SUNDAY, JUNE 12
Scripture: Hebrews 11:4, 2

Hebrews 11:4 says, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” The word translated “witness” is mar-too-reh-o and means ‘a testimony.’ Abel used his faith to offer the best possible sacrifice that was available and as a result, God gave him a witness that he was pleasing in the use of his faith. Mar-too-reh-o is the same word that is used in Hebrews 11:2, “For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” When we use our faith to obey God, it releases from Him a testimony that we have pleased Him. When God lets us know we have pleased Him, almost anything is possible. How we use our faith is very, very important. We can use our faith for our own purposes, or we can use it for God and His Kingdom. Using our faith for God and His Kingdom is what brings the kind of testimony that Hebrews 11 is speaking of. Abraham used his faith on his own flesh and his own purposes to obey God and leave his patriarch and his hometown, even to the point of obediently offering up his own son as sacrifice. That is the kind of faith that pleases God!