JESUS SPEAKING
“And the Father Himself, who sent me, has testified of me. You have neither heard His voice nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, him you do not believe. You search the scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of me. But you are unwilling to come to me that you may have life” (John 5: 37-41.)
INSPIRED THOUGHTS
The testimony concerning Jesus Christ is something that exists internally in the hearts of those who believed. Those who didn’t believe, searched the scriptures, thinking that the scriptures themselves were eternal life, when in fact, the scriptures were simply a guide; a way to identify the true messiah; (this does not mean that they are not sacred, for they are the eternal words of God.) Men wrote the bible physically as God inspired them to write; or God dictated to them verbally what to write (with the exception of the 10 commandments which God wrote with His finger.) God, through men, identified when, where, and how the messiah would be born. (The messiah was going to be the one that was going to bring peace once again between God and men; a forgiveness of sins.) God revealed through scripture, the works that he would do; the miracles, the message; and the ministries. He also foretold of how the messiah would be betrayed, would die, and be raised to life. Knowing God and knowing that Jesus Christ is God’s Son are one in the same; for Jesus says, “But you do not have his word abiding in you, because whom He sent, him you do not believe.” It is impossible to truly know God, and still doubt His Son.
When I was a child, we used to go sledding at a place called ‘The bowl.’ Basically, ‘the bowl’ was a small pond surrounded by high hills, and when the winter snow came, its slopes would be crowded with families and kids with sleds, inner tubes, and snowboards. Since the hills stretched all the way around, there were so many different places to begin sledding. Some were steep, and some weren’t; some had obstacles and jumps, and some didn’t. Some started all the way from the top, some from the tree area, and even the young kids had a slightly less adventurous area to start from. No matter where a person started from, they were all on a pathway to the same place, provided they chose to let go; the destination was a little patch of flat ice in the center about the size of ½ a football field. This could get rather dangerous at times, because no sooner had one person stopped, than another was coming down right behind them, sometimes even from an different direction. There was no shortage of crying children, that’s for sure. The bible is very much the same. A person can start reading in any book, but once they’ve started, all those who continue sliding, will eventually land up right in the arms of Jesus Christ. The purpose of scripture is to testify about God’s plan for reconciliation in His son. Some read the Old Testament, some the new, but all scripture relates backward or forward to Jesus Christ. God has chosen to make His Son the focus, the main event, the person he desires for us to follow after, to be like, and to submit too; Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and we are to be live and move and have our being in him.
Today, many people stay away from scripture entirely, because they understand and know that it leads them somewhere, and having denied Jesus, they don’t want to take that journey. There are others who have seen the very wonderful gift that God has given us in Jesus Christ, because their hearts contain the word of God. To those who have allowed God’s testimony to enter in to their hearts, they come face to face with a messiah who embraces them and loves them with God’s love, and with God’s heart. Continue to read the word, and you will continue to grow stronger in your faith and in your relationship with the Lord, through His Son.
“Lord Heavenly Father, give us further testimonies concerning Your Son, and the eternal life that we have in Him. Continue to point us in the direction of our messiah, and give us a peace as we come to rest upon Him, and in Him. We love You Father, we thank You, and we praise You, and we ask and pray all of these things, in Jesus Christ’s name, amen.” God bless all of you.
Jesus Speaks 