Welcome to life with Jesus. You jumped into water that often feels to deep and most of the time never ending. We jumped in without a life jacket. But we jumped in non-the-less with faith holding us above the water. When we jumped it wasn’t because we knew all the mysteries or because we had all the knowledge, or all the wisdom, or even because of sight. We jumped on faith and with multitudes of foolishness.
You see that’s the miracle of it all…. Somehow we knew that the story of Jesus was so crazy, so off-the-wall, so different, so absurd, and foolish that we knew it just had to be true. There was no other way for us to explain it besides truth.
By now I’m sure your eyes are rolling to the back of your brains and your saying secretly to yourselves “really another nobody, who thinks he is a somebody, is going to try and shove Jesus down my throat again and make me believe.” I promise you I’m not here to shove it down your throat, but yes I am here to tell you why I believe in Jesus, why I am drawn to the beautiful mystery. And in doing that, I hope that I and the spirit of God can somehow get through, open your tired eyes, give you ears to hear and eyes to see. Our life is a testimony to why we believe. The way we walk, the way we talk, the way we interact. Jesus said to be light on hill, where everyone can see you. He said to be the salt, so here I am to do my best to shake things up just a little. I’m not here to judge you, to make you do anything, I’m just here to be your friend… and if I’m lucky encourage you just a little.
Like I said this is more about me telling you the reasons why I believe, the story behind my journey to faith without sight. My journey to the band wagon of millions if you will, my hope is that somehow my reasons for believing will spark something within you and you’ll want to learn more, and hopefully jump on the band wagon. While I have great expectations I understand that free will, and free choice will prevail. And that’s what Jesus gave you and wants for you is free will to believe or not. Free choice to live after His life and be like Him or not to. You see that’s what’s crazy it’s in your hands; He is just there jealously waiting for you to say I want You in my life.
So here it goes, what I believe is simply complex. Mostly because I believe there may be no simple. Complexity is what makes us wonder, what makes us search, what makes us want to learn, and what keeps bringing us back for more. I believe in God, because the story written across the pages of the bible absolutely and irrevocably blows my brain to shreds-shoots down all my knowledge, and drowns out all my humanly wisdom. And furthermore and it frustrates all my understanding of everything in the world. It’s so different and so simply complex that it just is.
More on that a little later on though, lets get into the bible. You see this book has been quite the center of some controversy. Over the years it has been called stories, that have been talked up and mystified and are unbelievable and that some points are arguable. But for me the Bible is the true and inspired message/word of God. And that nothing within it is contradicting, arguable, wrong, or blown out of proportion. The bible is simply truth. And within its scripture are complexities beyond my wildest dreams. It’s the book that keeps you begging for more. And praying for understanding. And Praying for wisdom. Its that good and its that right. Its just truth. Besides just having faith that the bible is just truth. I also look at history and see that it’s a book that hasn’t changed. It’s been a New York Times best seller so to speak for 100s of years. Since the printing press was invented. And that’s the only proof I need, if I needed any at all.
While we are the subjects of proof, lets just jump to the proof I get to wake up to everyday. The world I live in. The flowers, the birds, the green grass, the blue skies, the rainbows, all the animals of the world, the sun and the stars, every gorgeous mountain, and flowing river. Everyday I walk into a world that cannot be explained by evolution or a meteor that hit our world and “bang!” it just was. No I can’t believe that. Something this beautiful, this amazing, this complex, this picturesque, this astonishing could not be simply explained by evolution or by a meteor that hit earth and made it. It had to come from someone, and that someone, as God’s true and inspired word says. Was Him. He spoke the light and the dark into existence, He spoke the birds of the air into flight, He spoke the mountains to their heights, and lastly He spoke us into existence from the dust of the earth. And he said it was good. Now that’s a story I can believe, now that brings sense to a beautiful, amazing, picturesque, astonishing world. And that above all is Truth.
