this. However, the story remains one of the more powerful little stories from Jesus' life on this earth. A Roman, and an officer, having a faith that astonished our Lord Jesus, is a story that we do well to recall.

Alistair MacLean wrote a book entitled "Fear is the Key" many years ago, and to borrow a bit from that, we live in a book that could be called, "Faith is the Key." The Roman officer explains that he lives under the authority of his superiors and over his men. When he tells one to "go", the man goes, and when he tells one to "come", he arrives promptly. I work under the authority of a boss and when he says to "come or go"...I want to rebel. I also live over two cats, and when I say "come" they stare at me, and when I say "go", they still stare at me. When one sits at the door, I get up and let her out. Sometimes I think that my faith is in that same condition... namely none at all. This is a depressing, or depressed, thought and is probably not at all correct. For one thing, to compare well-trained and obedient Roman soldiers to my situation with cats is unfair to myself.

Cats, unless you have many weeks to spend with them, are famously untrainable. A cat's two overriding concerns are "now" and "I want", a couple things the Lord may hear from us quite a bit. Often we blame ourselves for having little faith; probably thinking that we need great faith in God before anything will happen in our lives that we pray for. However, we only a little faith in our great God for amazing things to happen. How much faith you or I have been given is not the question; the question is how great is the God in whom we place that faith. Great indeed is the Creator and Sustainor of our faith!

To God be the Glory!

Bucky