Just A Bunch Of Names?

Nehemiah 11:1-12:26; 1 Chronicles 9:1-34

As I pray before I read the Bible each day, a thought came to me today regarding the Word of God and Faith.

Romans 10.17 says this: So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. [NLT]

In the King James Version, Romans 10.17 is as follows: So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Other versions I looked at were not really consistent with the KJV. All the others were, however, consistent with each other and the NLT version of Romans 10.17: faith comes from the Message of Christ.

I believe we have erroneously understood Romans 10.17 in many circles to say that the Word of God (as in, the Bible) builds faith. But really, the most consistent interpretation of that Scripture is that specifically the Message of Christ is what builds faith.

So, in order to have our faith built by any scripture from the Bible, we must see Christ and the Story of Redemption in it.

For me and my understanding, today's reading was rather void of anything that spoke of Christ and Redemption.

But here's the deal, just because I don't see it doesn't mean Christ's Story is not there! There are any number of distractions to prevent me from comprehending the Gospel in the OT readings like today's. Among those distractions are a failure to focus, noises, sights, unconfessed sin... just to name few.

There is no doubt, in the day and age in which we live, that very few actually walk in the kind of faith that Jesus demonstrated in His model life on earth. We need faith and more of it. To build that faith we need the Message of Christ - we need to see and hear the Story of Jesus not only in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John), but in all the Bible!

For what it's worth, today's reading was nothing but a bunch of names... 

Why were those name so important? Because names are attached to people. God loves people. Jesus died for people.

There are people in my life with names (a bunch of people)! People need Jesus! People need the Story of Jesus. People need my faith to bring the Kingdom Jesus preached to their lives. People need me praying for them by name thus joining with God's work directly in their lives. There is the Gospel of Jesus! There my faith grows!

Father, thank You for speaking to my heart today through what, at first, seemed like a mundane list of names, but then became recorded evidence of Your interest in people substantiating the Advent of Christ! Yes!