Now on to why all this is “foolish”. You read that and think wait is he going to contradict himself. The answer is no. Like I said the message of Jesus is well foolish. I mean take a second to read. God himself says his message is foolish to those who don’t believe. But life giving to those that do believe. You see that’s the caveat His message is foolish until you believe and then it makes beautiful sense. It’s upside down yes, but He never said it wasn’t. You see God goes on to call us to this idea of revelation, now revelation is a BIG deal. Because without it, none of us understand the foolish message of God. God brought about revelation because He said with worldly wisdom you cannot know Me, so without Gods help (His gift of revelation) we can’t understand His message. But the cool thing is revelation is a free gift to all. The two greatest acts of revelation are littered through the gospels and those are Jesus’ life, and The Cross. There it is God gave us everything we need to know His message, for free. I mean what’s better than free, really? Nothing…. But there is a catch, but don’t worry it’s a really good one. When you accept the gift of revelation it costs you everything you once knew. Don’t let that line scare you; God has something scripted for your new life with Him that you could have never imagined. I can promise you that.
You see I like many before me and many to come, have been caught in the tension of trying to make my wisdom work for Gods message. In my arrogance I got the idea that I knew more than God that I could explain the bible without Him by my side. That I could turn Him into a cosmic bending machine, trying to shape and bend him to fit my life. I learned really quickly that doesn’t work. It’s all or nothing. God said my will be done, not yours. And quite frankly His will for me through Him is so much better than anything I could have ever scripted for my life. I’m tired of doing religion and trying to be one man searching for God. When I just realize that if I read the Gospels He is right there searching for me. That’s why I need Him, that’s why I believe in Him. But of course there is more.
I believe in Christ Crucified. I get the chills every time that leaves the cusp of my lips. It blows my mind that the savior of the world, the Messiah, would come to this earth to live the perfect, blameless, awesome life. And then die on a tree on top of a hill. The lowest, most degrading death of a generation. And the Messiah came and suffered it. For you and for me. As the once popular band seven places said. He came for you, for me, for all. He bled seven times in seven places for everyone. To cover all your sin. You can say I have seen things I shouldn’t have seen, blood poured over his eyes when they stuck the crown of thorns on His head. You can say I touched things I should not have touched, blood gushed from his hands as the nailed him to the cross. You can say I have turned my back on things I should not have turned my back on, he was whipped and his back bled. You can say its things inside of you that make you corrupt, He was stuck with a spear in the side of his body and He covers those things inside of you. And lastly you can say you have walked into things you should not have walked into, A nail was driven through his feet as well. And his Blood and his Broken body covers that and every thing else. And I mean everything. Mind blowing is all I can say, I believe, because I believe in Christ Crucified.
Honestly, I just laid down the homeruns behind my belief in Jesus. It’s not the idiosyncrasies or the small little things that remind me why I believe everyday. It’s the stuff that says, “Enter name here” you would be stupid not to believe. I can’t read through what is above and not get the chills. And that little feeling that shoots up my spine and makes my hair stand up reminds me its all real. It’s all real. So much of what I believe is based on faith. And more in depth… faith without sight. You see I don’t believe because I’m chasing after some miracle or sign or wonder or because I want God to show me what He can do. I already know what He can do; I don’t need to see it. I know He is power, and He is awe, and He is omnipresent, and He omnipotent, and I know He is here living in me now, right this second. God has already proven himself to me, in and through my life. He brought me home, He brought me into his arms, started my sanctification (really big word that I’m sure I will explain some other time)-my super long coming home party and let me tell you I’m looking forward to the day I enter His Kingdom.
Lastly I just want to say, I don’t believe because it’s the hip thing to do. I don’t believe because it’s some fad I’m just following for a little while. I believe because of the personal relationship God has created with me. He says in His word, I sit on my throne and look down over all the inhabitants of the world, I fashion their hearts individually, and I (God) consider all their works. (Rough paraphrase see Psalm 33:13-15). God is saying I know you, I know everything about you. And not only does he know you but through His will for you, He wants to shape you into something beautiful and beyond your wildest dreams. I hope you give the Guy a shot; He loves you, A lot. And he wants you to start your journey home and He wants you to enjoy the super rad party at the end. He is standing there with arms wide open (cue horrible Creed music now).
So does that sound good? It sounds good to me? You see the Church, Gods Church. Is a place where people with nothing in common, different, eclectic, crazy, absurd at times, come together and find the only common ground they have and that’s Jesus. We all meet at Jesus. It’s not for us to judge the in-between but for us to Love because at the end of the day we have Him in common. So like I said, come check it out, we are one messed up, dysfunctional family but we all Love Jesus and guess what He Loves us and He Loves you!
