Category Archives: Hebrews 11 Bible Study

When It Rains, It Pours

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By Kristen Entwistle

Rain is a very good thing.  It comes to water the earth and nourish the plants, to cool off the scorching temperatures.  But too much of a good thing can be catastrophic.  You’ve seen it on the evening news – houses submerged under the waters that breached the banks of a river, cars floating downstream, people torn away from loved ones and washed away.  Sometimes the storms of life are devastating.  Other times we can pick up the pieces and start over.  The story of Noah shows both of these outcomes – many people were literally washed away, while Noah and a small remnant were saved, left to pick up the pieces.

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Noah dealt with a lot of rain.  He probably felt very abandoned by God and yet had incredible faith to do what God had told him to.  Join me as we study a very familiar story to many of us today.

Download Chapter Three now!

Missing Pieces

Hebrews 11 Bible Study

By Kristen Entwistle

When I put together a jigsaw puzzle, I start with the outside edges.  Once I have the corners connected and the outline of the puzzle, I can start working on the inside – the harder part.

Hebrews 11 is a little bit of a puzzle for us because we aren’t as familiar with some of the stories and people that the writer mentions.  One of the people we’ll look at today (Enoch) only gets a measly seven verses in the whole Bible!  And yet, even though some of the puzzle pieces may be missing in these stories, there is so much we can learn from them.

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What we do know is that by faith we understand that the universe was formed by God. We know that Abel was faithful, and Enoch was faithful and that we can follow their example.

I often find that I do not have all the puzzle pieces to my life. I don’t understand why certain things happen. I don’t always understand why I am where I am. Maybe you’ve been there too. These stories remind us that life is often a puzzle. It isn’t always clear. But the pieces of the puzzle that we do have make at least this much clear: faith tells us that God created us, hears us, and wants to walk with us. And in the midst of all the missing puzzle pieces, that’s a pretty amazing picture.

Join me as we study these heroes of hope today by downloading the chapter below.

Download Chapter Two now!

Endurance, Perseverance, and Faith

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By Kristen Entwistle

In college, I was a distance swimmer.  After college, I started training for half-marathons.  And I’m not going to lie to you: running half marathons is hard.  The training is brutal, and the race is long (not as long as a marathon, but still).  When I’m running those 13.1 miles, there are a thousand thoughts that go through my head.

Why am I doing this?  I can’t do this.  

I could have just run one mile.  Why did I decide to run thirteen?

Stop thinking like that.  You can do this.  

Distance running requires perseverance.  It requires endurance.  And so does faith.

Black & white image of a wooden cross against a cloudy sky - low angle view

The people reading Hebrews were ready to quit.  They were being persecuted and suffering, and were ready to throw in the towel – until the writer of Hebrews tells them: “Wait!  Remember what you went through in the past?  You made it through, even though it was terrible.  So keep on keeping on.  Let met tell you about some of the people in YOUR past that were commended for their faith.”

Will you join me this week as we look at what faith is, and what faith should bring about in our lives?

Download Chapter One now!