Extreme Faith

Extreme Faith

Extreme

FAITH

Twelve Radical Young Believers from

the Bible Who Changed Our World

Tim Baker

Copyright © 2000 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

The publisher thanks The Livingstone Corporation for their assistance with this title.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Scripture quotations are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Baker, Tim, 1965-

Extreme faith : twelve radical young believers from the Bible who changed our world / Tim Baker

p. cm.

ISBN 0-7852-6757-3 (pbk.)

1. Children in the Bible—Juvenile literature. 2. Bible—Biography—Juvenile literature. 3. Bible stories, English. [1. Christian life. 2. Bible—Biography.]

I. Title.

BS576 B35 2000

220.9'2—dc21

00-055917

Printed in the United States of America.

1 2 3 4 5 6 PHX 05 04 03 02 01 00

Contents

Introduction

1. Isaac: Extreme Sacrifice

2. Joseph: Extreme Devotion

3. Jonathan: Extreme Friendship

4. David: Extreme Courage

5. Mary: Extreme Submission

6. Naaman’s Servant Girl: Extreme Compassion

7. Josiah: Extreme Spirituality

8. Esther: Extreme Heroism

9. Gideon: Extreme Obedience

10. Mark: Extreme Urgency

11. Timothy: Extreme Service

12. A Boy with a Lunch: Extreme Giving

13. You: Extreme Faith

Introduction

Extreme.

What pictures flood your mind when you hear that word? People shaving their heads or painting their bellies for their favorite sports team? Bungee-jumping off a bridge? Doing somersaults on BMX bikes?

Those things are extreme, all right, but you don’t have to wrestle alligators to get into the Extreme Hall of Fame included here. You can be an extreme sports maniac and miss the opportunity to live a life of extreme faith. This book is about extreme heroes with extreme faith.

You can be an extreme hero just by the way you live.

The people I’m going to introduce you to were not wellknown athletes, race car drivers, or movie stars. They were ancient people. They were not known for creating a new drug that healed deadly diseases. They were known for being people who radically trusted God in the most extreme and the most everyday circumstances. All of them faced challenges. Some faced huge enemies who seemed unconquerable. Others faced situations that challenged their trust in God. They lived out their faith to the extreme. They exercised the invisible gift that God gives us: the ability to trust and see God when others can’t.

Spend some time with these people. Get to know them. Here’s what you’ll find:

Love for God.

Trust.

A belief that they’ll conquer and succeed in spite of the situation.

A knowledge that God had called them to an extreme way of living.

In other words, extreme faith.

How about you?

Let’s say that thousands of years from now, people will be reading a few short stories about your life. They’ll read about how you lived, whom you loved, and what you accomplished. Will they read about you and say, Yeah. I need faith like that?

Extreme Faith includes twelve stories of young people from the historical pages of God’s Word. They were real, living people. The stories may be old, but what they faced and what they felt are an awful lot like what we face and feel today. Here you’ll find lessons on being friends, dealing with parents, facing enemies, handling persecution, and more. You’ll even read about twelve modern young people who are applying these lessons right now.

So, dive in. Take hold of these stories. Make extreme faith your own, taking the principles that these people lived by and adopting the principles for your life. If you do, you’ll be a living, welcome to the adventure.

1

Isaac:

Extreme Sacrifice

Sarah laughed when she heard that God was going to give a child to her and Abraham. She laughed because she was already on the inside of ninety years old. The promise of a son must have felt too good to be true. Abraham and Sarah had never had children and had all but given up. Then, God made a promise. That promise brought hope, and that promise brought laughter. Then that promise brought a bouncing, rambunctious, curious little boy named Isaac.

Can’t you see the faces of Isaac’s parents as they, too tired to chase little Isaac in the yard, watched through the win­dow?"

Oh, Abe, just look at him. He’s growing so fast. I wish we could chase him. You know, in my younger days I’d have given him a run for his money."

You know, Sarah, I don’t remember you running much.

Well, I would. Look at how he kicks that ball. He is skilled already.

Every time they watched him, maybe they laughed again.

Maybe they giggled at the amazing thing God had done in giving them this child.

God had given them an incredible gift.

Then, one day God put the ownership of that gift to the test. God asked Abraham to give up his son, to sacrifice him on an altar of worship. People did that kind of thing in those days, but you are right that it was a startling, unusual request from a God who promised descendants to a couple with only one child.

Who, What, Where, When

Isaac was the only child of Abraham and Sarah. He was probably born in Beersheba. He was a miracle baby because his parents were really, really old when he was born.

We are never told that Abraham questioned God. God said, Give it up, and Abe began to prepare for the journey.

As difficult as that might seem for Abraham, imagine for a minute that you are Isaac. You’re hanging out by the family well, looking for something to do. You don’t want to go out to the family field, so you wait for something to happen.

And as you’re reflecting, your dad calls out, Hey, Isaac, let’s go on a trip. Then he begins to chop wood.

Crack!

What’s the wood for, Dad?

Crack!

Dad, what’s the wood for?

Crack!

Hey, are you going to sacrifice something?

Crack!

Isaac would know well the practices that his father followed.

He would have no confusion about the significance of his father’s preparations.

Here’s where the story gets very interesting. And here’s where Isaac’s willingness to sacrifice goes from normal to extreme.

These two men, father and son, one old and one young, begin their three-day hike. They’ve got each other and two servants with them. But can’t you imagine that Abraham and Isaac feel very alone with Abraham holding a difficult secret between them?

Don’t you think that Abraham, even with the way that God had proved Himself over the years, must have questioned? What do you think he was thinking? Unfair? Ridiculous request? Perhaps he did a mental fist shake at God while they were walking to the right spot to sacrifice Isaac. My son? I’d give up my best goat or cow. Possibly a servant. Certainly myself. But my son?

