THE STAGGERING QUESTION

“Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel 37:3




Can that sinner be turned into a saint? Can that twisted life be put right? There is only one answer: “O Lord, Thou knowest, I don’t.” Never trample in with religious common sense and say – “Oh, yes, with a little more Bible reading and devotion and prayer, I see how it can be done.”



It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we mistake panic for inspiration. That is why there are so few fellow workers with God and so many workers for Him. We would far rather work for God than believe in Him. Am I quite sure that God will do what I cannot do? I despair of men in the degree in which I have never realized that God has done anything for me. Is my experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never despair of anyone I see? Have I had any spiritual work done in me at all? The degree of panic is the degree of the lack of personal spiritual experience.



“Behold, O my people, I will open your graves.” When God wants to show you what human nature is like apart from Himself, He has to show it you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He only does it when His Spirit is at work), you know there is no criminal who is half so bad in actuality as you know yourself to be in possibility. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” God’s Spirit continually reveals what human nature is like apart from His grace.



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“Is my experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never despair of anyone I see? Have I had any spiritual work done in me at all? The degree of panic is the degree of the lack of personal spiritual experience.”



I know that God has been at work in me but it has been so subtle and gradual a process that most of the time I don’t realize anything has changed until I stop and go over my life and realize that indeed I have changed, but I just don’t ‘feel’ like I have really had any ‘personal spiritual experience” that I can fall back on. When I asked God into my life, I felt nothing, I felt no spiritual presence. My whole Christian experience has been a matter of personal decision of my will and choosing to believe that this path is the right one for me, but it sure hasn’t been one of any personal ‘spiritual’ experience of any Presence from God in my life. This has been my greatest leap of faith just using my will to believe. Choosing to have faith in God and His process of transformation in me. This faith in Jesus is based on knowing that there is nothing out there in other religions that comes close. My problem sometimes is listening too much to other people’s testimonies and hearing all the most spectacular things God had supposedly done in their lives ,that many times I walk away feeling a bit left out or that I must have been behind the door when God was passing out all these experiences. But in the end I must realize that God deals with each of us differently and our walk with Him is personal and so my experience will not be like any one elses. The passage of scripture that does my mind good on this topic is here in
the Gospel (John 20: 19-31) which  recounts one of the Post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ to his disciples, where Jesus appears to his disciples, coming through locked doors and says “Peace be with you” breathing upon them the Holy Spirit and communicating His authority to forgive sins.
However, