This morning I read in Acts about belief. I was brought to chapter 15 where the apostles and elders of the church were gathered. They were discussing the finer points of what it took to be saved.

“⁵But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.’” – Acts 15:5 (ESV)

The law of Moses was a “powerful” thing. In order to be considered for salvation, one was to uphold the law to the utmost. Even the smallest of deviations from the law created great turmoil for those that deviated. If you were not circumcised, then you could not be considered a believer, for that would be a deviation from the law of Moses.

“⁷And after there had bee much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, ‘Brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.’” – Acts 15:7 (ESV)

What a statement by Peter to remind those in attendance that just hearing the word of the Gospel was enough to believe and be saved.

“¹⁰Now, therefor, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? ¹¹But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” – Acts 15:10-11 (ESV)

And he continues to speak that the law of Moses does not apply any longer as a “requirement” to be saved. It is “the grace of the Lord Jesus” that gives us salvation and our acceptance of His grace.

“¹²And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.” – Acts 15:12 (ESV)

The disciples continued to speak of all the blessings that they were able to deliver to the Gentiles. There was no requirement for them to receive those blessings other than to hear, accept, and believe. Look at the first six words of the verse, “And all the assembly fell silent”. If that does not tell the story of the power of God’s Word, I don’t know what does.

Do you fall into the legalistic, law following crowd of what it takes to believe? Are you a believer by faith and the grace of God? What would it take for you to simply hear, accept, and believe?

I am sure that most of us have heard of “Doubting Thomas”. He was the disciple of Jesus that did not fully believe until he was able to touch the scars on Jesus’ body after the resurrection.

“²⁵So the other disciples told him, ‘We have see the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.’” – John 20:25 (ESV)

This is a bit difficult for me to believe that one of Jesus’ disciples would not believe until he was able to touch Jesus. I am taught and understand from my growing up in the Christian way of life, that I need only to have faith and believe, yet Thomas needed the physical to believe.

“²⁷Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put you finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ ²⁸Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” – John 20:27-28 (ESV)

Jesus made it possible for Thomas to believe. He appeared before the disciples to give Thomas the needed “proof” for him to believe. And Thomas exclaimed his belief at that moment.

“²⁹Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” – John 20:29 (ESV)

These are the words to me. Jesus understood that where Thomas had the opportunity to physically see and touch Jesus, other did not nor would they. Those were no less blessed with belief than Thomas.

NIV Commentary: “Jesus wasn’t hard on Thomas for his doubts. Despite his skepticism, Thomas was still loyal to the believers and to Jesus himself. Some people need to doubt before they believe. If doubt leads to questions, questions lead to answers, and the answers are accepted, then doubt has done good work…Let your doubt deepen your faith as you continue to search for the answer.”

I am a believer and have not had physical contact with Jesus. I do have many questions and those questions lead to answers which I then have the opportunity to accept. My belief is driven by my understanding of Christ.

When you think of Jesus, are you able to believe? What “proof” do you need for that belief? Are you able to ask the questions to get answers and accept to deepen your faith?

Chapter 17 of John is titled in my ESV Bible; “The High Priestly Prayer”. Jesus is praying to His Father, God.

“²⁰I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” – John 17:20-21 (ESV)

Jesus is not just praying for Himself in this chapter. He is praying for the disciples that He is sending out to reach the lost. He makes sure to pray for their strength. He prays that they are able to reach those that they are called to reach, you and me.

I know that it seems hard to believe that Jesus was praying for us 2000 years into the future. How can He even know that I will be here? Because He is God and He knows all. He wants nothing but the best for His brothers and sisters. He wants to make sure that each of us has the same opportunities as those of the time when He walked this world.

If praying was good for Jesus, why would it not be good for me? Jesus prayed for Himself in the time that was coming of His death. He then prayed for those He was sending out. He then prayed for me that I might receive. I have the same opportunity to pray as He did and who am I to not take that same opportunity each and every day.

What would be if you took time to pray as Jesus prayed? I wonder, do you feel as though Jesus was praying for you? What would be when we act like Jesus was indeed praying for you and me?

“¹Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” – John 14:1 (ESV)

It is not uncommon to profess a belief in God. The safety of that belief in God is evident all throughout. Even the worst of criminals acknowledge God. Think about all of the movies about the mob, the common theme is the Italian Catholics. And the ISIS or Taliban Terrorists, all profess and yield to Allah.

