Faith (2)

The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.'Luke 17:5

Henry Nouwen says that our greatest challenge as disciples is, "to recognise and believe that unexpected events are not just disturbing interruptions...but the way in which God moulds our hearts and preparesus.

" The deeper your faith in God, the greater its potential to carry you through the rough times. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel said, "Faith like Job's cannot be shaken, because it is the result of having been shaken."But faith in Christ alone, gives us the assurance for heaven. When you die - what then? John Maxwell tells of attending the funeral of Jane Chapman, wife of his good friend Tom Chapman. During the service thefollowing poem was read: "I am standing on the seashore. A ship appears,spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her 'til at last shefades away on the horizon. Somebody at my side quietly says, 'She is gone.' Gone where? Gone from my vision, that is all; she is just as large as when I saw her last. The diminished size and loss of sight is in me, not her; and just at the moment when someone at my side says 'She is gone,' there are others who are watching her coming, and voices take up the joyful shout, 'Here she comes!'"