Do You Believe ?

The greatest tragedy is not your death
But a life without reason, that your life has no purpose

Recently I have had a couple of conversations with a few people and some of these people have expressed the fact to me, that they do not believe in God, some from within the church and some who used to come to the church and have now left.

This has left me feeling a sense of sadness that we as a church have failed to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ.

Is it my fault that someone chooses to not believe in God ? NO… I know that, but do I care absolutely….and we all should, this is about life and death and eternity.

It then occurred to me that this is the main problem for every church attempting to reach our world and especially Australia.. where we are so cynical and sceptical about everything and especially about God and the church, we are a suspicious lot in Australia, we think everybody is out to get us, or hurt us and that may be true for some but not for everyone.

Personally speaking, I don’t try to hurt anyone at all, and I hate it when I do hurt someone or have to …. its not my purpose for living.

I started to think about it and ask myself what it is, that causes a person, anyone, to believe in anything at all ?

Think about that for a moment: why do we believe anything ?

Most of us have believed in things based on those who have gone before us and taught us the way… like reading, eating, driving, swimming, you name it we have learned to believe in many cases by those who have gone before us and have shown us the way.

At some point everyone of us have had to trust someone else’s wisdom and knowledge, at some point, at some time in each persons life, there comes a time when we have to trust in something even if we cant yet see it.

Jesus said one day to a man who was seeking a miracle for his demon possessed son...

"Everything is possible for him who believes." and Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark chapter 9)

Think about this story from the point of view of the dad… and the varying points of view, the dad with a sick son, the disciples with a powerless ministry, Jesus with a confused and unbelieving group of followers, the crowd who witnessed a miracle, the son who was set free because of the touch of Jesus….

Where do you sit in regards to the ministry of Jesus and His Holy Spirit these days, powerless ? unbelieving ? Freed by Him ? observing miracles in others but not yourself ?

An amount of unbelief was in the dad as well, but a desperation so deep , he wanted his son healed of whatever this thing was inside him.( & what parent in their right mind would n’t want that kind of help)
& Jesus was the best thing around at that time and still is the best thing going even still today.

I believe that death is a tragedy, but I agree with the statement above, that worse still is the seemingly waste of time of living a life without purpose or a belief in a saving God who loves us all....

do you believe it ?