Tuesday, April 5, 2016
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No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the
world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When
I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in
me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them
are the ones who love me. And because
they love me, my Father will love them. And
I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.” John
14:19-21(NLT)
In the years
Jesus walked with and taught his disciples they’d learned so much, particularly
during the “huddles”. Huddle times were when
they would gather together at the end of day, and Jesus would reveal to them understanding
of what they’d seen and heard that day. They
would ask him questions while the evening fire crackled, and their minds were slowly
being shaped and prepared for service in the kingdom.
Perhaps none
of these evenings was more important than their final huddle. Jesus was more than clear as he shared the
Last Supper with his disciples; his death was not the end of things, but the
beginning of a new life that would open the reality of God’s forgiveness for
all people.
He said these
few, cataclysmic statements:
1. I am going to
die, but I will live again – and that’s your future too.
2. My
resurrection will open your understanding.
3. Throw your
life in with mine and know the love of my Father…I won’t hold anything back
from you.
For the “uninitiated,”
those who have not placed their faith in Jesus, many of his statements and
actions are difficult to understand. But
it was designed to be that way, because, in the final analysis, faith operates
absent of empirical evidence.
Just ask
Thomas!
After the
resurrection, when Jesus appeared to the disciples, Thomas wasn’t there. When he was told Jesus was alive, Thomas said:
I won’t believe it unless I
see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand
into the wound in his side. John 20:25b(NLT)
And that’s
how most of us are deep inside; how can you take such an important thing on
faith alone? The answer, of course, even
for those of us who have hung around church for a long time and been privy to
the huddles, is:
You say you won’t believe
until you see;
But you won’t see until you believe!
And so it is
with everything Jesus taught in the final huddle with his disciples; when you
begin to believe, by choosing to believe, you also begin to see and experience
the love of the Father – firsthand. It
is then – and only then – you begin to understand enough to know
deep inside that it’s all true. And
then, you don’t need anything else, or anyone else to convince you – your empirical
evidence is beating and breathing from within.
A step of
faith in Christ leads to deeper faith in Christ, which leads to a closer walk
with Christ, and the revelation deep inside your soul, of just how much the
Father loves you.
For You Today
Like Jesus said to Thomas on that
day, don’t
be faithless anymore…believe.
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