Today?

"Jesus said, 'Your brother will rise and be alive again.' Martha answered, 'I know that he will rise and live again at the time of the resurrection on the last day.' Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection. I am life. Everyone who believes in me will have life, even if they die. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Martha, do you believe this?' " John 11:25-26...."What will you believe today? In the trials you face, in the obstacles you come up against, in the discouragement that hounds you relentlessly, will you cast your confidence toward the power of God or the hard facts of 'reality?' " Chris Tiegreen

Christ's question to Martha, and Tiegreen's to us cannot be avoided. They must be answered. How are we answering? What is it that we will believe today? Will it be that which Christ has spoken and promised? Words and promises that will fly in the face of what we call reality? Will we believe when every reason to believe has been swept away? Will we believe when we feel He has removed Himself completely from our situation, and we have no real sense of His presence? When we venture out into the hard, ugly circumstances of our lives, will we believe Him? What is it that we will believe today? What our natural understanding has told us, or that which He has spoken, even if we have not heard Him speak it of late?

I've long since lost track of all the people who've told me about how what His Word says just can't "work" in "the real world." They're right. It can't.......if we believe that the "real world" is what is actually real. This is the root of our problem, even as believers. We profess belief and faith in an eternal life that we don't think can ever be real in this realm. Martha was in such a place. She believed in her Lord and that His promise of eternal life was real. Where she stumbled was in being unable to believe that such life was available to her right now. Christ, the Author of all Life was right before her. He offered that life to her now, not at some future time. She could not "see" how that life could overcome the reality of her brother Lazurus' death. She could believe Him for some future fulfillment of His promise, but she couldn't believe Him in her "today." Can we?

This is the great stumbling block of the church. We struggle to believe that all the power of His resurrection life is available to us today. Therefore the darkness and death of this present world is more real to us than the promise of His Light and Life in eternity. We profess to believe that this world and its power is passing, but we live like its permanent. It's circumstances are more real and believed by us than His promises and presence.

I remember a couple that said of a family member that she was so heavenly minded that she was of no earthly good. They were neither the first or last to say such about someone. Yet I knew the one they spoke of, and if I might honestly speak of all three, I will say that the eternal impact of the individual far outweighed anything I ever saw of the couple. The eyes of the couple were upon the "reality" of this world. The woman spoken of upon her Lord's eternity. Which are we more like?

Heavy days are upon us, and they will grow heavier. What will we believe? What will we believe today? I believe in the reality of a Lord and Savior greater than anything this world can produce. Tiegreen has written, "The truth is that God has saved, continues to save, and will always save." He has promised to do so. He has guaranteed through His Son Jesus Christ. You may well believe that for your tomorrow. Do you believe that today? Do you believe that right now?

Blessings,
Pastor O