05/30/2022
Is the life, death, and resurrection, of Jesus Christ real to us? Do we hear Him, see Him, and actually touch Him as we live out our lives, or must we forever have absolute faith in Him as an invisible mystery? God is with us, and Jesus abides in us, but although God is Spirit, He manifests Himself to us every day through His Son Jesus. The question that we should challenge ourselves with is this… do we listen for Him, look for Him, and reach out to touch Him in the world around us, or have we narrowed our belief in Him, as the Word of Life, to the unseen, and to faith alone? Have we relegated Jesus to the ether world and banished Him from the physical world in which we live, and walk today?
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—”
1 John 1:1 ESV
If we listen intently, we hear the voice of Christ in the world about us today. It resonates in expressions of love, the answered prayers, and in too many other ways to count. When a sailor is lost in a fog so thick that he can’t see his hand before him, the voice of Jesus might sound like a foghorn that warns him of danger. If we are sitting near a mother holding her precious infant we will hear God’s voice in hers as she speaks lovingly to it. If we feed a stranger, or comfort them in some way, the sound of Christ’s voice says “Thank you.” These examples, and millions more every day, are the very real voices of God.
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Romans 10:17 ESV
When we open our eyes rightly to the world we will see the amazing hand of God all about us. We see a man stop on the roadside to hand a beggar a few dollars for a meal. We witness someone being comforted in the arms of a perfect stranger in a moment of overwhelming grief, we see the belief of martyrs as they are slaughtered on a beach far away, and wonder if we too believe with such a holy intensity, and we also see the many miracles that surround us as they are worked in our own lives.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 ESV
But as if hearing and seeing were not enough we feel God, and Jesus with our own hands, as they embrace us, and as they brush against us in a moment of healing. We feel them in our hearts, and spirits, as the Word of God echoes within us, or speaks a new truth to us from within ancient Words.
“he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.”
Matthew 9:24-25 ESV
It is in Jesus that God manifests himself, and unless we believe in the Son then we can not believe in the Father. We are meant to be made strong in our faith, and stronger yet in our belief through Jesus. Are we experiencing Him in a very real way today? Do we see the presence of God at every turn?
“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”
John 5:19 ESV
“And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.”
John 5:37-38 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for manifesting yourself to us in a very real way through your Son Jesus. Thank you for letting us hear you in His words as you speak through Him, and to see you in the miracles He performs. But thank you most for allowing us to embrace you, and feel you as Jesus abides in us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who is real to us, and real in the world. Praised be your name for allowing us to increase in our faith, and to believe through our everyday touch of your hand; in every way that you show us how real you are. Merciful are you who opens our senses so that we can know you body, mind, and soul. Your grace is sufficient, and reveals to us the truth, that only by your Son Jesus can we truly know you. Wash us clean in the blood of Jesus, and remove every sin from us in so doing. Transform us by your touch, and find us worthy as we are made righteous in Christ. Let us experience you in all your reality, and seat us at your table forevermore… made eternal, and given new resurrected bodies.
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
Romans 1:20 ESV
Rich Forbes