I think Abraham’s thoughts might have wandered that way. But they didn’t keep him from walking.

What’s more, I wonder what Isaac must have been thinking. After three days of walking, as they climbed the last mountain, Isaac finally offered the big question: Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?

Abraham built an altar.

Abraham tied up his son.

Abraham laid his son on the altar.

Cross-Training

Interested in reading about someone else who was willing to sacrifice himself for God’s plan? Look at the life of Stephen (Acts 6-7).

Abraham raised the knife high in the air. Really high, I’ll bet. I like to think he held it there, hoping against all hope that God would send down a reprieve at the last minute.

Hand high in the air . . . waiting . . . fingers sweating . . . knife getting slippery . . . arm weakening . . .

And then, just as he was about to give in, fully obey God, and sacrifice his son, God provided another sacrifice, a ram in the thicket.

But there lay Isaac, his eyes on the knife.

Isaac’s performance was spectacular. The Bible doesn’t tell us anything that he said on top of the mountain. The Bible doesn’t tell us anything that he did. We are simply told that a very, very old man was able to tie up a young, strong boy and lay him on an altar. What does that tell you about Isaac?

He was willing.

Isaac’s silence screams a message. Give it up! Lay it down! Let go of the real, tangible, life-necessary thing that God is asking for. Put yourself on the altar. Get ready . . . not to watch God do the sacrificing, but to do the sacrificing yourself.

God will ask for everything. It’s all His anyway. We’ll walk away with only what He wants us to have. That’s what happened with Isaac. God wanted Abraham’s willingness, not his son. He wanted Isaac’s heart sacrificed, not his life.

Isaac’s sacrifice was real sacrifice. It wasn’t the false kind of sacrifice that we’ve become pros at. We like to offer God all the useless stuff we can find in our lives, the stuff we’ll never miss. But God doesn’t want that stuff. He wants the head that calculated the stingy false move to collect the stuff in the first place.

He wants it all. He wants us.

What do you do when God asks for your sacrifice?

You go to the altar. You lay it down. And you let God provide.

Extreme sacrifice. Let it go.

And let your silence speak for you.

EXTREME APPLICATION

Want something to help you remember what Isaac did, without having to memorize, strategize, or plan how you’ll be able to sacrifice whatever you need to on God’s altar?

Allll-righty. Here you go. Say this with me.

Here I am.

There, say it again. Say it again and again. Feel silly? I hope not. In case you haven’t read the biblical account of Abraham laying out his son and raising the sacrificial knife over him, go read it now.

Consider this: Abraham said, Here I am, a lot of times in these verses. He said it to God. He said it to his son. Abraham said the words. Isaac lived them.

Snapshots

Wanna know more about Isaac? Check out Genesis 24 and Genesis 25.

Let that rest on your brain for a moment. Ponder the difference. Okay, Abe said the words and lived them. But Isaac lived them too.

Ever feel that you’re talking it, but you’re not living it? Ever have one of those lie-in-bed nights when you can’t sleep? You reflect, reflect, reflect, only to discover all your spiritual faults? Living like Isaac feels a million miles away, and you’ll never live up to it.

Ease up.

Take a look at the life of Isaac for a moment.

He Lay Down

Isaac gave himself up. Step one. Important step one.

Don’t miss this fact. Isaac probably saw the knife in his father’s hand as he was lying down. He saw it. He knew what was happening. He was old enough to think through what was happening. And still he lay down.

In that step, Isaac lost everything. In a moment of abandon he resolved himself, I imagine, to letting go of everything he knew about his life, about his father, and about God.

He Watched His Father

Notice Isaac on the altar. Doesn’t mention that he squirmed. Doesn’t say that he tried to get away. His eyes probably burned holes in Abraham’s torso, though, trying to figure it all out.

What about you? Often, God calls us for a sacrifice and we give up, look away, and forget. Discouragement takes over. Fear prevents our acting. We forget to keep our eyes on the only One who’s trustworthy in a world that doesn’t make sense.

What should you be asking as a result of learning about Isaac?

One question. Simple. What is God calling you to sacrifice?

That’s it.

Take it seriously, and it will rock your world.

Lay it down.

Watch God. Burn holes in His torso. Keep your eyes on Him. If you can do that, your sacrifice will be extreme. Your silence will speak volumes. And the altar you’re lying on will feel like a bed made from eternity’s beginning. And made just for you.

Extreme sacrifice.

God’s got an altar with your name on it.

MY LIFE

Take a moment to think about the concept of extreme sacrifice. Use these questions to help you apply what you’ve just read to your life.

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0015_001 What did Isaac’s performance on the altar say about sacri­fice?

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0015_002 Why do you think God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son?

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0015_003 Why is sacrifice important?

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0015_004 When have you had to sacrifice something?

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0015_005 What’s the most difficult thing about sacrificing for you?

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0015_006 What have you learned about sacrifice from this story?

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0015_007 How will knowing about Isaac help you to sacrifice what God asks you to?

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0015_008 What is God calling you to sacrifice?

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0015_009 What keeps you from sacrificing what God asks?

Il_Extreme_Faith_final_final_0016_001 What will it take for you to obey and to follow through with that sacrifice?

THE WHOLE TRUTH

We like to offer God all the useless stuff we can find in our lives, the stuff we’ll never miss. But God doesn’t want that stuff. He wants the head that calculated the stingy false move to collect the stuff in the first place.

The Story of Isaac from Genesis 22:1-14

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, Abraham!

And he said, Here I am.

Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you