'Saving faith' comprises believing, praying, following

My wife and I were privileged this morning to worship with our friends at North Scituate (R.I.) Baptist Church (YouTube), which is led by Pastor Kim Nelson and his wife Nancy.  

I spoke on Mark 11:23, on the subject, "A Higher Faith." I talked about what the verse does not mean—it's neither literal nor a paean to selfishness—and more importantly about what it does mean, a statement about faith in God. The verse instructs that faith comprises believing, praying, and following God's lead.

 

I am grateful to journalist Elizabeth Bruenig, whose Atlantic essay, The Evidence That God Exists (Mar. 26, 2026), inspired my thinking on Mark 11:23, and whom I quoted in the message. And I am grateful, as always, to my friend Eric D'Agostino, who helped me work through the teaching.

I post below the visual elements that accompanied the message: (1) a snippet of C.W.M. van de Velde's 1858 map of the Holy Land, (2) the contemporary Mount of Olives, in a photograph I took in 2011, and (3) Mount Everest, Nepal, in a photograph I took in March, 2026. (My photos CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.)