This morning Brock spoke about the miracles of Jesus. He told about some of the theories of how Jesus performed some of His miracles and how they disproved those theories on the Discovery Channel tv show. He said that the most convincing of all is that if the resurrection did not happen...if the disciples were making it up, why did they die for what they believed? 11 out of the 12 were martyred for their claims about Jesus. The other one was exiled to an island. If they had not seen with their own eyes that Jesus was in fact risen from the dead, then why didn't they confess that it was a lie in order to get out of being tortured and executed?
Brock ended his session this morning with one question. He had everyone close their eyes and think about how much they believed in Jesus. Then he said, "I'm not asking if you are willing to die for Jesus, but are you willing to live for Him?"
I've been thinking about that. I just read in one of my Bible studies that there are more people martyred for Christ now than ever before. In 1900, the estimate of people martyred for the sake of Christ was 35,600. In 1989, the number of martyrs had risen to 325,000. Add the fact that I received an e-mail from my friends today who are missionaries somewhere in Central Asia, and they are being threatened with being "found out" just like their leaders. Their leaders were given 10 days to leave the country after spending a decade there.
I have it so easy here, yet I cannot find time each day to spend in studying God's Word. I've been asking the question all day to myself..."How much am I living for Christ?"
Saturday, February 10, 2007
How Much Do You Believe in Christ?
Posted by AUNY at 3:45 PM
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5 comments:
I kind of remember Brock talking to us about this same exact subject at the Youth Evangelism Challenege back in Decemeber. That made me think,"Hey, am I living up to my expectations? Am I witnessing to people like Christ wants me to?" That's why I have been praying on the courage to witness to others. That's why I asked you to pray for me in a couple of blogs back.
That's a good question...Here in the city theres no persecution at all. My Pastor says that He doesn't think that the we are ready for a persecution.
If u think about it profoundly, it makes u think.
That's the question we have to do everytime in each decition.
Where did you get that numbers??
yea i know wat u mean taylor! we wwere there 2 lol!
I'm not what one would likely call a devout Christian...but here's my theory. Jesus' whole message was about living. It was about taking what he was preaching to heart and conducting your life by those lessons.
This may sound blasphemous, and I don't mean it to be--so please forgive me if I offend. But I personally believe that if Jesus called a press conference, He'd say, "I don't care if you believe in ME per se; that wasn't my point. Do you believe in the MESSAGE? Did you get what I was saying?"
My interpretation of the passage "only through me..." is a bit different. I think he was speaking metaphorically rather than literally, ie, "only through what I 'm teaching you, only if you really listen and take it to heart, can you reach the kingdom of Heaven." To him, the message was a hundred times more important than the messenger.
Irish
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