The process of Belief.

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What if you were with  your brother, and you were fishing, and unfortunately not catching anything?!! and then some random guy walks up to your boat, and tells you to throw down your nets into the sea... again.... and for some odd reason, you say what the heck, and  listen to him….. and all of a sudden in your boat, you have more  fish then you could possibly contain.

 But just before you ask this guy to stick around, and help you make millions from a new, highly successful, highly miraculous, fishing business; He informs you that you are going to join him and go fishing for people. (?) and for some odd reason (probably because it worked so well for you the first time)……..you say yes.  drop your nets, and follow.

Flash forward… a few weeks later…. during your travels with this guy, you are walking by a certain part of town that is known for having a highly dangerous man, the kind of gholuish charecture who roams the cemetery yard at night, pacing between the tombs, ranting and raving…(it says in the book of Luke that this man is possessed by multiple demons.) The startling part is, instead of taking a longer road, to be safe and avoid this scary individual;  this "fisher of men" you are following, is taking you directly towards sir-creeps-a-lot.

While you’re there, knees knocking, palms sweaty, (vomit on your sweater already) second guessing why you even decided to follow this obviously “at risk” character……you learn something more about him from the most unusual place….as you approach….you hear a demon  call out from inside this man, and this is what he says,

What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the most high God? I beg you do not torment me? (Luke 8:28)

and you discover even  the demons shudder when they see Jesus coming.

But this strange exsperience doesn’t end there,

 Jesus casts demons out of this incredibly tormented and scary guy,  makeing it safer for everyone in the town. But the oddest thing happens, instead of rejoicing,…. all the people in the town tell Jesus to leave.............................. they were afraid.

They had never seen such power on earth, and they didn’t want anything to do with this "Son of the most high God."

They were looking right at you, when they told Jesus to leave.  You could sense they knew you had been sleeping outside, and walking long distances for days on end, and they saw your only possessions were contianed in the small satchel you had on your back. They knew that if they  accepted the full reality of what they just saw, they would have, (like you) needed to drop their tools, and their families, and start following behind this mysterious man, who has the power to free people from the deepest forms of torment.

 If they totally accepted the truth of what they just saw, they would have had to change everything….

and you knew they had decided that it would be much easier, to make sure Jesus never did anything like that in their town again.

So now you begin to catch on, and the rest of your gang does to. This guy has real power.
So much so, two guys from your group send their mom! up to ask if they can have a special seat right next to this Son of the most high,  (playing favorites)… and He tells her, you have no idea what you are asking. He says you are not ready to drink the cup that I am about to drink (referring to his death)

and they retort, “yes we are”

and Jesus agrees with them,
but He realizes he needs to explain to them what His power is really all about. He says,

You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall no be so among you. But whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 10:42)

And then this mysterious and powerful man, lives this teaching out in a way no one in your group could imagine. He allows himself to be turned over to the Roman authorities and sentenced to death.

And you watch…..as

Roman soldiers begin to mock Him and hit him…. and they say if you are so powerful then why don’t you prophesy which one of us hit you, and they put a crown of thorns on his head, and they put an ironic sign up that says  "king of the Jews” on the top of the cross, after they nail Him to it....and you watch in despair as He looses His life.

But then, three days later, everything changes.

And one of your friends remembers a wedding, where this "King of the Jews" said,
“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

and your friend remembers,  the Jews did not like what Jesus had said, and how they questioned Him saying,  “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”

And then like a flickering light that finally shines brightly, you realize, the temple he had spoken of was his body.  And, right then and there,  life becomes electric. You are overwhelemed by an inexplicable belief that all of the words that Jesus had spoken in your time together were....actually......true.  And you know from now on nothing else matters but the blooming of this new creation, that is bursting forth, right in front of you.