According to author Frederick Buechner, “Believing in God is an intellectual position. Believing God is something else again. It is less a position than a journey, less a realization than a relationship. It doesn’t leave you cold like believing the world is round. It stirs your blood like believing the world is a miracle.” He goes on to say. “we believe in God when for one reason or another we choose to do so. Eternal life is not the result of believing in. It is the experience of believing.”

I choose to believe in God through Jesus because I believe I am a miracle. We are all miracles. Life is a miracle. you want to see a miracle….look in the mirror. The human body is the greatest miracle in the universe. I believe that. What is going on inside each one of us is beyond explanation. To take it a step further, the creation of a new life inside a mothers womb is really a mystery. The problem with us, we the people, we are so busy doing everything else that we don’t take time to marvel at God’s gift to us…..LIFE.

John 11:27 – Yes Lord I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is come into the world.

A favorite song of mine is “Thank you Lord by Chris Tomlin, Thomas Rhett, and Florida Georgia Line.” Its a upbeat simple song about things to be thankful for. The following lyrics express thankfulness in these words……

The small things….

Blessings on Blessings on Blessings…

for my mamma, for my friends…

for your love that never ends…

for my babies, for my girl…

for the hard times…

for lighting my way in the dark times…

for pulling me in, forgiving again…

for keeping me humble…

for picking me up when I stumble…

and although I change You stay the same…

AND I DON’T SAY THANK YOU ENOUGH…

John 14:6 – I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…..

Its hard to come to terms that we are great sinners. Its hard to admit it. We think we are OK. Think about it, are we really OK. We need to be honest about who we are vs God’s perfect love. I like to compare sin with shooting an arrow at a bullseye. Sin would be missing the bullseye or what is called “the mark”. Sometimes we come close, other times we miss by a lot. Sometimes we miss the entire target….With sin its really the same. Some times we come close(small sin) and other times we miss by a lot(big sin). What we need to understand is a miss is a miss. When we sin, we sin. Jesus died on the cross to forgive us for all our sins….big or small. His extends his unconditional love and grace to us every time we sin. Always, every time. Sounds crazy doesn’t it, but its the truth. Jesus is the Truth. Thank you Lord.

Romans 3:23-24 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. This means that Jesus has paid the debt we owe because of our sin. Therefore when we confess our sins to God, He forgives us.

In the Bible the disciples asked Jesus, “What must we do to do the work God requires”? Jesus answered them by saying, “The work of God is this: To believe in the One he has sent (Jesus)”.

The above is an often asked question by people of the Christian Faith. Many People of Faith and Institutions of Faith value works above all things. So this answer by Jesus is confusing to many people. I believe Jesus wants us to do good works in our lives not as a way to achieve a relationship with God or a way to Heaven, but as a result of “believing in the One He has sent”. So today and everyday focus your faith on believing in Jesus and every word of the Bible and let the good works of God flow from you. AMEN….

John 6: 28-29 – Then they asked Him, “what must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “the work of God is this: to believe in the One he has sent”.

What should we bring to Jesus? How about everything? All that is on our minds and hearts. Singer and songwriter Chris Rice says it best in his song, “Come To Jesus”. He writes to bring our weaknesses and wounds. Bring our burdens and sins and our worries and failures. He reminds us that our way thru this world will sometimes be lonely and filled with pain. And “when the love spills over and music fills the night and when you can’t contain your joy inside”…Then come to Jesus. And when our time here on earth is over then “kiss the world goodbye and go in peace and laugh on glory’s side and fly to Jesus”. Amen and thank you Chris Rice for reminding me of the beauty and greatness of our Lord and Savior…..Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:13 – For everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved

Matthew 11:28 – Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Have you ever felt like there is something going on in this world that is bigger than yourself? Something real and hard to understand. Something to believe in. Something that most people and most institutions get wrong. Well, join the club.

I think most people believe there is a God, but have different ideas as to who He is. Different religions also have different ideas of who God is…but all believe there is a God. Throughout thousands of years books, music, art, etc. have expressed that there is a God in many different ways. My belief is that history and the Holy Bible point to Jesus Christ as God. I also believe that we have been deceived as to who He really is and how He can affect our lives. I believe that Jesus is totally relevant to our lives today. That through Him we can lead purposeful lives filled with meaning. I believe that Jesus loves all of us unconditionally with a grace that is truly amazing and difficult for us to understand and accept. So until next Monday live this week in the grace of Jesus that you and I have done nothing to deserve.

John 1:1 – In the beginning was the word (Jesus) and the word was with God and the word was God.

In sports we talk a lot about events that are “game changers”. In history we also look at events that have changed history. The greatest of these in all of time was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we celebrate as Easter. Many, many, people still don’t get the significance of this event. From a faith and spiritual standpoint the death and resurrection of Jesus was the biggest “game changer” in his and our stories. It ushered in forgiveness, grace and unconditional love for all that call upon the name of the Lord. The song Amazing Grace says it all with these words…” Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found t’was blind but now I see”.

John 11: 25-26……I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

HE HAS RISEN!

In sports we talk a lot about events that are “game changers”. In history we also look at events that have changed history. The greatest of these in all of time was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we celebrate as Easter. Many, many, people still don’t get the significance of this event. From a faith and spiritual standpoint the death and resurrection of Jesus was the biggest “game changer” in his and our stories. It ushered in forgiveness, grace and unconditional love for all that call upon the name of the Lord. The song Amazing Grace says it all with these words…” Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found t’was blind but now I see”.

John 11: 25-26……I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

HE HAS RISEN!

I think most of us ask this question numerous times in our life. But as the world becomes spiritually darker and darker for many reasons, I wonder why people are becoming more and more hateful. Do they really think we are here because of some big cosmic event? Do you believe you are here because of some big cosmic accident or do you believe you were created for a purpose. I most definitively believe that I have been created miraculously by God. I believe that Jesus is God and I will go live with Him in His Kingdom when I pass away from life on this earth. I believe He is the Way and The Truth. I believe in the Holy Bible is the word of God Its all good in the end for those who choose God.

God says you are either for me or against me and there is no middle ground. YOUR CHOICE.

When I came to Jesus He gave me the opportunity to rethink the way I was doing things in my life. The Bible calls this repentance. Repentance is defined as a change of heart towards sin, the world, and God. An inner change that gives rise to new ways of living. Jesus is the Way and the Truth. He has answers for our problems and the challenges of living our lives in this fallen world. He loves us and will not abandon us. We need to come to him and trust that he is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. We need to confess to him our problems and hopes and dreams and he will lead us in his way. Thus, we rethink our life. We turn away from harmful behaviors and our harmful past and look forward everyday to following Jesus and his ways. The greatest psychology book ever written is the Holy Bible. The Bible plus God’s forgiveness and unconditional love can and will lead us to a new and fulfilling future.

Phillipians 3:9 NCV…….Now I am right with God, not because I followed law, but because I believed in Jesus.

God Bless You and have a great week.