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Key Bible Verse: "I assure you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you" (John 6:53). Bonus Reading:John 6:47–60

A European recalled a conversation he had with a Masai tribesman in Kenya about faith.

The European used a certain word to define the concept of belief. But the tribesman rejected his definition with a snort.

The Masai word the European used simply meant "assent" or "agreement." The tribesman likened this inadequate word to "a white hunter shooting an animal with his gun from a great distance. Only his eyes and his fingers took part in the act."

But true belief, the tribesman said, could be pictured as a pursuing lion: "His nose and eyes and ears pick up the prey. His legs give him the speed to catch it. All the power in his body is involved in the terrible death leap and single blow to the neck with the front paw, the blow that actually kills. And as the animal goes down, the lion envelops it in his arms [Africans refer to the front legs of an animal as its arms], pulls it to himself, and makes it part of himself. This is the way a lion kills. This is the way a man believes. This is what faith is."

Having faith isn't merely being convinced of something; it is the entire being committed to someone.

—Os Guinness in Long Journey Home

My Response: Have I thrown myself on God? Or is my "faith" just mental assent?

Thought to Apply: God never goes back on the man who stakes his all on Him.
—William Barclay (British writer)

Adapted from: Long Journey Home (WaterBrook, 2001).

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Thank you, Jesus, for dying in my place, so that the Father could pardon a rebel like me.

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