Believe Or Don't Believe

All I want for people is that they would step into the flow of Yahweh's blessings for their lives. So many people are needlessly suffering from worry, fear, anxiety, sleepless nights, depression, directionlessness, lack of hope and a whole pile of other ailments that do not belong to them. That is not Father's plan for us and it certainly is not the reason Jesus gave his life for us. He gave his life so that we would have life in abundance. We are also making him out to be a liar because he promised us peace.

Obviously all his promises were conditional, based on a relationship of love and obedience. It is a relationship of trust. Jesus promised and we trust that his word is true. But therein lies the problem, people not longer trust the Word. I understand the world but there are far too many Christians that I speak to who say they do not fully believe in the Word of God. How can you not fully believe? It is not something you can divide up into truth, half-truth, lie. Either you believe or you don't. Jesus actually had some words to say about this.

Jesus was explaining his authority, found in John 5:

I do not accept glory from men, but I know you—that you have no love for God within you. (v. 41-42)

Jesus did not care what anyone said about him. It was not a popularity contest. He did not come to seek his own fame or glory but to serve his Father in love. Let's check our own motivation. Are we following the Father's will or are we trying to shape the Word to our own agenda? That's a very good question that most of us fail in answering.

I have come in My Father’s name, yet you don’t accept Me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. (v. 43)

Basic problem here: if a person does not accept Jesus then they can't accept his promises. People will believe the most ridiculous things, such as the stars telling you your future, or that money can really satisfy that deep longing within. Yet, we can't accept that we are all mess ups and our Creator, who created us for himself, would pay the price to bring us back to him. We struggle that the Creator of the entire creation could become part of his creation. It really comes down to this, do we believe Jesus?

How can you believe? While accepting glory from one another, you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God. (v. 44)

Yes, that is the crazy part, we worship people who can play a part on television or in a movie; we worship people who can play an instrument or sing a song; we worship people who can kick a ball, shoot a puck, or swish a hoop, but we can't worship the one who gave us life and has offered us eternal life with him. Looking at it from Jesus' perspective, we are crazy.

Then Jesus brings it down to the simple fact of the matter:

For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe My words? (v. 46-47)

If we don't trust the Word of God; if we don't see each word being inspired by him; if we cannot accept that this is Yahweh's revelation of himself to us, then how will we ever believe? Some would say that they believe but not everything is from Yahweh. Tell me who is going to pick and choose, and if you are going to do that how are you going to decide what to believe? How can you believe in Jesus and how can you decide what to believe about Jesus if you do not accept his written revelation?

It's funny, isn't it, that all the liberal "Christians", the ones that dismiss sin as a cultural thing, all believe that we have to pick and choose from the Word. I find it amazing how these Christians just happen to line up with society's measurement of norms. Yet, those who seem to be at odds with those norms are the Christians who stand by the divinely inspired Word of God. I also find it amazing how Jesus and then the apostles warned us that this day would arrive.

Don't deceive yourself or let yourself be deceived. Believe the Word or don't believe the Word but don't fool yourself that you can have a foot in both worlds because Jesus said you can't. It doesn't work that way.