Have you ever felt like your faith looks like a caricature of the real thing?  Sometimes our faith seems flimsy or fake.  It doesn't always hold up under stressful circumstances.    When we realize that our faith isn't always what we hope it would be, we have an opportunity to change the way we think about faith.  Our text for this week gives us just such an opportunity.

This week we continue in our series on Romans entitled Live By Faith with a discussion of faith lived out.  In chapter 4, Paul presents his audience with a prime example of a life of faith from the Old Testament: Abraham.  Paul's audience would have been very familiar with Abraham, and they would have paid close attention to Paul's use of Abraham's example (you can read about Abraham's experiences in Genesis 12-25).  Abraham's faith wasn't perfect, yet it was "credited to him as righteousness."  Why?  How?  Let's explore this important topic together.