Practical Atheists

25 Jesus told her, “I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again. 26 He is given eternal life for believing in me and shall never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?”  John 11:25-26

Jesus confronted Martha, who had already professed belief in Him as the Messiah, as to whether she truly, in the depths of her soul, believed all that He said about Himself. He was not and still is not interested in our nominal belief in Him. His claims are too earth shaking for that. In this statement to Martha, given just before He raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, He told her that He has total power over all things, including humankind's greatest and last enemy, death. Could she believe that, receive that, and live in the power of that truth? Can we? Before we answer, here are some powerful truths/questions to consider. I forget the name of the one who first raised them, but I have them in my prayer journal and am often confronted with them in my day to day life. I believe each of us will.

"Are we practical atheists, making decisions as if He didn't exist?" I have known too many who have lived this way. Spoken or unspoken, many "believers" live and choose as if He didn't exist. They say they believe He does, but their life choices tell something different. At root is a reason I once heard someone speak openly; "Christian faith just doesn't work in "the real world." The person was speaking about their business, but we can make that statement about so many things. We are so immersed in the spirit of the world that to live by faith, by His Word, makes no sense to us. We forget that He said that His ways will always appear as foolishness to the world. They are unable to discern how His ways actually do "work" and do overcome that which stands against them. To "see" this takes a life lived out in the Spirit, in the discernment of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, everything He directs will clash with the spirit of the world. As you read this, is it clashing with you?

"Are we disregarding He and His Word in our approach to life?" Jesus said that "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Christ is the Living Word of God and is the Bread of Life. When He ministered to the Samaritan woman at the well, his disciples went into town to buy food. When they returned, He refused the food they offered, astounding them. He told them, "I have food to eat that you don't know about." He was not saying we never needed physical food. What He was saying was that we can be the most well fed people on earth and still be dying daily of spiritual starvation. Christ knew it was His connection with His Father God that gave Him life, not the fare from the local McDonald's. His life and His approach to life was centered on that. Is ours?

"Do we view the structures of the world as more real than God?" This connects back with that person mentioned above who believed His ways would not work in the business world he moved in. The numbers of those who would agree and who occupy seats in the church each week are legion. So many conduct their affairs according to the world's precepts and not His. At root, they just don't trust Him. They don't trust that He and His ways are more real than the world around them. They think everyone begins and ends with that which they can touch, see, and feel humanly. They are blind to the ways of His Kingdom, which is an eternal Kingdom. This world and everything about it is passing away. His Kingdom, and the Truth it is established upon is eternal, forever. We say we know this, but we too often live as if we don't. We are so spiritually dull, blind, and deaf that we only relate to the natural. We have no real concept of the supernatural realm that is eternity. The natural, which is what we know, is more real and comfortable to us than the Kingdom, even though it was His Kingdom we were created for.

So, as we examine our ways before Him, do we, do you, end up looking far more like a practical atheist than a vital and vibrant believer and vessel of His Kingdom life? The question demands an answer? What will ours be?

Blessings,

Pastor O