REALLY HARD TO BELIEVE

Sometimes it’s Hard to Believe, and then at other times it can be REALLY HARD TO BELIEVE!

As an example, for some it can be Hard to Believe there is only one true God who created everything there is in the entire universe.

 Then you add to it by saying that same one true God has an adult son, who was sent to Earth to be reborn as a human baby though a virgin teenage girl. He lived for 33 years performing miracles and healing people everywhere he went, then he was convicted, and executed for a crime that he did not commit, buried in a tomb and 3 days later he was raised from the dead, and went back to heaven to resume his place beside his father God as an advocate for those who killed him as well as all of humanity.

They might say, “Now that’s REALLY HARD TO BELIEVE!”

 Hard to Believe is on one level, but REALLY HARD TO BELIEVE is on a whole new different level.

 The difference in the levels is determined by how far we think something is from reality. The more outlandish we think something is, the harder we find it to believe.

It’s called the Plausibility factor. If we don’t think it is plausible then we rule it out.

 Sometimes things that seem so ridiculous are REALLY HARD TO BELIVE, and likewise sometimes things that are too wonderful to imagine can also be REALLY HARD TO BELIEVE. So, we deem them not plausible.

 God is both, Hard to Believe and Really Hard to Believe.

 That’s because we don’t have the same intellect that God does. His intellect, reasoning, strategy, is far superior to ours, and our minds cannot fully embrace or fathom who he is, or how or why he does things.

 Lord, how can you love me? Wretched, raggedy, soul that I am. Yet you do!

Sometimes we just can’t accept his great love for us. So, we choose to ignore it or just disregard it.

We feel it’s just not Plausible!

There was a man who wrote his own version of the Bible, and he left out all the things that he found really hard to believe; like, walking on water, lepers being healed, people coming back from the dead, etc.

Yes, the third president of the United Sates, Thomas Jefferson did not find it plausible that those things could have ever happened, so he wrote his own bible, the Jefferson Bible, based on what he deemed believable.

Many of us might not gone as far as writing our own Bible, YET… but there are still some things that are found to be REALLY HARD TO BELEIVE.

The culture around us has its own beliefs, things that it considers plausible. As individuals we are impacted by the culture.

So, to the degree in which a belief seems convincing is directly related to the plausibility factor based on our surrounding culture.

Your culture is your community or the company you keep. In short, the folks you surround yourself with impact what you believe in.  

 A lot of people say Seeing is Believing, but there are others who say Believing is Seeing.

Maybe you’ve said to yourself, if I could have just been there and seen some of the things the Bible said happened for myself then I might believe.

There were lots of people who smelled the rotting flesh of the decaying dead body of Lazarus for days. Then Jesus came to where he was and called him out of the grave. He came back to life, yet there were those who could not believe because of their culture. Many others continued to come and see the resurrected Lazarus, and they still chose not to believe what they saw firsthand.

 Miracle after miracle happened in the Bible, yet people could not believe because of their culture, the folks around them.

Seeing is not Believing, only Believing is Believing!

That is still the case today. There are miracles happening all around us. I wonder can we see them? Do we Believe?

 Whether something is plausible depends on your viewpoint. Are we looking through our eyes or are we looking though the eyes of God?

 If you are at the bottom of a tall building looking up at it, you might think to yourself it would take a while to climb this building.

Conversely so, if you were on the top of that building and looking down, you would think, I could get down from here in a flash.

 Perspective matters!

 Let’s see what Gods culture / community has to offer us as a perspective.

This will be your reality, if you diligently listen to and obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.  All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you pay attention to the voice of the Lord your God.

 “You will be blessed in the city, and you will be blessed in the country.

 “The offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your animals, the offspring of your herd and the young of your flock will be blessed.

“Your basket, your kneading bowl, and all your resources will be blessed.

 “You will be blessed when you come in and you will be blessed when you go out.

“The Lord will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way but flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your storehouses and in [c]all that you undertake, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you...  The Lord will open for you His good treasure house, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. The Lord will make you the head (leader) and not the tail (follower); and you will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen and pay attention to the commandments of the Lord your God. Do not turn aside from any of his words which he gives you, to the right or to the left, to follow and serve other gods. Deuteronomy 28

 God finds it Really Easy to Believe in Us. Thank you, Lord!

                                                                               This is a Thompson Truth