MY BELOVED GROUP MEMBERS: WHY I BELIEVE! Why do I believe that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the Messiah promised and sent from God to save the world from its sin and fallen nature? I BELIEVE because our Heavenly Father promised us that He would send Him, our Father that fashioned into the foundation of this world that He could not lie*1. He that watched and wept as His beloved children cascaded towards the abyss of sin and idolatry, those whom He had lovingly formed in the palm of His hand with the love that none of us could ever really understand but who betrayed Him so oft. He that was always faithful to love us even whilst we cursed Him, it is He that subjected Himself to be born lower than the Angels that He would defeat the death that He so hates and that which we all taste of in sorrows and fear*2. And having Himself came as a flesh man and died one time that we all could have the life eternal*3. He neednt have done that, He is the Almighty, but He did, who was so worthy that they could have expected it of Him? Who so foolish to deny it? I BELIEVE because He came humbly not high handed, not as a king with great spectacle and honors surely befitting Him, not in the finest palace of the land but in a stable with the animals of servitude, for He came to serve not be served, it really could not have been any other way. I BELIEVE because of the love in the scared trembling eyes of Mary as she looked down upon the helpless innocent babe that she knew was not of this world, wondering what would befall Him that she could surely not nurture away. The truth was in her confused emotions as her belly grew, this virgin; and in faith on obedience to the word of the Angel of God she birthed the promise to His fate*4. The shepherds knew whom He was as they were bidden by the Angel to welcome salvation made flesh as a witness to prophecy fulfilled and promises kept*5. And the wise men from the afar off, even pagan nations, they believed, they felt the power of Almighty God and His call as they beheld the King of Heaven a sucking babe at the breast of a bewildered virgin, to whom even the brightest star of the heaven was subject to as it obediently drawn them nigh to the Christ Child*6. And the righteous Simeon who was then ready to die after having held in his arms the promise of the Lord, the baby Jesus, he believed, he saw and he witnessed with these words placed on his breath by the Holy Spirit: And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. [Mt 2:34-35] *7 He knew, they knew, they all knew, they believed, they all believed on that day. And after the Christ child was born, satan sought His life, and so King Herod in fulfillment of prophecy,*8 thus ordered that all the children in Bethlehem and the coasts thereof, under two years of age, be slaughtered in an attempt to smother the promise: In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. [Matt 2:18]. Did Herod really think that he could separate God from His Word? And those martyred children surely have a special place in Heaven as do all the innocents who die before their time. God was faithful to rescue our salvation that day that we might be saved ourselves, for Jesus had yet much prophecy to fulfill before He would submit to death. But would man accept Him? No, it was not to be, we wouldnt have Him, for our sin He would have His hour, man would reject, deny, hate, and murder Him*9. He who only came to give, not asking anything for Himself, but everything for us only; man only knew to destroy Him. I BELIEVE because He was at home with the common man, the rejected thrown away people that all the societies of men create. He was not haughty but humble, oh how the simple people loved Him, like a child they looked trustingly to Him, they believed!*10. Was it the miracles that made them believe, the healings, the raising of the dead? Perhaps, but no, they saw His eyes, they felt the power of the presence of the living God in Him, who could have looked into the eyes of the promise and have not yet believed? Even nature obeyed Him as He mounted a wild colt, the foal of an ass not yet broken by man who gently rode Him towards His long awaited entry into Jerusalem, it knew, the mount knew as he carried the promise to His date with destiny*11, to give it all for us whom would simply believe*12. Was that too much to ask, that we believe? God knows, but they didnt, they rejected Him, bore false witness against Him and set Him up to fall at the hands of Pagan Rome. But it was not the common man that murdered the Son of God, no, they loved Him, He comforted them, He cared for them as no other had. No, it was the religious community, the Sanhedren even! It was the highest religious body of the time that called for the blood of that innocent one*13. Even Pontius Pilate believed that it was not right that this innocent Jesus be be put to death, yes even this pagan believed, he knew that it was an evil thing that this be done, oh how he tried, time and time again this pagan man tried to deliver the Son of God from crucifixion, seeking to spare Jesus (for Pilates wife had been visited by an Angel of the Lord that day {Mt 27:19} - She knew!)