Here is where things turn, ask about the belief in Jesus. There will be many responses to identify who Jesus is/was. And the conversation will suddenly turn a bit uncomfortable.

Jesus provides God as tangible. God is no longer a “being”, but a man. With Jesus, I am suddenly thrust into potentially meeting face to face with God and that is uncomfortable. If I profess God as a being, there is little chance that He will come and meet me. I can still pray to Him and believe that He will care for me, but that tends to be in the sense of the CEO caring for the customer care rep, there is little chance of a personal encounter. Jesus gives that chance of local encounter and we become uncomfortable at the thought of Him being there to see just what I have done and hold me personally accountable.

I am glad to have Jesus with whom to encounter daily. I am very much imperfect and NEED the accountability provided by God and the person of Jesus. I need to know that around any corner, Jesus is waiting to call me to task.

Knowing that Jesus is God and that He walked among us, is frightening and comforting. The frightening part is that He was/is here to hold me accountable, and the comforting part is that He was/is here to catch me when I fail. Jesus is God and it is our duty to believe in God and believe also in Jesus.

Are you a believer in Jesus as you believe in God? When you think about Jesus, what feelings are stirred up? Are you able to believe in God and also believe in Jesus?

“³⁵So Jesus said to them, ‘The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. ³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of the light.’ When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.” – John 12:35-36 (ESV)

Jesus was plainly speaking to the crowd that it is up to them to simply believe in Him and they would have a clear path. Belief in Jesus gives light to the journey here in this world. Without Him, the darkness takes over and they would be wandering around in the dark without clear direction.

When I read here, I see that Jesus was giving these the continues chance to believe in Him. He states that He will only be with them for “a little while longer”, making reference to His crucifixion and death. He was again giving them a full opportunity to believe in Him to receive His guidance.

“³⁷Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.” – John 12:37 (ESV)

Here in verse 37 we are made aware of the idea that even though they had every opportunity to not on believe in the word of Christ, but also in the many miracles He performed, they still chose to turn away. What a missed chance. They chose to marvel at the works, and I see it, they did not accept them, but wanted to marveled more without belief.

Now, I have the fortune of knowing the rest of the story that all was not lost with the death of Christ. In fact things got better. I, 2000 years later, had the opportunity to take God up on His offer of Jesus’ death for my life. I do not need to see any more “miracles” to believe and will take my belief to heaven when my time comes.

Are you taking the opportunity to have God light your path? Are you willing to just believe? What else are do you need to “see” so that you may believe, while there is still time?

“²³Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ ²⁴Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection the last day.’ ²⁵Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the live. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ ²⁷She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’” – John 11:23-27 (ESV)

Martha understood that her brother Lazarus had died, she also believed that he would rise again as he was a believer in Christ. She was certainly sad that Lazarus had passed and earlier in the scripture passage she even exclaims to Jesus that if He had been there sooner, before the passing, He could have saved Lazarus from death.

When reading the verses, I can see that as Jesus speaks of death, He speaks of spiritual death as opposed to the physical death we attribute. Again, Jesus demonstrates His spiritual perspective and explains that this world is only temporary. My future, should I choose, is eternal and that spiritual death will not come as I fully believe and live in and as Christ.

I am a believer and this passage reminds me of that belief. As I continue to believe, I must also grow in that belief. I will be doing the work of Christ and in doing so, I will strengthen my belief in order that I can grow more peaceful here in this world as I wait for my time to meet my Lord and Savior face to face.

How strong is your belief? Are you working here for Christ? Are you growing more peaceful here in this world as your belief grows stronger?

“Seeing is believing”. I have heard that phrase a number of times in my life as I am sure that you have as well.

“³⁷If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; ³⁸but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Fathers is in me and I am in the Father.” – John 10:37-38 (ESV)

Jesus is answering the Jews questions as they inquire about how Jesus claims to be the Son of God. There is much more to the conversation and Jesus’ answers; verses 37 & 38 give a humanistic way of belief that most of us would agree with. Believing the words of someone is one thing, the proof of the action and witnessing the works solidifies our belief in that we clearly can touch and speak first hand of what happened.

Jesus’ words should be enough for me and a great majority of the time, it is. I would be remiss if I did not admit that witnessing the works of God are powerful for me and my belief. When I am witness to the works of God, I am more inclined to continue down the path I am going.

