“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29

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It was the walk with Jesus by someone else that inspired me.  Since age 25, I have had a walk with Jesus, but it is a non-physical spiritual walk of faith.  In my walk, I can’t see His form, His eyes, His hair, His face, nor hear His kind voice, but there were two disciples who could. Their story is recorded in the new testament for our encouragement and contemplation.  (We will look at this story in the next post.) Parts of their 3-hour conversation with Him was recorded because our Creator wants to help us in our walk of Faith.  This is not my opinion.  Jesus said it!

“…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”  John 20:31

My questions is this: Do I have “life in His name”? Is my experience all about heaven and the hereafter or the “here-now”?  May I propose to you that if we are not having a “here-now” experience with Jesus, we won’t have a “hereafter” experience with Him either.  It all starts here!  Now!

Don’t have this?  Your journey can start now….or perhaps it has already started and you just don’t know it.  Perhaps, if you have been on your Jesus journey for many years, you don’t have the assurance that you have eternal life.

Jesus said this to Thomas when He appeared to this doubter some 8 days after Jesus’ resurrection,

“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29

Thomas had heard that Jesus was alive from people who would not lie to him i.e., the other disciples who had seen Him. But, Thomas wanted his own experience; not one based on the word of others. He was a doubter despite their convincing words.  So, Jesus accommodated him and appeared to him.

But, wouldn’t Thomas have an advantage over us in the faith department because he could actually see and feel the hands and side of Jesus?  Is faith built only on what you see?  No! In the verse above, it indicates our experience is blessed by believing even though we have not seen.  But, how does this work?

Are we going to be like Thomas and say,

“Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”  John 20:25

Let’s be real.  It is highly unlikely that Jesus is going to appear to any of us in our bedroom and say,

“Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Take your hand, and put it into my side. Stop doubting, and believe.”

John 20:27

Our faith in Jesus comes from three main sources available to everyone:

Creation

The Bible

Other Real People (Not REALigious people)

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Creation:

It is by observing and contemplating the beauty of life….a squirming warm new-born human, calf, puppy, or anything new to the world through the act of birth and procreation…the laughter, smile, and innocence of a small child.  (They have more of the image of God at this point than any other time)….the wisdom of a bright-eyed old man who has been there before you….large mountains with a hat of ice and snow…the laughing lapping of the ocean waves against the shore at sunset…the colorful creatures swimming past you in the waters off Cozumel….the intricate detail and webbing of an opening spring flower to receive the life-giving sun rays…the sound of the morning birds outside your window bursting with the praise of its Creator. It is because of the signature of God on Creation that He says we can know Him….even the “invisible” things of Him…things we can’t see!

From the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly observed in what he made. As a result, people have no excuse.

Romans 1:20

Do you catch that? We have no excuse to be an unbeliever.  Creation is available for all to see, touch, hear, taste.  If we open our minds and be honest and logical, we will not only know there is a Creator, but we will know some things about Him.

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The Bible

This book is no accident.  It is not just a collection of 40 different authors separated by hundreds of years and three different continents with an agenda to deceive people.  If it had just one author, as do some religions, I would be skeptical too.

 It is in the number of different books, authors, and cultures preserved for thousands of years who agree about Jesus, which gives the basis for faith.

Have you failed to see Jesus in the Old Testament?  Has your experience been based only on the New Testament?  You are missing something…at least 39 books of the 66!  That is 59% of the story you are missing if you don’t visit the old testament! It is estimated that there are over 400 prophecies in the Old Testament about the first and second coming of Jesus.

I can say this with confidence because of the story that we will see in the next post.  Jesus himself exclaimed to his disciples this very thing when He appeared to them after His resurrection.    Once they understood that Jesus was throughout scripture, they went from fearful men hiding behind closed doors on the first day of the week, to week-long believers of Jesus willing to lay down their life for telling the truth about Jesus!

  It is a life-giving gospel of love and peace for all people unlike the hatred and control of other religions we are seeing modern times.

It is difficult if not impossible to ignore the word of God during the week and snack on it occasionally and be a solid believer in Jesus.  It was written that we might believe Jesus.  That Bible given to you by your grandmother with its 66 books is all about Him! Yes, that means Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy…you name it.  Here is how I know.

Jesus gave a Bible study to two disciples who had just witnessed his death a few days earlier.  They were walking away from the massive head wound of discouragement.  Their faith was near death. It was at the pinnacle of their hurt that Jesus showed up and encouraged them.  They went from the depths of doubt, despair, and unbelief to their “hearts burning” within them. As I mentioned, we will look at this next time.

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The Experience of other real people (Not REALigious)

It was the experience of these two men that inspired men and continues even to this day.  In my life I have seen some miraculous working of God in people’s lives.  I have seen atheists turned into believer in Jesus (I am one of them).  It is their testimony that is powerful in the dispelling of doubt.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony

Revelation 12:11

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When I was younger, a friend and I received an invitation to give Bib

When I was younger, a friend and I received an invitation to give Bible studies to the mother and daughter of a young African-American man who was now a follower of Christ. He had given up his life as a professional fighter to follow Jesus. He wanted his family to know the beauty of God’s word. This is a powerful story in itself, but I will save it for another time.

On a frosty night in Nashville, Tennessee, I met with my friend to give the first of the Bible studies. We walked into the very poor apartment complex near downtown Nashville wearing our ties and suits (We had just come from work that required us to dress this way.). We carried our Bibles also. Needless to say, we stuck out in our appearance.

As we passed by a group of young men warming themselves by a dumpster, recently set ablaze, one of them asked, “Where are you going?” We told him, “To give a Bible study.” The words came out of my fear-lumped throat, “Come join us!” We had reason to fear because one of them said, “I have a gun.”

One of them showed up as a massive shadow in the doorway to the poor apartment! He sat down quietly and with a threat in his eyes. The massive shadow said nothing when he arrived and nothing when he left, but you could see trouble in his face and the way he carried himself.

As I gave the study about the life of Jesus, the rats scampered about…even under my feet! But, they did not distract from the beautiful story of Jesus’ love for all of mankind. Nevertheless, we never again saw the young man, with the big shadow, at the studies.

Several months later, I sat with my family in church waiting for the service to begin when my friend came up to me and asked me to come back to the vestibule. He wanted me to see something he said I was not going to believe.

I got up respectfully and walked to the back of the main auditorium and through the doors. Standing before me was the massive shadow who we had seen by the burning dumpster! His eyes said it all. I walked up to him and said, “You have Jesus in your life!” You could see in his eyes and face the transformation from a troubled soul to a man of peace because of his Savior who had been welcomed into this man’s life.

Somehow, our little time together on that frosty night led him to search for Jesus and he found Him. His experience reminded me of two great truths. God’s word, will never return to void and if someone searches for Jesus, they will find him.

“My word, which comes from my mouth, is like the rain and snow. It will not come back to me without results. It will accomplish whatever I want and achieve whatever I send it to do.”

Isaiah 55:11

And ye shall seek me, and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

Next time, we will look at the walk with Jesus by the two disciples and how it can help us with doubt in our life, but even more importantly, how it can help us on our Jesus journey.

Blessings my friends.