A New Folder - An Illustration of Faith | Hebrews 12:2-4

The image above is an illustration of faith. It's a reminder of how in one way I've expressed my faith...faithfully. It's evidence of my confident expectation that I'll continue to express my faith next year.

Today is December 31, 2017. It's about 9:00 am. I'm not feeling especially well now...struggling with symptoms of a head and chest cold...head heavy, runny nose, tired, sneezing and coughing.

But I'm working on next Sunday's podcast. I've recorded and posted an audio podcast weekly (nearly weekly...life sometimes happens and I've skipped a few weeks here and there). It's a podcast of me reading aloud four different passages from The Holy Bible, based on the Common Revised Lectionary.

I started the podcast in 2016. My first post to SoundCloud was for Sunday, March 6, 2016. It's no longer available on SoundCloud because I have only the free account, which limits my posts. So, when my account gets filled, I delete a couple, making room for a couple more uploads.

The podcast started selfishly.

I wanted to listen to the weekly passages as I drove to work. I had about a 25 minute commute. I tried out several apps for my phone, several audiobook versions, but none fit my needs. I wanted to listen to only those four passages, daily and repeatedly. I wanted to listen to them while driving. I wanted to listen to them while working. I wanted to listen to them repeatedly because my work causes my attention to shift focus often, and I lose track of what I was listening to. If it's on a loop, I eventually, through the course of the day, would hear, meditate and consider most of what the passages were saying.

None of the apps and audiobooks allowed this.

So, I recorded myself and used an MP3 app on my phone to play back the recording repeatedly, on a loop, without fuss or expertise. I use MusiCloud, but there are lots of apps that can do the same.

It worked.

It worked well.

I use my phone to record myself (Voice Record, the free version.

I use NoteTab Lite to draft my script.

I then wanted to share the recordings with those at church. We were all reading the same passages weekly, we were all hearing a sermon weekly based upon those passages. I thought there had to be others who would want to listen to an audio version on the way to their work.

I mix my recordings with music using Audacity, and post the podcast to SoundCloud with a cover image found on Flickr using CC Search.

Oh! Almost forgot..I also use Jamendo to find music.

Because I speak a little Spanish, I thought I could also try recording the passages in Español. That didn't work. My pronunciation is inaccurate, my pacing is erratic. It was painful to read it aloud, and worse to hear it.

But I had a friend, a co-worker. Born in Mexico, raised in the United States, fluent in both languages, devout Christian. He instantly agreed to help. I'm so glad! Now I can listen to the passages weekly, in English and Spanish, helping my faith and language skills to grow.

Thank you, my friend!

But, back to the original thread of this post.

"The image above is an illustration of faith. It's a reminder of how in one way I've expressed my faith...faithfully. It's evidence of my confident expectation that I'll continue to express my faith next year."

Today's the 31st of December, now about 9:43 am, and I'm looking at a newly created folder in my Raw Audio folder: 2018.

It's not 2018 yet, but I confidently expect that I'll have a post to upload for the first Sunday in 2018. I've got three folders worth of podcasts, spanning from March 6, 2016 to December 31, 2017, mostly every week included.

What makes me confident? Am I simply ignoring all the potential circumstances that could bring this podcast to a sudden end? Because I have 612 podcasts, requiring 36.7 GB of storage on my computer, do I believe a sovereign, almighty God really likes me and will divinely support my work? Or is hope simply an emotion based upon statistics and historical trends?

What creates "hope"? What is the true, physiological basis for faith? Is my faith in another year of podcasting the same as my faith in a resurrected Savior?

I can't see what will happen tomorrow. I'm not a prophet, I've never felt that I've been given a divine revelation of the immediate future. The best I'm able to do at prognostication is to look back where I've been and compare it to where I'm at now. A lot of similarities and common trends indicate a strong possibility of the same tomorrow.

Perhaps that's what I do with my weekly podcast...as well as with my faith in Christ. Reading The Holy Bible is a way of looking back. Watching my children grow up, my jobs change, my home move, my friends change...they all form a pattern of the past that I can compare with my present circumstance.

I'm not sure about that. I don't think that's the faith that Jesus died for.

Faith is a deliberate decision to act upon something told you, regardless of circumstances that appear to contradict the wisdom of that decision.

"Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." (Hebrews 12:2-4 ESV)

The Message puts it more dramatically:

"Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed — that exhilarating finish in and with God — he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through — all that bloodshed!" (Hebrews 12:2-4 MSG)

Faith, biblically, is based upon what you're told, and who told it to you. In this instance, we choose to do all we can to resist sin because Jesus told us that was a way to joy, a way to God.

Biblical faith, for me, means that I confidently expect to continue recording and uploading my weekly podcast because I've decided that The Holy Bible is a faithful record of what God has spoken to us through Jesus Christ. Reading, recording and listening to passages from The Holy Bible is a way - not the only way, but it is one way - of experiencing joy in the midst of trouble. It reminds me of what I regard as true and long-lasting. It transforms my heart and mind toward that of God's image with which I was created.

I could refuse to spend the time required to prepare this podcast. I could decide that it would be more worthwhile to spend that time preparing for potential events and circumstances that would harm me. I could decide to spend that time doing things that please me temporarily, despite harm done in the end.

But my eyes are on the finish line - the joy that awaits after this life of trouble and death.

"Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16 MSG)

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:3-9 ESV)

"Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust. So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books. So, friends, confirm God's invitation to you, his choice of you. Don't put it off; do it now. Do this, and you'll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:3-11 MSG)

I know...my computer's hard drive may crash. The internet may become dark and fenced off. My cold may turn into pneumonia. I may lose my job. The extremists may take over. The sun may fail and the stars may fall.

But all of that is maybe. Now, this moment, is what I have. I'm going to create a new folder for a new year and keep on keeping on, trusting in what I've been told by Someone I trust.