Timber Wolf Chapel Talk Summaries:Talks that BCS students heard from teachers and local area pastors during their time on the Upper School orientation retreat at Timber Wolf in 2026.
Obstacles to Obedience
When God first called Abram to separate himself everything familiar, he was a family-surrounded, idol-worshiping, and old man, and the biblical text gives us no reason to think that Abram was looking for a reason to leave Ur. Yet leave he did. Later, when God called Abraham again to separate himself from family by sacrificing his own son, Isaac, the emotional and mental obstacles to obeying God must have been great, yet Abraham did obey. The author of Hebrews tells us that what enabled Abraham to obey God both at the beginning of his relationship with God and throughout his relationship with God was faith: “By faith Abraham obeyed” (Hebrews 11:8).
Faith, Obedience, and the Jelly Donut
The external obedience that Abraham showed is evidence of the internal faith. Today we represent this truth with the phrase “actions speak louder than words.” We intuitively know that a person who says that he believes eating healthfully is important and who says that he believes jelly donuts are a bad dietary choice but who snatches multiple jelly donuts from the donut table every time he passes by does not actually believe the things he says he believes. Abraham’s actions gave evidence that he truly believed and trusted God. Do yours?
Faith and Apple-Nailing
Sometimes when we discover a disconnect between what we say we believe and what we do, we try to remedy this simply by changing our behavior—often when our behavior is visible to others. We buy apples from the market and staple them to our dead apple tree so that the tree appears to others to have fruit. But what our dead apple tree needs is not stapled apples but new life flowing through its trunk so that it produces its own fruit from this new life. Abraham’s obedience was not merely external obedience but it was the obedience of faith—“by faith Abraham obeyed”—and it was this faith-filled obedience that earned Abraham the title “Father of the Faithful” (Romans 4:11-12).
Application
Faith means trusting God the way Abraham did—both at the beginning of his journey and on every day thereafter. It means trusting God more than our eyes can see, even when there is risk and danger to ourselves. It means that we show our trust through obedience and that this obedience flows from genuine new spiritual life flowing through our veins. Is this the kind of faith that characterizes you? If not, put your faith in God today. Obey God. Pray and fight to believe God with all your heart. And let the obedience of faith be evident not only in the “big” tests of life but even in the mundane and unnoticed moments of loving and serving others well today.