The words of this blog's title are the very words the Lord spoke to me a few minutes before typing this blog. I had heard him all morning speak of his plans for me and his Church in these coming days. My silent prayer was "Father, glorify your name", to which He replied (unexpectedly I must say), “I have glorified it before, and I will glorify it again!"
YHWH will glorify his name again! Hallelujah!
This was YHWH's same reply to Jesus's prayer ‘Father, glorify your name' in John 12:28. The plot against him by the Torah teachers and Jewish leaders had thickened as his popularity increased. It was now coming up to the time he would be killed. His disciples oblivious to his mental state, carried on with business as usual. On this occasion, they requested he grant some Greek-speaking Jews an audience with himself. Rather than grant the request, he revealed what was uppermost in his heart: his impending death by crucifixion, and the need for complete devotion by his followers.
"Jesus said to them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to receive his glory. It is a fact that a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die before it can grow and produce much more wheat. If it never dies, it will never be more than a single seed. Whoever loves the life they have now will lose it. But whoever is willing to give up their life in this world will keep it. They will have eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me. My servants must be with me everywhere I am. My Father will give honour to anyone who serves me.
“Now I am very troubled. What should I say? Should I say, ‘Father save me from this time of suffering’? No, I came to this time so that I could suffer. Father, do what will bring you glory!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have already brought glory to myself. I will do it again." John 12:23 -28 Easy-to-Read Version
We are in such a time where the decision to believe and follow Jesus has to be more than a good idea. He has to be more than 'a practice' to complement our expectations of an educated or civilised social class. God is not an accessory to your life. He is our life.
It is all or nothing.
Believing is a choice to trust based on limited but undeniable evidence.
Some 'believing' are more calculated than others - they are decisions made by weighing the testimonials and the physical evidence available.
For others,'believing' is more intuitive. They believe because they just somehow 'know' (beyond the five senses) this must be true.
Either way, no 'believing' is based on absolute certainty or complete physical evidence. Otherwise, if it is all known and seen, believing is obsolete. It is unnecessary because the evidence is apparent to all the five senses. For example, if you are sitting on a chair, you do not need to 'believe' you are sitting on a chair. Why? Because the evidence is apparent to all your five senses of sight, taste, touch, hearing and smell. You would not need to believe because all the facts are obvious - they are seen.
However, to be human is to believe.
We enter the world as babies knowing nothing but instinctively living by believing i.e faith / trust.
It is impossible to exist without believing. We are surrounded by so many unknowns - in fact too many to be calculatable or reasoned out. The only way we exist is to blissfully live in believe, i.e. by faith, while aspiring and taking steps to understand.
The choice to believe in God or not is therefore not based on some superior intellectual ability or higher power of discernment but simply because we choose to. If you do not, it is because you do not want to: Nothing more, nothing less.
As Paul explained in the Bible, even nature gives evidence of the existence of God:
"What is revealed is God’s anger from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who in their wickedness keep suppressing the truth; because what is known about God is plain to them, since God has made it plain to them. For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities — both his eternal power and his divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse; " Romans 1:18-20 CJB
And the Judeo-Christian bible has more evidence to support it's authenticity than any other ancient texts in the world. The person and earthly ministry of Jesus is an undisputable fact. The Resurrection of Jesus has too many eyewitness accounts to dismiss. The evidence for the bible far outweighs the parts not provable or it's so called errors. Not to mention that people have held tightly to the books and concepts of philosophers and humans with much less integrity, authenticity and authority than the bible.
God is revealed to the human soul. He is intelligent and has his character manifested in all of creation. He puts an awareness in all human hearts that all we see is not all there is.
"He has made everything suited to its time; also, he has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does." Ecclesiastes 3:11 CJB
Hence believing is a deliberate decision to know, to understand and to accept the creator YHWH through the evidence (albeit limited) and provision he has made for us to get to him, i.e. Jesus Christ.
Those who want to know, know. They seek to understand. Not believing is either a deliberate choice not to care, or to reject him.
However I echo, Jesus words to all: "Whoever loves the life they have now will lose it. But whoever is willing to give up their life in this world will keep it. They will have eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me."
For all who believe, now is the time not just to believe in him, but to follow him with all our hearts irrespective of what we may face in this world.
"For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." Romans 8:24-25
““So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." - Jesus in Luke 11:9 - 10
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." John 3:16 - 18
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