SUFFERING

"...that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”  (1 Corinthians 11:23-24)

"When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him... "  (Luke 24:30-31)

 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me..." (Psalm 23:4)

"And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."   (Luke 22:44)  

"...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings..."   (Philippians 3:10)

It seems from the above scriptures, there is something very significant about suffering.  

Of course in this world...and often even in the church...suffering is avoided, downplayed, and even used - what a travesty - as evidence that one does not have enough faith.

That is not what is being told us in these scriptures. 

As the two Emmaus travelers were leaving Jerusalem, where Jesus had just been severely mocked, beaten, and then brutally crucified on the cross for OUR Sin...so that WE could have a relationship with God again (Romans 5:10)...they talked (Luke 24:13-34).  They talked and walked.  And as they walked toward Emmaus, the risen Jesus joined them.  But they did not recognize Him.  They could not see that it was Him. 

They did not see Him in the walking and talking.  (verses 13-16)

They did not see Him in the instruction Jesus spoke to them.  (verses 25-27)

They did not recognize Him through the informal invitation to their home.  (verses 28-29)

It wasn't until he broke the bread...symbolic of the agony He went through on the cross...a representation of unimaginable suffering...that they saw Him...that they recognized Him...that they knew Him. 

There's something about suffering that can bring us into a deeper fellowship with Jesus. 

Granted we can certainly see Him "on the mountaintops"...during the free flowing times.  Several of the disciples sure did - in ALL His glory - when they followed him up a literal mountain:

 

"Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.  Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here...'"  (Matthew 17:1-4)

Unfortunately, the radiance reflected from Jesus experienced while being with him during the good times - those that are less challenging and more defined by light-heartedness and laughter - can suddenly become a potent, all-consuming light that blinds us into thinking that it is the person or the experience which is bringing us the fulfillment (2 Corinthians 11:14)...that is casting the glow of glory...thus pulling us ever-so-subtly from the true Source, Jesus, to focus on the "good times," which were never meant to be that which completely satisfies (Hebrews 12:2).  To be enjoyed by us, yes.  To be thankful for, definitely.  To fulfill us absolutely?  Positively and absolutely: no (Deuteronomy 5:6-8). 

In the harder times - those situations that rip at our minds (hmmm, sounds like what happened to Jesus's flesh when he was being flogged with spiked whips), tear at our hearts, and/or cause us to feel like we are dying (hmmm, like on a cross...?) - it is much more difficult to be deceived into praising and "worshiping" the external circumstances.  Oh, we can be tricked into thinking other wrong things, such as that we are being unjustly punished or that God has abandoned us, but very rarely will someone look to his or her suffering and say, "YOU are what I worship, YOU are what completes me, YOU are my god...".  Instead, other options arise.  For those who have not yet known Jesus (and still for many of us who do: I'm speaking for myself!), there is avoidance of the suffering, downplaying it, escaping from it (goodness knows there are many ways to do that these days), cursing it, complaining about it (BINGO for me!)...and the list goes on.  But for the two men on the road to Emmaus, and for countless Christians today, theirs is a glorious alternative:

In the midst of their suffering (or for the two on the road, through a symbol of suffering), they recognize Jesus...they truly "know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings...".  And if it means anything to any lover-of-words and their original meanings (StudyLight.org): the original word (transliterated) for "recognize" ("epiginosko": Luke 24:31) and "know" ("ginosko": Philippians 3:10) both contain or are comprised of the Greek word "ginosko," which means to become thoroughly acquainted with, to know thoroughly, and is even referred to as the Jewish idiom for intercourse between a man and a woman: something that was meant to be an amazing supernatural union between a husband and wife, and which is also a representation-of-love between Jesus the Messiah and His Bride, the Human Church (Ephesians 5:25-32).   How far we have fallen...

 

Those men on the road to Emmaus were not given the opportunity to recognize Jesus...to have their eyes opened to Who He Was (and still Is) until He broke the bread...which is what He did prior to His crucifixion... which was a symbol of His own suffering. 

