1. FAITH IN HIS PEACE AND COMFORT
OR
2. FAITH IN THE COMFORTS OF THIS WORLD

This testimony glorifies the necessity of an absolute faith in God.

3. HEBREWS 11: 1-2 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

4. Faith in God is the complete and total source of all the peace and comfort and hope I feel in daily living.

For most of my life, I chose to live in hope of achieving some vague thing I called happiness. In fact, happiness is a poor definition of that which I really longed for. Happiness was elusive no matter how many wonderful, positive things were placed in my lap. Money, success, the esteem of others, material things, passion, loving children. These were never enough. Something was always missing. Each achievement was instantly followed by some new carrot at the end of the stick which hung perpetually before my minds eye. I can recall commuting home one evening, following a day of promotion and salary advancement. Before my train reached the station, the money often a huge sum, was totally inadequate for the future. My title could be broader, higher and larger. A new rat race had begun.

Fortunately, until I was pole-axed by a devastating terminal illness, I did not discover what should have been obvious all along. In my initial desperation and fear, after learning I would soon die, I had absolutely no other resource available to me but GOD. I chose to turn to Him and surrender to Him my life and my will. Certainly, I asked Him to spare me, but I did so with complete willingness to accept His will for me by trusting no matter what happened, with Him I knew I would be okay. I didn't really know what it meant - forgiveness, redemption, heaven - but I was completely confident God would care for me.

From that time through today, I choose to wear my faith in God like a warm comforting garment. It is the realization of what I was (unknowingly) hoping for all along.

This faith is also the clear and firm evidence of things which I do not see. I have never seen God, but I know, sure as life, He is here with me. The carrot at the end of my stick was my inferior minds poor substitute for God. I had, as I believe all humans do, a God longing which I did not know how to fill. Faith, sadly, is something which we humans believe we had better have, if we hope for the big reward in the afterlife. I am supremely grateful for having received His gift of the knowledge that faith is the realization of what is hoped for - the evidence of things not seen. Faith is real and complete. It is not a temporary condition we must practice to achieve the final reward. It is the reward!

1. ATTRACTED OR DISTRACTED

2. This testimony glorifies the way God sees us.

3. 2 Corinthians 5: 16, 17

...from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.

4. I must stop knowing myself in the flesh. I must identify myself as He has created me. I will then, proportionately, become new and see others in this new light of Spirit, God. I must choose listening to the Father's voice rather than the voice of the body. Receiving His truth helped me to experience more of His grace this week...the body responded to His medicine of truth.

A young woman came to help with our lawn. She had 10 or more piercings on her face alone. It could have been a distraction but I instantly chose not to see her "according to the flesh" but to look inside... seeing her as our Father sees all of us. She was quietly precious and did beautiful work. Rather than being distracted by the outward, I was attracted to her as God's child - her inward identity and only true identity...it was a joyful encounter, heart to heart. How grateful I am for the way Christ teaches us to see.