Most people live within the world of uncertainty.  We are always on a journey — usually generated by our curiosity — to find the truth or to create within our own minds what we perceive to be the truth.  This journey of curiosity typically pushes us to prove the reality of something that we are uncertain of.  Reports of UFO’S, space aliens, visitors from other planets or galaxies have pushed us to believe in such things, aided by movies and inauthentic reports of people being abducted.  Science has been on a quest since it’s beginning to prove how the world was created, where humanity came from, how artifacts, buildings, and cultures were built, developed, and maintained.  We search among that which existed long ago hoping to find some answer that helps us to understand that which is to remove our doubts and uncertainty about life.  And yet, our minds, bodies, and souls, can’t explain that which is real but unseen, that which is invisible yet is alive, that which acts within the circle of life with certainty, but only leaves us questions without answers.  Our experiences have led us to believe that there is something bigger, more intelligent, that works within our world that has more power and authority than we.  And so, we’ve historically created images of those things that we’ve worshiped around us, calling them gods and giving those dead images credit for the things — good and evil — that happen in our lives.  And all of these “little gods” of our creation were not proof of a supreme being (or God) which everyone was willing to acknowledge.  We did all of this in ignorance.

         But then God chose to remove our ignorance by verifying God’s presence and existence for those without faith — not in wood, gold, and stone — but in the flesh and blood of someone who looked like us, walked like us, talked like us, but with one huge difference.  This man claimed that we were all children of God, did miracles and signs to give proof of God’s reality.  And to prove that the God he came to reveal to us was real, he died and by the power of the God he represented, was raised from death to life providing evidence that his God was for certain the God of all creation, all life, and everything in the earth.

         Many people continue to live in uncertainty, even with historical proof and the recorded account of witnesses.  They continue to question the reality of God, of Jesus Christ, eternal life and the judgment.  And perhaps it will take the judgement by one who has proven the reality of God for the doubters and unbelievers to be convinced that God is real.

• How do you explain people’s continued doubts about the reality of God and Jesus Christ?
• How do you explain to those who don’t believe in God the truth of God’s reality as you live faithfully to who God is to you?
• How does Peter’s advice, to — “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect … “ (1 Peter 3:15) inspire you to witness to the reality of God?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty and gracious God, help me to resist the worship of idols in whatever form they come, always acknowledging that Jesus Christ is proof that You are real.

         The question is asked, “Who are we?”  It’s a simple question asked in relation to who we believe we are when compared to God, Almighty.  We have no power to create anything, at least, not compared to what our eyes see when we look around us.  We can’t change the flow of a river.  Even in the simple things — things like loving one another, caring for the orphan and the widow, visiting those in the hospitals and prisons — things which are within our power to do, we fail at miserably.  When our lives are entrusted into each other’s hands, we simply fall short of expectations.  We separate ourselves into clans and tribes and other irrelevant breakdowns of our humanity, all in an effort to prove our favoritism to the one who has the power and authority to give life or take life away — to heal or to leave in torment.  And none of us has the mind of God.  The prophet Isaiah already posited the question:

       13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD,

              or instruct the LORD as his counselor?

       14 Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,

              and who taught him the right way?

       Who was it that taught him knowledge,

              or showed him the path of understanding? (Isaiah 40:13-14)

And yet, millennia later, we continue to act as if we run anything when in the end, we remain powerless to decided what happens to us.  God has provided us with the opportunity to choose in this life how we will live.  Yet we still must face the truth about this life and the life that is to come — some vessels are made for special purposes and some for common use.  We don’t make that decision.  And whether we were made to fulfill our purpose and our purpose is special or common, our lives are in God’s hands.  They always have been and always will be.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of Love and God of Power, keep me ever mindful that in life and in death, and in life beyond death, my life is in Your hands.

         Charles Spurgeon, a prominent theologian and preacher of years ago once told a story of an old ploughman he was familiar with.  He said the ploughman, though in uncouth words, would often say some very precious things.  In a conversation one day, the ploughman said, “The other day, sir, the Devil was tempting me and I tried to answer him; but I found he was an old lawyer and understood the law a great deal better than I did, so I gave over and would not argue with him anymore; so I said to him, ‘What do you trouble me for?’  ‘Why,’ said he, ‘about your soul.’  ‘Oh!’ said I, ‘that is no business of mine; I have given my soul over into the hand of Christ; I have transferred everything to him; if you want an answer to your doubts and queries, you must apply to my Advocate.”

         Sometimes it takes a lifetime for us to come to the reality that we are really not our own.  We make vain efforts to control things — to believe that we have (at some point) some grave and powerful control over what we do, who we are, and where we go.  But in reality, when the bargaining begins, we only get to weigh in on whom we will trust when life ends.  Jesus told his disciples at one point:

       “28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the

       soul.  Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul

       and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28)

And if the person we trust when life ends is the same person we trust as we live and breathe each day, then we have to face the reality that our lives — as simple or as complicated as we make them — are inevitably in God’s hands.  This was Christ’s ultimate realization.  He entrusted himself to the one who held his life in His hands.

• What prevents us from yielding our will and purpose — even our lives — to the one who has the final determination about our lives?
• Would awaking to the reality that your life is/our lives are in God’s hands change how you respond to those around you who might be your enemies?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful and loving God, lead me to the place of ultimate trust understanding that whether I’m alive facing trials are entering through deaths door, my life is in Your hands.