Belief
What, exactly, are we, as Christians, asked to believe? What, if we claim Christ as our glorious Savior, must we then give full recognition as credible, from the very same scriptures that magnify His name? Without getting too very much into side-issues, let’s just look at the most basic facts. Off of the top of my head, here are a few:
A God who created everything. Just by…you know…speaking it into existence.
Jesus Christ, His Son, who was:
- conceived purely by the power of the Holy Spirit
- was born to a virgin
- performed too many miracles in His lifetime than can be listed here
- was completely sinless
- was sacrificed to be the perfect atonement for our numberless sins
- rose from the dead three days later
- sits at the right hand of God the Father, forever interceding for us, His bride
- is preparing a place for us in Heaven
- is returning one day to bring us all to that Home
- will judge satan and his consorts and fling them forever in to hell
The Holy Spirit, the living Spirit of God, Who dwells within us and brings God’s power, comfort, wisdom, guidance and peace to us.
Among other things.
Really?
I mean….REALLY?
Do I believe it?
I say I do.
But wouldn’t I change how I behave if I really did? Shouldn’t I be, like, shrieking a little bit in excitement every moment of the day if I really believed it?
Well, sometimes…rarely, but sometimes…the truth of it overwhelms me, and I do shriek a little. Not too much, lest anyone be alarmed and think I’m some sort of religious kook, but a modified shriek, mostly internal.
Do we realize how much like a fairy tale it sounds to those who do not believe? Those of us who have been Christians for more than a decade, or grew up in the church and cut our teeth on words like tribulation, armageddon, seraphim, rapture, and resurrection need to step back a few paces and look at it with fresh eyes sometimes. I mean, Jesus…our Jesus…is going to come back on a white horse through the clouds, sword splitting atoms as He enters the atmosphere, angelic warriors blasting trumpets, stars raining down from heaven…
There will be lots of shrieking in that moment, that much you can count on.
It sounds like the most fantastic work of fiction ever to sprout from a storyteller’s fevered brain…yet what laughable arrogance we humans possess, to think that God’s story is a product of our imagination, when our imaginations themselves are mere shadows of His.
It thrills me no end to serve a God whose mind can conceive exceedingly abundantly beyond all I could ask or think…and to know that I am on His mind, that somehow I delight Him…how good it is to belong to Him. How thankful I am to be His creature! How I wish my tiny mind could hold even a fraction of the wonder of it!
All our other faculties seem to have the brown touch of earth upon them, but the imagination carries the very livery of heaven, and is God’s self in the soul. ~henry ward beecher