 

Jesus can be known more deeply and intimately in our own suffering...if we let Him open our eyes to Him in it. 

 

One more thing: how wonderful that even before considering above the relationship between husband and wife...Christ and His Bride... an amazing example of a real follower of Jesus, someone who had come to recognize (epiginosko) and truly know (ginosko) Jesus, and her response to impending, intense suffering came to mind.  Please indulge yourselves (and me) by reading this one last thing:      

"One of our workers in the Underground Church was a young girl.  The Communist police discovered that she secretly spread Gospels and taught children about Christ.  They decided to arrest her.  But to make the arrest as agonizing and painful as they could, they decided to delay her arrest a few weeks, until the day she was to be married.  On her wedding day, the girl was dressed as a bride - the most wonderful, joyous day in a girl's life!  Suddenly, the door burst open and the secret police rushed in.

When the bride saw the secret police, she held out her arms toward them to be handcuffed.  They roughly put the manacles on her wrists.  She looked toward her beloved, then kissed the chains and said, 'I thank my heavenly Bridegroom for this jewel He has presented to me on my marriage day.  I thank Him that I am worthy to suffer for Him.'  She was dragged off, with weeping Christians and a weeping bridegroom left behind.  They knew what happens to young Christian girls in the hands of Communist guards..." (Tortured for Christ, pp. 40-41). 

...yet she knew that her suffering for Truth was because Truth Himself (John 14:6) suffered at the hands of those who did not yet recognize Him as God in the flesh (John 1:14), come down to restore the broken relationship with Him (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)...and she knew, because of that restoration, the One Who would be with her - intimately -  in the midst of the torture...

...she KNEW...

Jesus can certainly be seen, by those who have been given eyes to see (and ears to hear: Isaiah 29:18-19; Matthew 15:31; Mark 4:8-10) in the glad and happy times.  But in the midst of pain and suffering, if we surrender our natural desire to avoid...downplay... escape...curse...and complain about it to Him, He can use it as an opportunity for fellowship, and a way to share in a deeper understanding of that through which He walked on behalf of the Father...for our sakes.  ...who for the joy set before Him endured the cross... (Hebrews 12:2).  Yes, we can see His glow in the good times; but both naturally and supernaturally, light shines even brighter in the darkness. 

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light...  (Ephesians 5:8)

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison... (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

(And for a multitude of examples of those in "real time" who knew Jesus clearly in their suffering, please, please bless yourselves with a free copy of Reverend Richard Wurmbrand's Tortured for Christ on this link - middle of the page).

May I now be empowered to live what I write...and may you who claim to know Jesus be enabled to do the same in the midst of your own suffering.  God bless you.

In His Love,  
Terri

 

Crossing from Death to Life

"God did not come to make bad people good; God came to make dead people alive..." 

This was a quote I heard yesterday on a radio show called "Let My People Think" hosted by Ravi Zacharias (www.rzim.org).  I couldn't help BUT think: How true, how true, how incredibly and awesomely true this is...

There are many who are totally lost right now who do not even give a second (or first) thought to God's Presence NOW; and as part of that Reality, to why He even bothered to MANifest as a man who lived and died as we do, minus the horrid disease of sin coursing through his holy blood.  And probably even more amazingly: why the supernatural rising from the dead?  Why?  But for those who don't think that these questions (and answers) are relevant or critical to their lives: they are sorely and tragically and FATALLY mistaken.  The fact that God did not come to make bad people good, but dead people alive applies...to...us...all. 

God did not come to make bad people good...

