Yielding to Relationship

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In this final part of our series, Reasons to Believe, we take a turn.  We are still talking about reasons to believe, but this one is different from all the rest.  At the end of the day, a person can listen to solid answers to all of their objections to the life of Christ and still not be willing to make Him their Lord.  The reason for this is that their primary objection is not logical, but relational.  This is last and most important hurdle to overcome.  When someone becomes a follower of Jesus, the most powerful reason they do so is a relationship.  Keep reading for more.

 

Yielding to Relationship

There was once a man who hated Christians.  He hated them.   He hated everything they stood for.  He hated the things they believed.  He hated the impact they were having on his culture.  There was nothing about them he liked.  It was so bad that he dreamed about hurting them.  He thought up ways he could harass them and interrupt their activities and keep them from accomplishing their goals…all within the means of the law of course.  Now, you might be thinking, “Well that guy was dumb.  It doesn’t really do any good to focus that much effort on hating a group of people.  What was his deal with religion anyway?”  But, religion wasn’t his problem.  Christians were.  He had no problems with religion.  In fact, he was a very religious guy.  He just didn’t like Christians.  Furthermore, he was no dummy.  Actually, he was brilliant.  He had gone to the best schools and studied under the best teachers.  He was routinely at the top of his class.  The level of success he had attained for his age was simply astounding.  When peers looked at him they routinely saw big things in his future.  This guy was leadership material.  There were few positions which were going to be off-limits to him.  He merely had to apply himself in the relevant directions.  With his big brain, then, and as committed as he was to the way he saw the world working, he knew all the reasons Christians and their Christianity could and should be rejected.  He could have given you a list with sources.  He had a reason for every argument.  But then, something unexpected happened.  And that something was this: he actually met Jesus.  Not literally met, of course, but he encountered Jesus in a personal, powerful way.  And all his reasons went out the window.  Instead of reasons, he now had a relationship. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 2 Peter 3:15-16

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“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.  There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Just a little note here on the defense of the Bible.  Some critics have argued that the writings of the New Testament “became” Scripture gradually.  It was the result of a power play by men seeking power for themselves and these writings were a convenient way to get it through the levers of religion.  But, when they were written no one considered them Scripture.  Except for this… Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Daniel 3:16-18

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“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.  If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

“But if not.”  These are three of the most powerful words in all of the Old Testament.  They carry the power of unshakeable faithfulness.  They herald the potency of eternal life.  These three men had perfect confidence in their Lord to save them from the destruction that sat before them in some kind of miraculous way.  But if not; but if He didn’t; but if He decided that their deaths in this moment would ring a louder note for the kingdom than their lives, they were still going to stick with Him. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Psalm 135:15-18

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“The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.  They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths.  Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

In the ancient world, idols were obvious.  Someone who worshipped an idol would often literally bow down before a statue.  He would make sacrifices before a big hunk of carved rock or wood or shaped metal.  They were things made by human hands.  Today…not so much.  But, just because idolatry is more difficult to spot doesn’t meant the reality of it is any different. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Revelation 6:1-2

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“Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’  And I looked, and behold, a white horse!  And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Now we get into the meat of John’s revelation of the end of the world.  This is the part of the story that tends to start drawing the most varied and often creative interpretations.  This is also the part that tends to serve as the most inspirational for various occult and apocalyptic stories today. Read the rest…