Faith is defined as, “complete trust in someone or something”. In reference to God faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance that Jesus Christ is working, even though we cannot see it and in most cases cannot prove it. In today’s world people are constantly trying to “prove” or “disprove” God. People of all persuasions are arguing over proof of the existence of God and Jesus Christ. We all get caught up in it, yet the Bible and Jesus explicitly tell us to just have faith and believe. I pretty much decided years ago to have complete trust and confidence in Jesus. As the blind man, that was healed by Jesus, said when asked how Jesus restored his vision, “all I know was that I was blind and now I can see”. That is exactly how it is with my faith. I can’t really explain it. All I know is I was blind to Jesus and now I can see that he is the Way, The Truth and the Life.

John 14:6 -…… Jesus answered, “I am The Way and The Truth and The Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

I don’t think people like themselves much these days. They are trying to find love and acceptance in all the wrong places. They reach out for love and acceptance thru drugs, bad relationships and the new phrase “just look at me now”. I recently heard a wonderful song by Rachael Lampa and Toby Mac that addresses this dilemma. The song ‘Perfectly Loved” starts out with the line, “who says you are not beautiful”. It goes on with references to not belonging, never finding love, little lies, etc. Basically just not being enough. We hear this all the time today in hundreds of different ways. The answer is Jesus—-and his perfect love. The love of God is perfect. We have always been perfectly loved. Even when we “don’t see it or feel it. We are not a problem or a mistake. We don’t need fixing or solving in the arms of God’s Grace.” We need to believe that every single moment we are perfectly loved by God our creator through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Do something nice to yourself today. Listen to the song “Perfectly Loved”.

The dream of Jesus is the Kingdom of God. Jesus hopes and wants us to be a part of this dream. We constantly make choices that are for Jesus or against Jesus and His dream. He calls us into being a faith community characterized by unity without uniformity. Writer Brenda Manning reminds us that Jesus is the Way and the Light, but his light is refracted in countless ways by multiple personalities. There is so much that we don’t understand about Jesus but we need to believe in Him and have faith that he is the true God.

Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight.

Jesus Christ is the most important, inspiring and interesting man who has ever lived. Following are two Bible passages that give us insight on who he is…..

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

John 1:14 – The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

So as the Bible tells us, this Jesus that many of us claim to be exactly who he says he is and others that do not believe in, left us with an amazing book (The Bible) about his birth, life and death while he was on this earth. He shook mankind to his very core when he was living 2,000 years ago and shakes us to our core even today. He is the way and the truth and can make our lives far better and as writer Dallas Willard says, anyone can utilize this. Some will not accept Jesus,, some will not want to change for Jesus, and some will think they can’t afford to change for Jesus . But the promise of Salvation and an extraordinary life are just waiting to be had.

I’m onboard……How about you?

In the Bible scripture John 14:6 Jesus says that He is the “Way and the Truth”. This is not debatable. Jesus is the Truth. So when He says the way I love others is a direct reflection of how I love myself. Jesus is speaking the Truth. Author James Bryan Smith writes, “If I am ruthless with myself, exact with my judgement and prone to condemn myself, I will be the same towards others”. I 100 percent agree. This scripture is about loving our neighbors and it is the Truth. Most people don’t get the important part—–love yourself. People today don’t like themselves. The don’t think they are enough. They hate others because they really hate themselves. OUCH!!! In the Bible Jesus says over and over again that He accepts us just as we are. He forgives us over and over and over again. There is no limits to His love for us. When one starts to accept this ( and there will be moments of doubt) they will begin to see a change in the way they deal with others. I personally have been greatly affected by this. The Serenity Prayer says to take this sinful world as Jesus did, as it is, and not as I would have it. And that is what I am trying to do. Take people as they are, broken like me. I continually remind myself that everybody counts or nobody counts. Thank you Jesus, may I love my neighbor as myself today and everyday.

Mark 12:31 – …..love your neighbor as yourself.

How did we get to this point that it is almost taboo to talk about or even say the name of Jesus outside the Church. We are told that we can’t or should not talk about Jesus at our schools, our workplace or even public places in general. If a person on the street corner or large gathering of people is holding a sign proclaiming John 3:16 most people think he is a “religious nut”. I have been there and seen it. Many, many people do not believe Jesus ever existed. They think He is a fantasy or a myth. They want proof! So we run around writing books proving Jesus is God. Funny thing is…..this is Not what Jesus wants. He doesn’t want someone building a “case for Jesus”. He wants us to take a chance on Him. He does not want us to lean on our own understanding. He wants us to be like the blind man who proclaimed, after Jesus healed him, “all I know was I was blind and now I can see”. He wants us to take a leap of faith. He wants us to turn caution to the wind and just believe. If we are waiting for definite 100 percent proof that Jesus and the Bible are 100 percent true then we will not be saved by his amazing grace. Take a chance on the most amazing and inspirational person of all time…..Jesus.

Proverbs 3:5 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding….

The word “Amazing” does not do Jesus justice. In fact, no word in the English language does justice to Jesus. The Bible says, “Jesus is greater than our hearts and He knows everything……1John 3:20. Jesus has chosen to accept what we deem unacceptable. The parts of us that cause us shame do not shame Jesus. Christian writer James Bryan Smith write, “Here is the Good News: Even if we feel condemned by our own hearts, God is greater than our hearts.” Amazing Grace! I believe this 100% Everyday I feel I am not enough, I feel like I’m not living up to Jesus’s standards. I feel lacking. I measure myself up against others. I am not good enough. Basically I pick on myself. I have never liked being “picked on” by others, but then I “pick on” myself. At times I feel deep shame and condemn myself. Then I remind myself that Jesus does not. So if Jesus accepts me then this should lead to self-acceptance. Easy to say, but hard to do. I need to be reminded every day that Jesus accepts me with the promise that I will never be unacceptable to him. Thus I need to do the same for myself.

PRAYER: Jesus, if my heart condemns me, please remind me that I am accepted by you.

We all need to believe in ourselves and our dreams. We cannot let others define us. We need to stop thinking we are not good enough. We need to stop obsessing about our faults. We need to get up every morning and praise God for the day He has given us. God does not make mistakes. He is perfect and wants us to believe that someday we will be in His Kingdom and be happy, fulfilled and at peace. Nothing in this world can compare to heaven with King Jesus. For now, believe in yourself. Believe that you have purpose and meaning in your life and live believing the Jesus loves you unconditionally with a Grace that defies all understanding. God Bless You.

Mark 9:23 – ” If you can?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes”.

Most inspirational pre-game speeches by coaches to their players, if not all, are aimed at getting the players to believe in themselves. I think this is the same problem for all of us. We don’t truly believe in ourselves. We doubt our abilities to get it done. We are not 100% all in. Jesus says the same for those that have faith in him. Remember the “faith of a mustard seed speech”. We do doubt and Jesus knows this. He doesn’t condemn us for our doubting (ask Thomas). Rather he continues to love us unconditionally. Thank you Jesus. Because of Jesus (not me) I am a better person everyday. All of who I am I owe to Jesus.. I believe that Jesus is the Way and Truth, even when I fail in my actions. Jesus is my Lord and Savior. My identity is in Jesus. Amen

Matthew 17:20-21 – “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move: and nothing will be impossible for you.”