{"id":42369,"date":"2026-11-12T18:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T01:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?post_type=portfolio&p=42369"},"modified":"2026-11-12T18:36:45","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T01:36:45","slug":"2026-faith","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2026-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith for the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the 11 books of the Ketuvim \u2014\u201cWritings\u201d in Hebrew\u2014Proverbs belongs to the Bible\u2019s wisdom tradition, offering practical and godly guidance for living with faith, integrity, and understanding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Proverbs 3:5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
\nand lean not on your own understanding<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like so many during the Holocaust, there was a woman who witnessed her entire family being taken away to the gas chambers of the death camps. And like so many, she was the only one in her family to survive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After the war ended and the camps were liberated, the woman made her way to America, where she married and looked forward to starting a family. But twelve years passed, and the woman remained childless. At one appointment, her doctor said to the woman, \u201cI\u2019m telling you this for your own good: Give up! You will never have a child. It\u2019s time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman left the doctor\u2019s office understandably depressed. She boarded a bus, but when her stop came, she didn\u2019t get off. She spent the whole day on that bus in a state of despair until the driver informed her that the day was done, and she had to get off.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen lady,\u201d said the bus driver. \u201cI don\u2019t know what your problem is, but you\u2019re not going to solve it by staying on this bus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman got off the bus and prayed quietly, \u201cGod, You were with me all along. You saved my life countless times. You brought me here. You let me start my life over, and so it is in Your hands. I have no right to give up. The bus driver is absolutely right\u2014You didn\u2019t save my life for me to live on this bus. I won\u2019t stop serving You no matter what and I also won\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

One year later, the woman had a baby. And by the time the she passed away at a ripe old age, she was the grandmother and great-grandmother to many more children.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In Proverbs we read: \u201cTrust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding<\/em>.\u201d The original Hebrew reveals a deeper understanding of this verse\u2014instead of \u201cTrust in the LORD<\/em>,\u201d it literally reads, \u201cTrust toward the LORD.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Jewish sages, this anomaly teaches us that our faith in God cannot live in the past. Rather, our trust in God must be propelled toward the future. We have to use our past experiences of God\u2019s providence to build a future based on faith.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s all look to a good future that is perfectly created by our faithful God.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the 11 books of the Ketuvim \u2014\u201cWritings\u201d in Hebrew\u2014Proverbs belongs to the Bible\u2019s wisdom tradition, offering practical and godly guidance for living with faith, integrity, and understanding. Proverbs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":42372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-42369","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/42369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/42369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42374,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/42369\/revisions\/42374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42369"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=42369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}