Although one result of being made spiritually alive is that behaviors, attitudes, and perspectives may gradually seem to be becoming kinder, gentler, and more in line with moral and ethical truths (Galatians 5:22-23; although the standard for these and other Jesus-like qualities are plummeting even as I type), that was not the reason Jesus came.  Even Jesus Himself, the One Who was tempted time and again but never turned His eyes or heart away from God (John 5:19-20), rebuked those who referred to Him as "good":  As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone." (Mark 10:17-18)  So if even Jesus would not accept this description, why would it be thought that God's purpose was to make us the very thing that even the Son of God would not consider Himself: "good"?  This has become a misconception that has caused many problems amongst Believers and non-Believers alike: for those who have actually received the New Life imparted by the Holy Spirit (second part of quote), the idea that perhaps they should now be "good" (but find themselves still struggling with "the bad" within: even the devoted Apostle Paul cried out about that!  Romans 7:18-19, 24-25) leaves them trying too hard to put on a face, perhaps feeling defeated, and looking more and more on themselves and how they appear than on the shining Face of God.  For those who are currently rejecting God's offer of a New Spiritual and Eternal Life, they, in their mortality, can look on Believers and shout "Hypocrites!" when they see the still-existing "bad behaviors," thus giving them that much more excuse to continue in their deadness. 

 

But... 

 

God did not come to make bad people good...

...God came to make dead people alive!

Remember Pinocchio?  I always love referring to this!  (Plus I have a special relative who happens to love the story of Pinocchio...).  Pinocchio was a wooden puppet...dead in essence one could say...and quite mischievous!  But then due to his sacrificial love for and rescue of his maker, Geppetto, he is transformed into a Real Live human...given Real Life instead of dead wood inside.  THAT is what God came to do: although it was by HIS sacrificial love for US that we have been rescued from being dead, rotting "wood" (Job 13:28; Ephesians 4:22) and given a Life that is promised to become increasingly beautiful (2 Corinthians 3:17-18; 1 John 3:2 - by HIS beauty) and is ultimately Eternal (truly living in His Presence: in heaven AND here too).  Wow, that's a big difference from thinking that God came just to polish us up some. 

Dead wood can never be polished; it must be replaced. 

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.  (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

Oh if only EVERYONE COULD HEAR AND UNDERSTAND THIS!!!  Oh if only I could truly "hear" and digest and live in this Reality all of the time!!!  THIS IS GOD TALKING!  And although there are many beautiful analogies throughout His Word that describe the process of making dead people alive (scales falling from eyes, the blind can see, circumcision of the heart, a second birth), this PROMISE right here is what reveals outright what God intends to and actually does through the Life of His Son Jesus (once believed and received by someone).  This is no metaphor here for being made a good person...this is an offered action on God's part to be given the chance to be made an ALIVE person: yes, one who more and more DESIRES the good, LOVES the good, and who is ultimately given the ability to TRULY and SELFLESSLY carry out the good...but TRULY ALIVE...not just dead and "good."

One can disbelieve, but that does not make it untrue.  We are all born dead (Ephesians 2:1-5; Colossians 2:11-15).  Kicking a little and screaming, yes; but spiritually dead.  Bob Dylan sings it correctly when he exclaims:

I was blinded by the devil
Born already ruined
Stone-cold dead
As I stepped out of the womb

By His grace I have been touched
By His word I have been healed
By His hand I have been delivered
By His spirit I Have been sealed...

I've been saved
By the blood of the lamb  ("Saved" from the album Saved, 1980)

To say God came in human form to live, die, but then be brought back to life simply to make us good people is so underestimating, minimizing, and actually tragic that it almost defies belief...but this IS what many think...if they think about it at all....

 

...No, God came to make spiritually dead people (which is all of us) alive.  In fact, He came to do the very thing that HE did thousands of years ago: He came so that we may ourselves emerge from the tomb of our dead, rotting natural selves ("wood") into New Life - His Resurrected Life-in-us: one that is defined by Perfect Love, Perfect Justice, and Perfect Truth...and that is Eternal and Forever with Him. 

 

"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes...Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."  (John 5: 21, 24)

 

Jesus was raised from the dead so that now we can be too. 

