It can be difficult to convince other people of a truth based on your personal experience when their approach is from an intellectual or other point of view.  No matter what you say or how strongly you represent your case, until they have shared in your experience, your truth and theirs may always be in conflict with each other.  One person has noted:

“ … many truths might seem well suited to a diverse society.  But when everyone is free to define truth as he or she prefers, as at present, the result is an intellectual and moral shouting match in which the people with the loudest voices are most likely to be heard.”[1]

That doesn’t mean they represent the truth.  However, when we investigate truth from the perspective of holy scripture, we depend on the integrity and experiences of those who came before us, trusting their ability to convey what they believed to be true from their personal experiences, even above others' intellectual interpretations.  And because of that, we always find ourselves with a different understanding of truth than those who don't know what we know, haven't experienced what we've experienced, and have yet to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit guiding them, leading them, and teaching them about life and God.

         Peter’s witness about Christ was personal.  He saw what he saw and heard what he heard and experienced more on a personal level with Christ than most of those who followed out of curiosity.  So, for those who neither knew nor understood Jesus as God’s truth intellectually, Peter’s truth came from a much different perspective.  For instance, those of us who have children and have raised children have a much different perspective on child raising than someone who has never lived through it.  For Peter and the other two disciples to have eyewitnesses and ear-witnesses to the transfiguration of Christ, proclaiming Jesus as his beloved Son, to have lived with Jesus, walked with Jesus, experienced the death and resurrection of Jesus and then to have watched the ascension of Jesus and hear the angels say, “Men of Galilee “why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”, (Acts 1:11) —the truth of Jesus was not a question to be debated.  Jesus was God’s Truth to be trusted, and treasured, to be believed without doubting until Jesus returned as the angels prophesied.

• What experience have you had of God’s truth in Jesus Christ that defies intellectual understanding?
• How does your experience confirm the truth of Jesus’ transfiguration as verified by Peter?
• Why do you think others who lack your personal experience with God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit find it difficult to believe that Jesus is the Truth?

[1] Mary Lefkowitz, New York Times Book Review, January23, 2000

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, let the truth of Your prophetic word in Holy Scripture continue to assure me, keeping me confident in my faith that Jesus Christ will return as the glorified Truth of God.

         The giving and the receiving of the Holy Spirit is a very powerful event in the life of anyone who is so blessed.  It comes to those who receive it as a gift from Christ.  We may not always be aware of the feeling of Christ present in us.  But the Spirit of God is much less a feeling than an awareness and response to the power of that Spirit that gives life to us and empowers us to give life to others.  Yet, in order to manifest that power, one must be willing to freely give that power away.  Sometimes that power comes through the power of forgiveness.  There is nothing more life giving when brokenness and hurt feelings are present, than the spirit of forgiveness, especially when we are the victim.  Forgiveness gives life to the perpetrator and the victim.  And yet there is a special power when we take upon ourselves the sins of others — or retain their sins — as an act of selfless love.  When Jesus died on the cross, he retained the sins of many through his selfless acts of forgiveness.  Spirit powered living empowers us to do the same.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, empower the new life of Your Spirit alive in me to become a life-giving power through the simple act of forgiveness.

         The breath of life from God has the power to raise people from the dead.  Now, that is true literally as well as figuratively.  It happened to Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones.  It’s prophesied to happen at the end times after the Adversary believes he has taken the lives of the saints.  How many persons have been found dead in streets of their lives through some form of addiction, but through the power of God’s Spirit have been brought back from their dead existence?  We are surrounded by once dead people who, for all practical purposes, lay dead in the streets of life from broken relationships, drugs, greed, gluttony, indifference, and other forms of death only to have God’s Spirit enter them making them alive again.  And how many of those who were dead are now alive living Spirit powered lives entrusted to them by the Holy Spirit of God.  There are no limits to the power of God’s Spirit to care for and resurrect those who were dead but are now alive through Spirit powered living.  And the numbers don’t end with our age.  There may be other ages still to come whom God will resurrect from their dead lives to live and serve the living God through Spirit powered living.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Holy and loving God, empower me to believe in the power of Your Spirit to give life to those who are dead, both literally and figuratively.