Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

New Testament people, we finished our 20th book today, and if you've been with us since Genesis, you just checked off book number 59.

Today we read the chapter some people affectionately referred to as the Faith Hall of Fame

or the Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11.

The author starts out by defining faith for us in verse 1.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.

This is why we'll be faithless someday, like we talked about.

Because what we hoped for and were convinced of will be fully realized and seen and experienced.

This verse also points out an important distinction.

Faith isn't some kind of vague feeling centered on nothing.

Faith isn't good vibes and positive energy.

Faith has a definite object.

The Christian faith is faith in Christ. He is who our faith

hopes for and is convinced of. He is who our faith points toward and rests on, fully. In verse two,

the author starts unpacking information for us about how people in the Old Testament were saved by

faith too. It says, for by it, the people of old received their commendation.

The former generations were commended because of their faith in Christ too, even though they didn't

know his name. They knew Yahweh, the one true God, and Jesus is God. The next several verses

walk us down the hall in chronological order, starting with Abel and walking

us through the stories of the Old Testament, and he even includes a woman for good measure.

Shout out to Sarah. He says he could go on and on listing out the individual stories of faith,

but he doesn't have time to write them all out. He talks about the incredible things they received

...