Since I finished Colossians, I am back in the book of Mark. Tonight I was in chapter 14. Am I the only one that has ever thought how nice it would have been to live in Biblical times. It would have been so much easier to have a strong faith when you see Jesus turn water into wine. Right? How about when he fed thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple fish. It had to be amazing to see a man raised from the dead or see a woman that had bled for many years be healed with just the touch of the hem of Jesus clothing.
If seeing miracles could create faith then how could Judas plan to betray Jesus. Verse 10 in chapter 14 says that Judas went to went to the chief priests. They did not have to come to him, he found them. That shows absolute intent on Judas' part.
As human beings, none of us are exempt from temptation. Even Jesus, as a human was tempted by Satan. The big difference is that Jesus could resist temptation. We, are very imperfect. How do we resist? Pray, pray, study the Bible and pray some more. An accountability partner can work wonders in your life. Find a friend that knows you well and cares about your soul. Confess your sins to them and ask them to check up on you to make sure you are not falling back into temptation.
Every generation has their trials, your character comes from how you respond to those trials.
I imagine they might have said how nice it must be to have the complete Word of God too. A lot of their faith had to be in what they saw, where we get to measure it against what has been written. I would love to have lived then, but I think it would have been hard to really believe what you were seeing was true.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point!
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