A WORTHY FOCUS

Contents

Introduction ------------------------------------------------------5

Section 1 (A Focus For Faith) --------------------------------7

Section 2 (Opportunity) ---------------------------------------11

Section 3 (Citizenship) -----------------------------------------15

Section 4 (Assurance) ------------------------------------------19

Section 5 (Belonging) ------------------------------------------23

Reflections 1------------------------------------------------------26

Reflections 2------------------------------------------------------27

Reflections 3------------------------------------------------------28

Reflections 4------------------------------------------------------29

Reflections 5------------------------------------------------------30

Questions Beyond This Study (by Kathy Ward) ---------31

A Different Measure Info--------------------------------------33

 A WORTHY FOCUS

SECTION ONE
A FOCUS FOR FAITH

John 14: 1-3 1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in
God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many
mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where
I am, there you may be also."

A focus for faith: "You believe in God, believe also

in Me."

I have to admit that faith was often a tough concept for me.
This might not be the best way to begin a Reflections Guide,
but faith is abstract and I am more of a concrete thinker. I like
things I can measure or put into a flowchart or see or touch. I
am not from Missouri, but I can kind of understand the attitude
of "show me."
Even the very definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1 is "the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Yet we see in John 14:1-3 the depth of the compassion and
graciousness of the Lord in that He went beyond this.
I am impressed that although the Biblical definition of faith is
that which is not seen, Jesus allows us a real, historical,
physical and tangible focus of our faith—His life, His actions,
His words, His miracles and His teachings. That is fantastic to
imagine. Jesus chooses to go beyond the constraints of the
definition of faith and transcends it with the very life He lived.
With His life, He accomplished what could not be explained;
both with the miraculous and the holy.