Do You Believe?
It’s a simple question…Jesus, and God the Father created the Heavens and the Earth, and each and every one of us, yet there are many who struggle with this simple truth. Everyday, I hear someone or read something where people espouse that if they (Jesus and God the Father) existed, many of today’s challenges would not be happening. People not strong in their knowledge, or faith, reason to themselves that such an assertion makes sense. The problem with this is that God, nor Jesus, ever said they would manage all things.
Read this again…ALL THINGS!
Think about this. God gave us all free will. If God only stepped in when people did something wrong, or evil reared its ugly head, or when critical life affirming decisions had to be made – how would we ever develop our minds? How would we ever grow, mature, love, become aware, gauge value, determine right from wrong? If God did all these things for us, why would we even need minds or hearts – wouldn’t we be quite robotic?
Or let’s say we have partial free will – not what God designed but for argument’s sake let’s go there. So, God allows us to live our lives as we wish but based on the argument that a loving God would never allow evil, God only steps in when something wrong or bad is going to happen. As nonsensical as this sounds, let’s truly think about this! How would you determine right from wrong – what is just not right enough or what is just a little too wrong? Where do you draw the line?
For example, you were talking to your neighbor and he was so excited about the $100 bill he received from his daughter as a gift, but he was heartbroken that he had lost it. Two days later, you see a crisp, in brand-new condition, $100 bill on the ground beneath your bushes. You know it’s probably his…but…you can’t actually prove it, so you keep it and never say a word, because what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him right? Did you steal from him? Did you know it was wrong? Is this also dishonesty or a lie? Is this made-up scenario better or worse than robbing a bank or stealing from a retail store?
Where should God step into this scenario. Should he punish the bank robber or retail thief … BUT … not the $100 dollar bill likely thief? Should God send a lightning bolt to kill all three “thieves” in these scenarios, or help the authorities to arrest them, or possibly should he only keep them out of heaven?
Let’s be honest, there are a lot of things we think are wrong that others do not. And not all of them involve breaking laws, hurting others, or causing chaos in someone’s lives. So where would you draw the line? Our people are so very different, our cultures are so very different, our environments are so very different, that having such expectations for God is nearly impossible and quite frankly a bit unfair.
The simple truth of this, the truth the non-believers don’t want to acknowledge, is that God had to give us all free will. Free will to seek knowledge, to travel, to love, to work at careers, to develop lasting and memorable friendships, to battle challenges, to think through difficult times, decisions, scenarios, and yes to make mistakes – to know right from wrong.
Thanks to God - We are, in many many cases, what we want to be. Not because we are smarter or dumber, stronger or weaker, bigger or smaller, more or less aware, but because God gave us abilities to be any and all of these things. He gave us a mind and he gave us a heart. But most importantly, He gave us a map and a guide to be able to live the life he designed us for – the Bible and Jesus. He loves us, made us in His image, and He will never leave us nor forsake us.
I saw a Face book ad the other day which started with a quote from a child. It said: “Jesus is fake, Grandma!” Many in Science and so-called Higher Education will tell you this is true. But what’s funny about these people is that more of them have converted to Christianity than not. The more these folks’ study and research the evidence, the more they convert their beliefs. I researched this myself and over 200 of the most vocal non-believers each converted to believers simply by researching the true evidence of God and Jesus existence. Some of the more notable converts include C.S Lewis, Salvador Dali, Lee Strobel, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
To me this is not all that surprising. Just stop and look around you…AND…give some serious thought to everything you see and how it came to be. Do you think it’s evolution? Look at the facts. Yes, micro evolution makes some sense how animals adapt to their surroundings. But there is no evidence of Macro-evolution. Man did not evolve from apes and there’s significant evidence to prove this.
What about the trees, the animals, and all of the nature that surrounds us? Do you truly think that such incredible diversity, complexity, color, and beauty just happened to develop with no rhyme nor reason? Look at the hummingbird, or birds in general. The creatures in the lakes and seas, the many cool and exotic plants, the colorful flowers and blooming trees. Yes, today man can cross pollinate and breed various tree and flower types, but where did the first ones come from…the ones created before mankind?
Even in Jesus day, there was obviously doubt that He was the son of God and that He was God Himself. Those whom He spoke to, those that followed Him, and those who saw Him, knew and believed. But even when He was crucified, doubt crept into some of their lives. The Apostle John was the first to truly believe. When told of Jesus tomb being empty, the Sunday following His crucifixion, John ran to the tomb and immediately upon finding Jesus body gone, he knew. He returned to tell all of Jesus followers and they were amazed and elated, except for Thomas. Thomas would not believe until he saw the resurrected Jesus. Then Jesus did reveal Himself to Thomas and all doubts were gone.
The last and most obvious evidence to me is the human body, which functions with such incredible complexity that our medical people still don’t know the how’s and why’s of everything in the body. Anti-bodies, proteins, hemoglobin, testosterone, estrogen, capillaries, nerves. How we taste, how we hear, how we see, and how we touch. How our eyes can see a rainbow of colors when light passes through water droplets in the air. How we get chills when it’s cold or…better yet…when we think of scary or painful things.
More than anything, how a human caring or loving touch, hug, kiss, warm embrace, makes us feel warm inside, comfortable, at peace. How this feeling sends a signal to the brain and then back to our hearts to feel all these things…to feel truly loved!!!
I often think that many in society are very much like Thomas. They love God and the thoughts of Jesus, but they don’t believe they exist any longer because they cannot see, or feel, or touch them. But surely there is no question they exist based on all the facts and evidence.
Do you believe?
Can you believe without seeing Jesus or God? The evidence is overwhelming. There is absolutely no doubt…simply look around at all that surrounds you or look within yourself. The evidence is in our hearts … and … it is right before our eyes.
EPILOGUE:
I found this well written article which I thought you might enjoy. Written by Tim Barnett in January of 2018 for Stand to Reason, a Clear-Thinking Christianity web site. It’s called: “Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen and yet Believe.” You can read it at this link: https://www.str.org/w/blessed-are-those-who-have-not-seen-and-yet-believe