Hebrews 11:1 and Faith
We can be assured that God will bring us blessings, even if we can’t see them all now!

By John Schoenheit

Assurance in God: Understanding what faith / pistis is.
Heb. 11:6 Without Faith it is impossible to

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Hebrews 11:1 has a definition of “faith” that is important to understand. The context of Hebrews 11, starting in Hebrews 10, is trusting God, and more specifically, trusting that what God says is coming in the future will occur. For example:

Hebrews 10:36
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

God says we will receive what He promised, but how do we really know that? We know it by having faith in God, and that is the point of His defining “faith” at this juncture in Scripture. The Greek word translated “faith” means “trust,” and although we know what “trust” is, God makes the definition clear in Hebrews.

Hebrews 11:1 (NASB) [1]
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

As we study this verse, we will see that it gives a very good definition of “trust,” written in two different ways. However, to understand the definition, we must understand the vocabulary that God uses. For example, the word “hope” was commonly used in the Greek world, and in this context means, “expect.” [2] The word “conviction” means to be convinced of something.

When we trust someone, what does that mean? It means that we have an “assurance” that what he says is true, so we “expect” it to come to pass. Or, as the last phrase in the verse says, we have a conviction that what the person says will come to pass even though we do not see it yet.

We could expand Hebrews 11:1, using somewhat different vocabulary, as follows:

Now trust is having assurance that the things we expect (due to what the person said) will indeed happen.

Now trust is being convinced about things that have not happened yet, and therefore remain unseen.

What is clear from the above statements is that when you trust someone, you expect that what he or she says will happen, and are convinced about it, even though it has not happened yet and is therefore still unseen. Trust is an essential part of day-to-day life, and if we did not trust people, life would be very difficult. We are constantly trusting people to do what they say, but when it becomes clear that someone is untrustworthy, we move on and work with people who do what they say they will.

For example, when you go on vacation you may have a friend you trust go to your house every couple of days and water the plants, get the mail, and make sure everything is okay. Because you trust your friend, you do not worry about the house because you have an “assurance” and are “convinced” that what you “expect” will happen even though you do not “see” it. On the other hand, if you do not really trust the person (say it is a teenager who has good intentions but forgets a lot), then you have no “assurance” that the work you “expect” to get done will get done, and you are not “convinced” about that which you cannot see.

Once we understand what God is saying in Hebrews 11:1, we understand why this important verse is where it is in Scripture. God said in Hebrews 10 that Christ will come and reward those people who stand for him and endure through the difficulties that accompany being a bold Christian, including “sufferings,” “…being made a public spectacle…,” “reproaches and tribulations,” and even “…the seizure of your property…” (Heb. 10:32-34-NASB). The only way someone would joyfully accept such treatment is if he “trusted” that God’s promise of deliverance and reward, which he cannot see yet, was real. Thus God puts His definition of faith at this juncture to remind people that they can trust Him and expect their reward even though they do not see anything yet.

We face the same challenge today as the first-century Christians did some 2,000 years ago. God asks us to trust that He will reward us for standing up for Him. He needs us to be fellow-workers, praying and spreading the Gospel. If we do not trust Him, we will shrink back and avoid the conflict that accompanies taking a bold Christian stand. We, however, can and should boldly stand for God, being assured and convinced that we will receive the blessings we expect, even though we do not see them now.

Britain’s youngest sex change patient wants to go BACK to being a boy
By Keith Kendrick, Oct 29, 2012

Rex
Britain’s youngest sex-swap patient has decided she want to go back to being a boy – because she experiences too many mood swings as a girl.

Ria Cooper, 18, from Hull, has had thousands of pounds worth of NHS treatment involving hormonal injections to turn her from a boy into a girl.

But the hormones affected her so badly that she attempted suicide twice. Ria, formerly known as Brad, lives her life as a female.

She has developed breasts, wears her hair in a feminine bob and has dated several young men. But now she questions whether she was too young to be allowed to swap sexes in the first place.

“Life has really got on top of me recently,” she told the Sunday Mirror.

“The hormones have made me feel up and down. One minute I feel moody and the next minute I feel really happy.

“A couple of months ago I’d had enough and took a lot of paracetamol but my friend found me and made me sick. Just before that, I’d tried to slash my wrists and ended up in hospital. I get these dark moods when nothing seems right.

“The night I tried to slash my wrists I d downed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and just thought about how alone I am, how my decision has alienated my family and how I will have to become a boy again to resolve it.
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I don’t want to live in isolation, away from everyone I love. This is the only way forward. I just want to be happy and this is my last chance.
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From the age of 12, Ria was convinced she was a girl trapped in a boy’s body, so when she was 15, she was referred to a psychologist at Hull Royal Infirmary and later to the Gender Identity Clinic in London.

She started hormone treatment when she was 17, making her the youngest ever patient in the UK to receive such treatment. But she says her decision has had disastrous consequences. She has fallen out with family, got into dangerous situations with men and even worked as a prostitute.

She is booked in for the full transgender operation in January but now says she will no longer go ahead with it.

She said: “I just can’t be what I want to be. My mum Elaine loves and supports me as much as she can, yet she doesn’t allow me to live at home any more. My dad barely speaks to me and says I’m an embarrassment.

“I think as the only boy in the family he thought I’d follow him into the steel business and pictured us working out together at the gym.

“Obviously it s not turned out like that. I don’t know who I can trust as friends. I feel really, really alone.”

The Sunday Mirror said that critics warned two years ago that Ria’s tender years meant she was too young to make the decision to become a woman.

Child psychologist Karen Sherr, formerly of Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: “It’s absolutely ludicrous for young kids to make such huge, life-changing decisions… and for doctors and their parents to support it.

“At that age you haven’t developed fully, neither physically nor emotionally.

“Children need to be allowed to grow into adults before they go through with something like a sex change because, as this case shows, at that age you don t know yourself well enough.”

December 3rd will be the next court date

Im trying to fine “michelle fenton “fr jamaica last known address is on “vaze ave ” in kingston her husband name is “fruits”…tell her that “two-six” is looking for them….her husband lives in LONDON UK….1LOVE jamaica style