 

In His Wonderful, Transformative, and Life-Giving Name,

Terri

 

Man of the Tombs

(PLEASE hear this song which essentially describes all that was shared above; and, in one way or another, applies to us all)

IN our selves, but not OF our selves...

"I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."  (John 17:14-16)

Four times during this portion of Jesus's prayer to the Father just prior to His crucifixion, Jesus makes the supernatural distinction between Himself and His followers, and the world: They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Today, many who are disciples of the risen Jesus have either heard or probably used the phrase themselves of being "IN the world, but not OF it." 

So briefly, what does it mean to be IN something but not OF it; in this case, the world?  Please share your thoughts,  but what this means to me is that one may be existing within a particular environment or  in certain surroundings but not bear the same characteristics of those surroundings...not share the same overarching philosophies of that environment...not walk in the same "way" of that world.  

Soooooo...based on that definition, it occurred to me that as Believers, we can, should, and need to also apply that saying to ourselves:

We are IN our selves, but not OF our selves...

One of the biggest tragedies that occurred when Adam and Eve chose to listen to satan rather than believe God's care for them (Genesis 3:1-6) was an ushering into the world of yes, Sin, but as a result of Sin the unleashed "terror" of being imprisoned by self-focus:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.  (Genesis 3:7)

Can you even imagine?!  Prior to them being made aware of their nakedness, and thus their vulnerability, Adam and Eve probably walked in a way that we will never know (apart from a supernatural release - Isaiah 61:1): without that ongoing, gnawing, yet automatic "pull" toward self-knowledge, self-gratification, self-preservation...

Yet once our eyes are opened (a second time!) to the Reality of Jesus and the Truth that He can and will send His Spirit to live within us (Galatians 4:6), we have the opportunity to begin being set free from the prison of self-focus; that is, being OF our selves.  If you'll bear with me a few moments longer, please let me explain using God's Word, how we CAN in fact be IN our selves but not OF our selves this side of heaven.  

We are IN ourselves:

We are still fragile creatures, flesh and bone -- that is the individual "environment" or "surroundings" which we inhabit...

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 
(2 Corinthians 4:7)

I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh...  (2 Corinthians 10:2)

whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.   (James 4:14)

This "earthen vessel," this "flesh" that we inhabit, is but a vapor and is a fragile bundle of desires, feelings, emotions, thoughts, and resulting actions.  Without Jesus living within, not only do we live IN this package, but we bear the characteristics of it...succumb to whatever philosophies happen to sound good to "it"...and walk primarily in a direction based on the "guidance" of those thoughts, feelings, and emotions...we are both IN and OF our selves.  In fact, due to being of one's self as well as in it we in essence are prisoners of that self; and like Adam and Eve, our eyes are automatically directed first and foremost to that self. 

but not OF ourselves:

For those who have received Jesus, we no longer have to bear the characteristics of that fallen flesh, that creature who responds so easily to cravings, emotions, desires and the like...some good and others not so.  For there is now One Who is living within us Who has "adopted" our environment and intends to do some house cleaning to it!  And this so that we can soon bear the likeness of Him...He Who was and is totally surrendered and selfless (1 John 3:2-3, 16). 

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.   (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.   (Galatians 2:20)

 

For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.  (2 Corinthians 3:4)

 

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.   (2 Corinthians 4:16)

That inner man is "Christ in us, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:26-27) and is He of Whom we can now be "of" -- bearing His characteristics (e.g., Galatians 5:22-23); believing in the ULTIMATE Truth which is the Reality of His Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6, 14-16; Matthew 22:32; John 17:3); and walking in His most excellent way, which brings us closer and closer to Perfect Love (1 Corinthians 13).  Satan wants us to focus on what/who we are IN ourselves - the part that is wasting away, sometimes losing heart, the fragile vessel that is affected by feelings, emotions, and circumstances.  But now, because of the Holy Spirit within, we can slowly have our eyes turned to the One we are now OF: the One Whose Life is being renewed within us daily, the One whose strength compensates for that fragile vessel's weakness, and the One Whose Power and Love have been given to those who believe.  It is this same One, Jesus the Messiah, by His Holy Spirit, Who reminds us:  

 

You are OF GOD, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world...  (1 John 4:4)

May we BELIEVE this Truth and LOOK TO AND LIVE AS the One Whom we are now OF.  

