From the Home Place

September 7, 2025

Miss Deb and I both have elk tags for this fall. Hopefully we will get to go together when it comes time to attempt to harvest one of these magnificent critters, which I tend to call “bugle cows.” There are few things more invigorating than to stand on a mountain side and listen to a bull elk bugle! The only problem we have when we hunt together is that we both have to carry our own binoculars because we each have very different eyesight.

We have tried to share binos before, but we soon figured out it wasn’t worth the time it takes to adjust and readjust the shared binoculars, so we each keep our own focus on our own pair of binos. That’s much like faith, we each need our own.

Though we both came to faith in Jesus on the same night, probably at almost the same hour, we each have our own faith. I can’t live hers and she can’t live mine. Nor can you live on anyone else’s faith, you must have your own.

While reading Psalm 115 this morning, I realized that every person is on their own when it comes to faith. Within the beginning of this Psalm, we are quickly reminded that God is the only one worthy of our praise, for only He sits on the throne of glory. As Psalm 115 reminds us, we all like our idols. “Silver and gold” both play a very vital part within our daily lives, yet we dare not make those riches the “focus” of our lives.

Psalm 115 clearly states that idols are not alive. They can’t “talk, feel, move, smell, see nor hear”. But because God is real, He can relate with us in our daily lives. Psalm 115:9 challenges all of those who place their faith in Jesus to “trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.” The Hebrew word for “help” means to provide extra strength. In the New Testament Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the “helper” of Christians. The word “shield” refers to God’s protection.

Putting “help and shield” together in faith, we have a God who provides and protects for us, idols cannot do either. Once again the psalmist reminds us to “trust in the Lord” because “The Lord has been mindful of us; He will bless us.” Verse 13 states, “he will bless those who fear the Lord, The small together with the great.” You see friends, it doesn’t matter if you are someone of great stature, or if you are just common like the most of us, when we “focus” upon Jesus, He will bless us. His promise, not mine.

As verse 14 reveals, “He will give you increase.” That doesn’t mean that He will make you rich in your bank account, it means that once we “focus” upon Him, He will increase our faith to trust Him no matter our circumstances. For our Lord is our provider and protector!

Please, don’t attempt to live off of someone else’s faith, you must have your own. Yet that faith must be a biblically accurate faith. Trusting anyone or anything other than Jesus is not true faith, it is following an idol.

Once you establish your faith, build your faith by keeping the God of the Bible as your “focus.” As Hebrews 12:2 reminds us, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith.” Place your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, He is the only way to heaven. (John 14:6)

Keeping our focus upon Jesus with you, Neal