Day 64 "Just Show Us the Heavenly Father and We Will Believe"

For those of us who find ourselves living with a "show me first" attitude before doing anything, you have kinship with Jesus' disciple, Philip. In response to what Jesus had just said about knowing the Father because of knowing and seeing Jesus, himself, Philip replied,

"Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." John 14:8

To which Jesus replied back, "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." John 14:9

We live in a scientific age- an age full of theories and hypothesis, of experiments and facts. We don't believe much in things we cannot see nor touch. "Show me, and I will believe" seems to be our embedded philosophy by which we live out our lives. Is it any wonder, then, that many of us find great difficulty in believing in a God that we cannot see? We would rather prefer to believe in a big bang theory for the causation of the universe despite the enormity of the mass believed to be in existence before it exploded and the dismissal in our minds of the question, even if such a mass were possible, "Okay, but where did that mass come from?" So our minds, in our inability to grapple with such unsearchable concepts, let go and revert back to what we can accept by faith, and move forward.

But there is a door which opens up to us that allows us to be grounded and anchored to the spiritual world- that which we cannot see. If Jesus was who he claimed to be, then one can rest from the mental gymnastics and find resolution from this struggle with an acknowledgement that it is okay with not knowing everything- that there are some things that will reveal themselves at a later time. One could think of it like driving a car on a winding mountainous road engulfed by a thick blanket of fog. Difficult to see beyond a certain distance of the road or around the next turn. But as one travels further ahead, more of the road opens up to us, and we find ourselves able to navigate our way through the mountains. We don't have to see the whole way to move forward.

Here is the point: If Jesus wasn't resurrected, if he didn't come back from the dead, suffice it to say that there is no Christianity, and we are still in our own sins. It is an argument that was laid out by the Apostle Paul over two thousand years ago in the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. But Paul goes on to testify that Jesus did rise from the dead!

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." 1 Corinthians 15:20

Who is Christ? I discovered this in the first chapter of the book of Hebrews:

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." Hebrews 1:3

If Jesus was who he claimed to be, we can find incredible peace and joy here on earth even in the midst our difficult hardships and pain. Why? Because through Jesus, we understand the nature of God, our creator. Because through Jesus, we have been set us free from any accusation and condemnation before our heavenly Father when we arrive at our judgement day following this lifetime. Because through Jesus, our past slate of sins and regrets are wiped clean, and we are given a "redo" to life. Because through Jesus, we discover what it is to love and to embark upon a lifetime journey to let go of "self" to discover the joys and fulfillment in loving others. Because of Jesus, our inability to handle life as being finite dissolves away as we encounter and discover the reality of eternal life. Because through Jesus, we can let go of our need to perform and realize that we are already accepted and loved unconditionally just as we are and not for what we accomplish or attain in this lifetime. Because of Jesus, he did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

"Show us the Father, and we will believe" echoes our same attitude and mentality. But what we glean from Jesus is that if you see him, we see the Father.

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"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is

temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

Jesus is the "why" and the "how" that sustains us.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." John 14:6

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of god and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." 1 John 4:7-12

May his love sustain you always, see you tomorrow...

"Carpe Momentus in Love" (Seize the moment in love)