A Fiery Dart

Yesterday I was listening to Ravi Zacharias and he was speaking about the boldness of Christ to claim that He would rise from the grave and that His body would be alive again. What a claim that was! A fraud would say, 'I will guide you spiritually after my death.' because it is an easy claim.

Then a thought came in like a dagger, 'Why do you even listen to that book? It is a claim from an imaginary person. If He ever lived at all He is dead and buried just like everyone else.'

That my friend is a fiery dart. A thought lit on fire.

I'd like to say I'm immune to such things but who is immune to fire? Thank God I have a shield called 'faith'. This faith is not general. It is very specific. God created the world and everything in it. He gave men words. In due season those words become a book. Technology progressed. That book was mass produced. Jesus' life was recorded in that book so that His claim of a bodily resurrection would be known and heard by me and millions of others.

Paul said this...

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." - 1 Corinthians 15:3-9 ESV

Statements like, 'Do you really believe that stuff.' and 'They don't really love you.' or 'Who are you to try and do that. You are weak and unimportant in the grand scheme of things.' are just lies. Easy lies. Lies meant to prey on vulnerable people like you and me. Our limitations seem obvious but are they? What can a person with a shield do? What can your little life mean if God is leading and guiding you?

Once again I choose to be the fool who believes the Bible. I choose to say, 'What I do today is important because I carry God in my heart and He carries me through this life.'

The darts will come. Like a gust of wind, they can interrupt your picnic and send a few paper plates flying. It happens but they can't touch the Rock and those who hide in Christ hide in a strong tower that won't be moved or burned down by doubts like that. It isn't that they are not dangerous. They are and people have become shipwrecked because they had no shield or left it somewhere out of reach.

'He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.' - Jim Elliot (A wise young man who died on the mission field but people still quote him today)

So... Don't buy the cheap lie. Buy the truth and sell it not.

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