Good Thursday morning! The more fall-ish weather is returning to the area this morning; 'bout time too! Great lesson last night in our Men's Bible study as we move into 2 Peter this year. What opportunities for Christian service await you this morning? What joy awaits us as the new day dawns? A couple of months ago I would have been out taking photos by this time; today, darkness... The season is a changin'!
Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. John 3:33
My Webster's says that to affirm is to say positively; declare firmly; assert to be true: opposed to deny. Aha, the opposite of what Peter will do three times there at the end of Jesus' earthly life. Once more we have another great verse in John 3. Accepting the testimony of Jesus, the one who came from Heaven and speaks of what he has seen and heard, allows us to affirm that God is true. To the people of Israel, God is true in that he has fulfilled his end of the covenant in Jesus Christ. To the Gentiles, God is true in that he has sent us a light in the darkness just as He promised through the prophet Isaiah. If nothing else, know that to affirm that God is true means that we do not and cannot deny the fact. But it is more than defining us by the opposite of what we are to do, we affirm that God is true with a joyful heart.
To affirm that God is true, we must first believe that there is a God; not all people do and we call them atheists. The Bible is the Word of God and says "I Am". We must believe that God is knowable or can be known; again, not all folks do and we call them agnostics. The Bible tells us that we can see the handiwork of God in the heavens and the earth. We must also believe in Jesus; not simply a statement that we believe that a man named Jesus lived about the time we changed dates from B.C. to A.D., but that we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and died to pay the price for our sins. We believe that Jesus rose again on the third day. Why? Because Jesus testified that this would happen back in chapter 2. We have only come a short way into the gospel of John, and already Jesus has given us enough testimony to believe in him! Now, John the Baptist is giving us a new mission, to affirm that God is true by accepting the testimony of Christ concerning both himself and God.
Last night, we saw an example of one man who affirmed that God is true. Peter named Jesus as both God and Savior. Thomas named Jesus as both Lord and God. Praise God for the privilege of affirming God and Jesus in our daily lives by what we say and do.
In Jesus' name!
Bucky
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