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THE SUBSTANCE OF FAITH

Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

We praise and thank God for helping us to host a Bible Academy at our center on September 26th and on McGill campus on September 29. S. John Giesbrecht and s. Marcel Rodney prepared a presentation on “The Substance of Faith.” As s. Marcel stated, people tend to think of faith as believing in something without any evidence. Yet many people don’t realize that some kind of faith is a simple necessity to function in life and relationships. No faith at all would make life impossible so everybody looks for causes and reasons through which they form their beliefs about life and the world around them. The beliefs we grow up with come from our cultural, psychological, philosophical and religious environment when we are young. A faith that has substance needs to answer questions like, “Where did I come from?” “What is the meaning of my life?” “What should I believe is right or wrong?” and “What is my destiny in life and the afterlife?” Each person then decides how their belief corresponds to reality and what you believe will determine whether your life has substance and meaning or if ends up in disappointment and disillusionment.  As presented to us by s. John, Jesus offers real substance and evidence to believe. Jesus was a real person of history as verified by 4 eyewitness accounts of his life. Jesus miracles demonstrates God’s love and compassion. Jesus fulfilled 350 prophecies with his life. It is wondrous to know that the Author and Creator of life wrote himself into his creation being both God and a man.  In contrast most people feel that their lives end up being a series of unrelated events. The climax of Jesus epic life was his death and resurrection demonstrating God’s love over our sins and over the power of death. Therefore our lives can have substance regardless of human failure and we can be assured of eternal life when this transient life ends. We thank God for s. John and s. Marcel’s joint presentation and for bringing over 30 attendants. We pray that God may continually use our Bible academies to invite campus students to Bible studies and to know Jesus personally.

By Andrew, Montreal UBF