Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from yesterday’s service and message “The High Hurdles of Unbelief”.
Hurdles are obstacles placed in someone’s path designed to slow and impede a person’s forward progress. The high hurdles of track and field competition are barriers which can’t be leaped over except by some of the best trained and skilled athletes.
Forward progress in receiving the blessings and inheritance which God has for mankind is blocked when those it is intended for erect high hurdles of unbelief. One type of hurdle of unbelief arises out of a growing inability of people to transcend the limits of the physical world informed through our senses.
Increasingly people identify as “realist” who only accept what is physical (meaning what can be detected by human senses) and by that measure seems possible or likely. This becomes a high hurdle of unbelief for these because God is transcendent and to believe Him we must transcend the natural, physical and mental confines of our senses.
A second high hurdle arises out of the belief that life under God is worst than life of self-direction. They believe they would not be happy or satisfied living with God under His restrictions to their freedom. They believe that life as they know it couldn’t be better with life under God.
And the final hurdle of unbelief comes from people’s inability to let go of what they have for what is promised. People are vested in their human existence with ties to many people, places and things. To inherit God’s kingdom, people must be willing to sacrifice and cut ties to all these things in order to do the will of God and receive His promise.
It is like burning a bridge behind oneself so that there is no returning to where one came from. In this case, people are afraid and unwilling to trust God for the fulfillment of a promise at the cost of forsaking what they have here and now.
High hurdles of unbelief are formed when people make these objections and concerns obstacles that they can’t get over in order to move forward with God. But to God’s people, all these objections are made into stones that can be stepped over instead of the hurdles that can’t be jumped over.
How we approach each of these and others I have not mentioned will determine if we perish in the wilderness of death and unbelief or have the foresight to trust God for an unseen but bright and glorious promised future.
Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices. Don’t forget to read and listen to my Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday. Get a jump on Sunday School by reading the SS Daily Bible Readings at our website or by clicking the link. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
