As I Count Life’s Blessings, come close to laying life’s burdens down and look ever more eagerly to shine as the sun in our Father’s kingdom, what will be my last exhortation to you, my beloved Caribbean brothers and sisters? Like Moses, I can see the glory and I can see the land. Most of all, I can see the need for you all to be giants of faith in this time of great tribulation. “Dear children, this is the last hour” (1 John 2:18).
As we read Hebrews 11, we gasp at this catalogue of faithful and their deeds. Do they overawe us? Do we feel inadequate ever to imagine that our names could join these giants of faith?
The apostle packs into a few words what is related in whole long chapters in the Old Testament concerning faithful men and women. He says “time would fail” for him to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, of David, Samuel and the prophets. Having already listed twelve giants of faith, and recounted a few incidents from their lives, he expects us to recall the faithfulness of others, and model our own faith on theirs.
What deeds connected with these people come to your mind as you read verse 33, for example? Easily we can see Gideon, Jephthah and David “subduing kingdoms;” David obtaining promises; Samuel working righteousness, and Daniel stopping the mouths of lions. Easily again, in verses 34 to 37, it was Hananiah and his friends who “quenched the violence of fire;” it was the faithful women of Zarephath and Shunem who received their loved ones raised to life. Possibly, it was king Jehoshaphat who “escaped the edge of the sword.” Jeremiah had trials of mockings, and perhaps scourgings. According to Jewish tradition, Isaiah was sawn asunder.
What about you and me? This chapter shows us that faith is really tested in circumstances of adversity, and through making sacrifices to preach the Gospel in season and out.
Let us ask ourselves: what is our faith made of? To what degree have we sacrificed for the gospel’s sake, so that the word of the Lord might go forth with power? To what extent has our faith been tried?
Probably none of us has stopped the mouths of lions, although I do know of two brothers on foot who once came face to face with a huge bear on a narrow path. Few of us have been stoned, or faced a scourging such as Paul himself endured. Rather more of us, but still not many, have been made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things for the sake of the gospel. Where then is our faith? Remember, it is through much tribulation that we will finally enter the kingdom.
Yet, it is by faith in our day that brothers and sisters are passing through tropical storms and floods to preach the gospel. I know one faithful Caribbean family in Christ that has rebuilt their home three times after disasters, spurning opportunities to emigrate to a safer land. By faith, saints are walking or cycling lonely miles, braving gunmen and the “choke and rob” artists along the way, so as to keep our lightstands bright. By faith they are enduring torments of insects, are sleeping on wharves, have given up comfortable homes for indescribable shacks, are bathing in meager supplies of water or not bathing at all except in clouds of dust, are suffering travel hazards innumerable on wretched roads in, or half out of, ramshackle trucks and buses, and are in continual ill-health because they cannot afford to visit the doctor or buy medication — yet remaining busy and earnest, always prepared to preach the word.
Perhaps most faithful of all are the increasing number of elderly ones among us who, in these days of cruel economic hardship and unemployment, give what little funds they have to assist in the preaching of the gospel and the care of Christ’s little ones, casting all their needs upon the Lord.
What shall become of you all if your faith be not wrought with works, and, if unexpressed in works, your faith be not made perfect? Perhaps your test lies in the little things which you esteem as trivial or unimportant — a little more needed in the collection for that Bible seminar, an increase in the subscription for a valued magazine, a little generosity to a friend in need across the way, opening your home to an orphaned girl or a homeless boy.
In matters of faith, if you look after the spiritual pence, the pounds will look after themselves. It is by faith — yes, for true, here in the Caribbean being a giant of faith — that the vision that sustains each of you can and will become reality. My beloved, when the giants of faith will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever (Dan. 12:3), I want to rest assured that among those stars will be many of you, Caribbean saints whose weakness has been made strong, who have come through great tribulation, and whose faith has been made perfect.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One