SUNDAY SCRIBBLINGS

Favorite Scripture: Hebrews 11:1

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

This scripture, and others like it, have been on my mind of late, because of the recent events here at home. Sending a missionary out is an act of faith. For me, and for the missionary. I have learned some interesting things from Boyd K. Packer. He says, "Faith, to be faith, must center around something that is not known. Faith, to be faith, must go beyond that for which there is confirming evidence. Faith, to be faith, must go into the unknown. Faith, to be faith, must walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness. If everything has to be known, if everything has to be explained, if everything has to be certified, then there is no need for faith. Indeed, there is no room for it."

Faith is not having a perfect knowledge of things.

Pres. Packer goes on to say, "There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience; it gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place. It is the kind of faith that relates us with confidence to that which is scheduled to happen.

There is another kind of faith, rare indeed. This is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is the the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding, and it calls forth things that otherwise would not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people. It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things. Few men posses it. It comes by gradual growth. It is a marvelous, even a transcendent power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. Directed, and channeled, it has great effect."

We have all probably heard of or even tested it ourselves- an act of faith. Faith to change something!! Has our 'experiment' gone something like this? ..... Have we spoken with certainty that an event would transpire, and when the desires were not brought to fruition; the thing that we so wanted to have happen, didnt happen....Do when then hear ourselves or others say, " Well, you see, it didnt happen. I didnt think it would." Where is the faith???

We live in a world filled with skepticism and doubt, and the expression 'seeing is believing' only expands this attitude. 'You show me, and then I will believe.' My missionaries run into this; I run into this; the world is full of it. Why do we need proof and evidence all the time? Why is it so hard to take things on faith??

Finishing up, Pres. Packer states, "When will we learn that in spiritual things it works the other way about----that believing is seeing? Spiritual belief precedes spiritual knowledge. When we believe in things that are not seen but are nevertheless true, then we have faith."