Now I do want to be careful and not get into the realm of Thomas and his need for proof that Jesus was indeed raised from the dead. I am speaking of witnessing the great works of God and taking what I see as confirmation of and encouragement to continue the path for which I was already working for Christ.

I am human and have the natural tendency to question what is going on. When it comes to God, I should believe as I hear, and should be looking to His works and at minimum believe what I witness.

Are you one that believes what you hear about God? What about when you see the works of God, what affect do they have on you? Are you able to believe through your witness?

This morning I am continuing to study believe, and am led to John 8 and looking at Jesus as the Light of the World.

“²⁴I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” – John 8:24 (ESV)

This is such a simple verse and extremely complex at the same time. The simplicity comes from the concept of belief to avoid death. The complexity comes in that the death is in sin.

I am a sinner and do not deserve to be saved from that sin. I will always be a sinner whether I am active or passive in that sin. Whether I am aware of my sin or not, I am a sinner. The roll of the eyes, the negative thoughts of others, walking by those in need are all potential sins and I may not even be aware I are doing them. For those, I am in need of salvation. But how?

By believing in Christ and accepting the free gift of salvation from Him. When I believe in Jesus’ saving grace, I am forgiven of the sins I commit, either actively or passively. The big change for me is that I work to avoid the active sins and greatly diminish the sins I am committing. Since I am aware of my sin, I am also more aware of others and begin looking for opportunities to come to the aid of those in need.

Without my belief in Jesus, I am doomed to be in active sin always and that sin keeps me from my Father. I will eventually die while in that sin and miss completely the glory of heaven. By contrast, when I do believe in Christ, I have acknowledged my sin and that I do not have to be in that sin. My acknowledgment and active attempts to avoid sin afford me the opportunity to live in Christ and rest on my inheritance in heaven.

Are you aware of the sin you commit? Are you looking for the way to avoid that sin? Will you believe in Christ and accept the salvation He provides?

I continue to think about how much credit we give to men of today when our credit should be going to God.

“⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.” – John 1:6-8 (ESV)

I am human and I am looking for the next big thing as in my nature. Because of that nature, I will believe things that drive that narrative, and the immediately tangible is crucial to my belief. Whenever I am presented with that immediately tangible item, I tend to accept the giver as the one to which I should be grateful.

But, God is simply working through that person to provide for what I was needing at the time. John was provided by God as the messenger of Jesus to come. John was only a man and was not worthy of worship, he was only placed here to be witness of Jesus to come and provide a vessel to reach Him.

I am simply a vessel that can be used by God. I have a greater role than just to exist, but my role is not so great that I deserve to be praised. I am here so that others may see Christ and come to Him through me.

When you look back, how much do you worship the man? Are you able to reach Christ through others? Are you looking to be the vessel for others to reach Christ through?

As a leadership training professional an important thing to remember when interacting with others in the business world as well as our personal lives is to remove emotion when making decisions. Emotion clouds judgment and tends to make the interaction all about me as opposed to driving the decision in the best interest of the company or the family unit. For that very reason there is a need to have a “cooling off” period before communicating. There have been and will continue to be many times where I have written a communication 10 different times before sending as it took that many for me to get my senses back and remove the emotion.

“⁴For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.” – 2 Corinthians 2:4 (ESV)

Paul here has written to the Corinthians as a substitute for a physical meeting. You can see in the wording of this verse that he is struggling with his emotions and wants to assure them that he loves them dearly. He demonstrates great restraint with them and simply writes from the heart to provide instruction without the emotional judgment that would be if he had been there in person.

Talk about showing his mercy. Paul, as we know, could be a ruthless man. He was if we remember “Saul of Tarsus” and was out arresting the disciples of Jesus at one point in his life. “Arresting” in biblical times was not asking someone to come down to the station as they were caught red handed in tax evasion, it was a violent act of brutality and overt acts. Because Paul was aware of his nature, he elected to simply send another with a letter to explain his position. It was through this mercy that Paul demonstrated an abundance of love to the Corinthians and spared them the wrath that he was sure would come as he was filled with so much emotion.

I have to continually remind myself to remove the emotion from the more heightened interactions to be sure that I am able to demonstrate my abundant love through mercy provided by Christ.

When something comes up, how do your react? Are you one that allows your emotion to overcome your sensibilities and you “fly off the handle”? Are you able to control your emotion and provide mercy to demonstrate your abundant love for others?