Vince Deagler

hi out there.  we are in the midst of the easter season.  the events of easter some 2000 years ago represent the most significant happenings in all human history to we christians.  we believe jesus died on the cross to pay the price of sin in full and that he rose from the dead to offer us the life that was lost in the garden when man rebelled against god.  there is only one catch, if you call it a catch, you must believe.  not so much an intellectual acceptance of a set of facts.  belief is more like a turning from self rule to god’s rule.  it is the submitting of myself to him based on the realization that i need him.  belief recognizes self rule as sin, recognizes sin has a price (death), but as just mentioned, jesus came to pay this price in full (explains why his death was necessary) and rose again to offer us life, the very life we lost as we rebelled against god and his rule in our life.  this belief results in regeneration (what is often referred to as being born again) from which a rest of your life process begins whereby god makes you a new creation, the old passes away, the new emerges.  the goal of this transformation is that we would be like jesus.  in other words belief is measured in terms of transformation.  it is not simply an academic exercise.  yet there is a huge academic hurdle in the process.  you must surrender to jesus as god come in human form to die for your sin and rise from the dead.  and lets be frank, that is humanly speaking, impossible.  first we can’t prove the existence of god, so the idea of god coming in human form is quite a hurdle to overcome.  but then you add in the whole death and resurrection aspect, and belief gets that much harder.  the result is, there are far more people in the world who do not believe than those that do.  now i am a believer, i want you to be a believer, so let me ask a simple question, what will it take for you to believe???  i want to walk through the process of belief using perhaps the most famous non-believer as a case study.

thomas was one of the 12.  that meant he had bought in to the claim that jesus was god’s promised messiah.  in fact he had spent the last 3 years of his life following jesus, seeking to become like jesus.  he had great expectations for jesus.  it is fair to say he thought jesus would establish his kingdom on earth and as one of the 12, thomas thought he would then rule with jesus.  despite jesus plainly teaching he would be arrested, crucified, and rise from the dead, when jesus was taken and killed thomas was devastated.  when jesus arose and appeared to the apostles thomas wasn’t there.  when the others told him jesus was alive we hear those immortal words…i won’t believe unless i put my fingers in the nail holes, and my hand in his side where the spear was thrust.  you see, thomas had become disillusioned.  he had gone all in on jesus, and when jesus died as far as thomas was concerned, his bet had been lost.  he wasn’t about to get burned again.

but then jesus sought him out, this come from john 20:24-29.  jesus knew where thomas was, what he was thinking, feeling, what he needed.  and he came to him in his cynicism, in his unbelief, in his disillusionment and gave him exactly what he needed.  he didn’t condemn thomas in his unbelief, he invited thomas to come to him and see the truth for himself.  and thomas believed.

i think there is a lot of thomas in each one of us, and i think god still operates the same way he did with thomas.  he is still inviting us to come to him and see for ourselves whether his truth claims can hold up.  our problem is not in god, its in that thomas like part of us that says this is too good to be true so it can’t be true.  it is a part of the human disease the bible calls sin.  back in the garden satan convinced us god was holding out on us.  he convinced us that we could take the fruit god had forbidden, and in so doing we would be like god ourselves.  practically that means we would not need god anymore, we could do our own thing.  and we have.  most of us have played by the rules, done what we were told to do, what we were expected to do to get ahead and make it in this life.  we went to school, we found a mate, started a family, entered a career path, bought the right house in the right neighborhood, had the right friends, bought the right stuff, drove the right cars, etc.  just like thomas we bought into the dream, but something happened.  for some of us things have not worked out as they were supposed to.  what may be even worse, for some of us things have worked out as expected, but we are still dis-satisfied.  in this state of disillusionment, like thomas we are at a crossroads.  maybe you have been there before, probably so.  i’ve been there.  so what do we do?  sometimes we dig in, try harder, convinced this time it will work.  sometimes we give up, drop out, lose hope.  sometimes we change course and pretend this was the plan all along.  sometimes we look for something to dull the pain…pleasure, chocolate, shopping, a diversion, an escape, a fix…whatever it takes to cope.

please realize jesus knows where you are, what you’re thinking, feeling, how you are disillusioned.  he really does feel your pain and wants to help if you would just let him.  he loves you.  he has a plan for you.  it all starts with jesus.  he knows how hard it is to believe, but maybe its time for us to realize it is hard not to believe.  the easter season is bittersweet.  it describes death.  it describes life.  you may have lived your whole life directed by no one but yourself.  you may have listened to those who mocked god, jesus, religious belief.  you may have thought you don’t need that, you have life figured out.  if you do, i’m happy for you.  but here is what i know.  sooner or later you are gonna come to a moment in your life you do not have an answer for, you can’t handle, you can’t control, that will scare you to death, cause you to evaluate everything, even god.  maybe you are already there.  instead of blowing through another crossroad, why not turn to god, give him a chance.  he’ll meet you where you are, accept your cynicism for what it is, and prove himself to you as he did with thomas.  i hope this is the easter you say with thomas…my lord and my god.  if you have any questions, i’d love to help you work through them.  blessings.  vince