(And man, do I pray this for myself too...)

In His Precious and Mighty Name,
Terri

Glory to the Reality of Jesus!

Hello.  Oh what a luxury it is to be able to read God's Living Word and to be able to worship and "hear" Him and "feel" His Presence in the midst of it all!  We need to NEVER be deceived that ANYTHING else can nourish us as we need to be nourished other than by God's Holy Spirit - His Eternal Flame - let all else upon which we "try" to feed ourselves become like chaff or straw so that we can be brought to that necessary place of hunger for that which ONLY God can give...

 

"Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

 

“But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.
He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness.

 

“Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem
Will be pleasant to the Lord...
(Malachi 3:1-4)

 

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:...  (Matthew 1:1)

 

Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament and precedes Matthew, the first book in the New Testament, which lays out the arrival of our Messiah on earth.  And oh what a smooth flow it is from one to the other. 

In Malachi chapter 3 (above), God so clearly announces His intentions to send His Son, our necessary sacrifice and Savior, to rescue us from our hearts turning from our Creator, our God. 

Prior to chapter 3, God laments about and severely rebukes the priests, those who were specially appointed to represent Him to the people.  To speak His Truth to them....(Malachi 2:1-2, 7-9).

No doubt, there are worse-than-critical problems in the institution called "the church" these days: that which, under the leadership of elders and deacons, is supposed to likewise be a place where congregants can come and feed on the Word of God...to truly hear from God Himself...to be set free by His Words of Truth (John 8:31-32).  We have come a far cry from the time when David spoke about how he delighted in the law of God (Psalm 119:174) and how the Truth flowing from God's Word enabled one to truly hear (Romans 10:17) and to be freed from the lies and deceptions of this world and of the enemy, satan (1 John 2:15-17; John 8:43-45; Acts 9:17-18).  We are receiving, overall, what Bob Dylan would call a "Watered Down Love" when those who claim to be spokespersons for God become captivated by the world and lured by satan and offer a message not of Truth, but what congregants' (fleshy and old-natured) itching ears want to hear...which amounts to nothing at best, poison to our souls at worst (2 Timothy 4:2-4). 

 

But this is a whole other story...or devotional...and one that is thankfully coming out more and more through solid Christian sources who both see and know the need for us to hear the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing BUT the Truth. 

 

Yet I believe that the anger expressed by God in Malachi extends to all of His Creation (not just the leaders in the church) for choosing to or allowing ourselves to be deceived into worshiping - giving our lives to - everything and everyone else but Him (Matthew 16:25-26)...the One Who Loves us with a love greater than we could ever understand (John 15:13), and Who would...and did...die for us...(Romans 5:8).

 

...which is right where the beginning of Malachi chapter 3 comes in! 

 

The "Messenger of the covenant (promise)"...the "He" who "is coming"...is the Son of God, Jesus, Himself!  Sent not just to die for the whole world and then to just leave it just like that, but to rise again in order to be able to come live within (by His Spirit) those off of whose eyes the scales fall and as a result are able to see their need for a refining of their hearts...a purging of the yuck within...a need for a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27).  And who realize that anything we think we have on our own merits to offer God is really like "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6) compared to His Holiness and Beauty...and that we somehow need a "new righteousness" as well...one that can come only from and through and in Jesus...(Romans 3:21-26; 2 Corinthians 5:21):

 

For He is like a refiner's fire

And like launderer's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver;

He will purify the sons of Levi, (He will purify us...)

And purge them as gold and silver, (He will purge us...)

That they may offer to the Lord

An offering in righteousness.