*14. But the religious people wouldnt have it, no mercy was to be afforded Jesus - an innocent man! They demanded His blood: Crucify Him, Crucify Him [Jn 19:6] they yelled as Pilate tried to satisfy their blood lust with the execution of Barabbas the mass murderer. So lustful were they of Jesus blood that they accepted it on their own souls, for this they had sealed their fate and sentenced themselves: When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. [Matt 27:24-25]. So on that day they traded the life of a murderer for the life of the innocent Jesus, they spared a son of evil (the name Barrabas means: son of the father) for The Son of God Jesus Christ, a man who had simply told them the truth*15. A truth that is quick and cuts deeper than the sharpest sword*16, they were condemned by their own words, and for this sin ought we all not be ashamed? For would we have helped Jesus? Would we have been strong enough to stand, the disciples were not, they fled and left their teacher and friend alone with the wolves to be torn apart - these men who witnessed the miracles, who had left family and all for Him, they traveled and camped with Him, were succored and taught by Him. They forsook Him and even denied Him*17. Man is weak, but Christ was strong, and in Him we can be strong also, and forgiven when we fall short. Truly this lonely Man did fulfill prophecy that day, for it was written of Him 600 years before He was born: He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. [Isa 53:3-4]. So the stage was set, the verdict in, He had no chance, for His fate was set that day in the manger*18, Jesus was to be the sacrificial Lamb, the innocent blood for the guilty. Falsely accused, beaten unmercifully till the flesh peeled of His back in strips that even He should have died from that alone, but that could not yet be, God said NO!, there was yet prophecy to fulfill. For the price to have been paid for all, every prophecy needed be fulfilled so that they would know that He was the One written of, that He was the Messiah from God. And it is in that knowledge and belief in the same only that man can be saved. Blindfolded and struck in the face, mocked and crowned with a crown of thorns, the crown of a rejected and despised king, spit upon, spitting upon the Son of God? - God forbid! But yes it happened, they did this thing they ought not have done, and all the while He said nothing in His own defense, made no plea for mercy*19, for He of all people knew that it must be done according to prophecy, the Son Of Man must endure till all have been accomplished. With twelve legions of Angels at His beck and call He said not a word,*20 save to say: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do [Lk 23:34] while they nailed Him to the Roman cross of a common criminal. The Son of God treated so - shame on them, shame on us, for it was for us that it was done. No, we didnt drive the nails or raise and set the cross, but it was done for us that we may live. Had we not been fallen He neednt have died in our stead. I BELIEVE that. I BELIEVE because, as He hung dying on the cross, He recited the 22nd psalm*21 which was a whisper a 1000 years before hand of Him to come. And when He groaned out His last words: It is finished [Jn 19:30] and died, the price had been fully paid, the door was now open to us all. The Son of God Jesus Christ died that day at the hands of Gods own children that he came to spare, and so powerful was this event that even the very heavens and the earth cried out with thunders, lightnings, earthquakes, and the sun in the sky also subject bowed in grief for three hours. The very door to Heaven was opened when this Lamb closed His eyes and breathed His last. For the veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom opening a way between man and God that no longer needed the ritual sacrifice of animals or the ministrations of a priest for man to enter within*22. It is for this that it was done, it was for us that it was done. I believe that. The Roman centurion BELIEVED, oh yes he knew, even he whose task it was to insure that the sentence be carried out full, that every drop of blood be spent, the sentence fully carried out, and the death be accomplished, he BELIEVED that Jesus Christ was the Son of the Everliving God; for as it is recorded: And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. [Mk 15:37-38]. Even the pagan Centurion BELIEVED that on this day the Son of God had been killed! And I BELIEVE it today. Then as it was promised on the third day Jesus defeated death for us all in that He arose from the dead*23 so that we may be sure that we also can all arise on that day, never to taste of death again. He ascended to His Father in Heaven, our God, our Heavenly Father, and now sits at His right hand expecting till all His enemies be made His footstool*24. This shall be accomplished on that great and terrible, faithful and momentous day when He shall return at His Second Advent*25. For this I look longingly to and with all faith and belief in the promises of our Heavenly Father through His only begotten Son, our Savior, Messiah, Jesus the Christ. I BELIEVE that, I BELIEVE and also muse with Apostle Paul when he said: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of GOD, which is in CHRIST JESUS our LORD. [ROMANS 8:38-39]. I BELIEVE, DO YOU?
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 18:37:34 +0000
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