Day 237: Will You?

John 13:21-38; 2 Chronicles 19; Psalm 78:40-55

This passage of John is all about betrayal. Jesus was "deeply troubled." Why? Because he was about to be betrayed into the hands of death. When he dips the bread and hands it to Judas, its like he is handing his body over to him to betray him. The next verse says that "right then Satan took control of Judas." I don't know if Judas gave up hope, if Satan just overcame him, or what, but Satan's role in this betrayal is clear. God ordained it for the salvation of the world, but Satan was greedy enough and wanted to get his hands on Jesus no matter what. He chose a man whose god was money and used that to overcome the message of Jesus. In addition to Judas' betrayal, Jesus also predicts Peter's betrayal. Peter declares that he would die for Jesus, and he very well might, but would he stand up for him? Would he identify with him? A lot of Christians say that they will die for their faith, for Jesus. Ok, that's great, Jesus says, but will you defend me? Will you represent me? Will you speak up for me? Our actions show that we often won't. It's so sad and when I think about it this way, I feel like I am betraying my Savior even after his has given up his life for me. Praise God that he died because of his love for us, to save us, to bring us closer to him and to provide forgiveness!

Jehosaphat travels around his kingdom and encourages the people to worship The Lord. He himself goes and speaks to his people. This is a very awesome, personal approach and through it, he sets up leaders to carry out justice and keep the peace. He doesn't just send a letter and hope the people figure it out. He equips them because he knows that humans make mistakes (as he was just rebuked by a prophet for one of his own).

People sometimes say they don't want to believe in God because they want proof. The Israelites were a group of people who saw the hand of God performing amazing and terrible miracles and yet they still forgot and disobeyed The Lord. What makes us think that our generation would be any different? God revealed himself in a very visual and powerful way to them and they did not always respond with faithfulness. Today, God whispers to hearts, uses people to do miracles, and it is through the acts of changed hearts that he reveals himself. If we are unwilling to be faithful and believe because of the testament of the scriptures and the testimony of believers, then probably no amount of fire from heaven will change our minds either. We must have faith. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said something like, if Christianity is fake, then it is of no importance; but if it is real, then it is the most important thing ever (my paraphrase). If God isn't real, if he doesn't exist, then believing in him, what the Bible says, really doesn't matter. But if God is real, then whether or not I have faith in him is the most important thing of my entire physical and spiritual life.