With only three days left in 2008, I thought I would end the year with a three-day take on what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:13. "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (NKJV).

Everyone lives by one form of faith or another. Even atheists live by faith - faith in themselves, or fate, or "whatever." I choose to live by biblical faith. Long ago, when I was in Christian Service Camp many years ago, I memorized Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I have never seen God or Christ, but I live by faith in them every day. "The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17). What other way is there to live? Faith, to be of value at all, must be placed in something or someone of greater value. There is nothing or no one greater in the universe than the Father and the Son. I have cast my vote with Paul, who wrote, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is not longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Not one of us can be pleasing to God without the life of faith (Heb. 11:6). Be a believer. Be one of the few, the justifiably proud, who choose to live by faith.

Hymn: Have faith in God when your pathway is lonely, He sees and knows all the way you have trod;
Never alone are the least of His children; Have faith in God, have faith in God.
(B. B. McKinney)