July 16, 2010
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Lessons learned…
‘Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? John 11:25,26. ‘She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
“As I have pondered Jesus’ piercing question in recent years -’Do you believe this?’ – it has struck me that that question confront us at every turn. The Bible teaches us many things, and over and over again, in moments of joy and sorrow in our lives, Jesus asks us through His Word, ‘Do you believe this? Imagine that question as a watermark printed on every page of your Bible, faintly visible behind every truth you find there, always challenging, always confronting. The question is not simply, ‘Do you agree that this is true?’, but more fully, ‘Will you now live (thinking, feeling, speaking, acting, striving, rejoicing) as one who agrees that this is true?’
.. A cloud of cursedness now rests over creation. The wrath of God is revealed against this sinful human race. We are powerless on our own to undo the deathly damage that we have done. Christ came in power to accomplish what we could not, destroying death and gaining life by his own life and death on our behalf. Because he did so, a whole new world awaits us, a resurrection world. Because he did so, even death has been disarmed. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. And he asks you,
“Do you believe this?”