 

"Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem

Will be pleasant to the Lord...

 

Then we can be reunited with and bask in the Glory and Love of God...

 

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

 

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

 

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 

(Colossians 1:18-22)

 

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:... 

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 

 

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

 

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.  That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

 

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 

 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  (John 1:1-13)

 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God...

 

There is no other way...

 

“But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.
He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness.

 

 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me..."

(John 14:6)

 

"I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."

 

"...except through Me..."

 

In His Eternal and Glorious Love, 

Terri 

Believing...is Seeing

Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”   (John 11:40)

Seeing is believing...

...or is believing seeing...?

In the verse above, Jesus replies to Martha's understandable apprehension to his cry to her to take away the stone that typically sealed off the tomb of a dead person (John 11:38-39).  Yikes!  What could she expect?  Certainly it would be stinky (John 11:39)!  But what else?  This was not the usual way of doing things!!!

But Jesus was not about to do something predictable...He was about to raise Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus from the grave.  He was about to bring life back to the dead...(John 11:41-44)

...but Martha (and the other folks) had to see to believe...(John 11:45)

So what about us?  In fact, Jesus's promise to Martha that if she were to only believe she would see God's glory was not just for her, but for us.  Throughout His time on earth, Jesus emphasized the significance of believing: 

 

Belief leads to answered prayer: "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."  (Mark 11:24)

 

Belief leads to being healed:  But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.”  (Luke 8:50)

 

Belief leads to being able to cast out demons: "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons..."  (Mark 16:17)

 

Belief is what God wants us to do: Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”  (John 6:29)

 

Belief enables us to be reborn as children of the Living God, and therefore reconciled to Him:  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  (John 1:12-13)

 

Belief leads to being saved and having a revived spirit, resulting in an eternal life with God both now and forever...:   For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life...  (John 3:16)

BELIEVE...

 

And interestingly, believing...truly believing...in the Lord...the very first mention of it in God's Holy Word...attributes to the one believing, Abraham in this case, righteousness: not being kind and friendly, not any good works on his part, not doing anything other than believing...(Genesis 15:6).

 

BELIEVE...

 

Another not-accidental fact is that out of the whole Bible, the reference to believing occurs only 41 times in the Old Testament (prior to Jesus' physical arrival on earth); but after Jesus came, then died for us, then rose again for us...the plea or command or reminder to believe occurs 240 times!   As stated above:  NO accident. 

 

BELIEVE...

 

But why should believing (in Jesus) lead to seeing (Jesus)?  Is it our belief - like a child who trusts that a fairy tale is actually real - that conjures Him up or gives Him substance?  Absolutely not.  But it is that same type of almost other-worldly belief that demonstrates a heart inclined toward trusting that what God says is true...that GOD Himself is true, which includes Him sending His Son for us.  It is also that (similar, child-like) belief that recognizes that there is something bigger (and oh so much better) than one's self and this natural world we see only with our five physical senses (Luke 18:16-17).  And lastly, it is that same belief that presents us open-handed before our wonderful and almighty God, offering everything we are and have, not knowing if we will get anything in exchange, but then receiving in return...Life...Life that is renewed, alive, and increasingly FREED from all those things that tie us to our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and circumstances...Life back from the dead (John 5:24).  That is why Jesus said: "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."  (Matthew 16:25) 

 

In the case of Jesus...

 

Believing IS seeing...

 

And yet oh how much help we need to truly believe...in fact, this belief IS "other-worldly" and must be supernaturally given, which is why one man cried out to Jesus with tears:

 

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”  (Mark 9:23-24)

 

So the very thing that Jesus tells us will enable us to see the glory of God...belief...is also that which He offers to develop in us...all we need to do is recognize our desperate need and then ask. 

 

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

 

Do you want to see Jesus? 

 

"Believe" me, there is not a more beautiful sight to behold...

 

...and all you have to do is ask.

 

In His Love,

Terri