More on the Eyewitness

This afternoon I began reading Mark 16 and there it is, do we believe the eyewitnesses or not? There has always been a great challenge to Christian beliefs in a world that can only believe if they see first, 'show me the money.' Sunday in church, a friend reported a conversation she had with someone about faith and his response was, "show me the evidence." When we have God's word backwards, we will not see.

Christians who have seen and believed the Lord, love to celebrate who He is. Two of the days we love to celebrate more than any other are Christmas and Easter, the beginning of our faith for salvation and the resurrection to eternal life with Jesus. We love to celebrate and the world increasingly loves to castigate the meaning of our celebrations. But they can never change what God has given us.

What were the expectations and hopes of the people we read about in Mark 16? 16:1, they were going to anoint a dead body; 16:3, who would roll back the stone for them? Every emotion these three women felt is probably exactly what we would feel. They have been grieving, terror-filled, amazed, frightened enough to be trembling, bewildered and seized with consternation, they were held captive by fear and alarm (all scriptures are from the Amplified Bible). Verse 9 says that Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene, she went and reported to the disciples (v.10) what she had just SEEN and HEARD, and the disciples response was to weep and grieve. Yesterday (March 29) we had a very good description from P. Rory of what it is to weep like that. It's pretty messy, but there is no way to stop it because you don't care who sees it. The Bible calls this "godly sorrow for sin". Could it be that the eleven were sitting around thinking of the last few days and everything they had done and experienced? When the Master's name was mentioned, did Peter remember his betrayal of his Master? They grieved and wept. After all this, still they could not believe, "And when they heard that He was alive and that she had SEEN Him, they did not believe it" (v 11). Jesus never gives up on His people!! He appears to His apostles and rebukes and reproves them for their hard hearts and lack of faith, "...they had refused to believe those who had SEEN Him and LOOKED at Him attentively after He had risen [from death]." Thank you Jesus for not giving up on our frames of dust! Jesus believed in them! After His sharp rebuke, He gives them the Great Commission! And here we are today.

Soon we will be celebrating again. Easter is in a couple weeks, April 12. This year is the fifth year since we first came to TRC. Broken-hearted and unhealed, but Jesus...

I'm blogging like the whole world is reading everything, so this is my message to you today. Even if you have heard it many times and your response is "I'm still not ready", make this year different. Believe the eyewitnesses, believe the pastors when they preach their hearts out that Jesus loves you and will save you. They and many others have SEEN and believed. Believe the eyewitnesses in Mark 16, it is these people who changed the world. Jesus still wants more world-changers, you are one too when Jesus gets hold of your life. Forsake your life and your life will be saved. This Easter time!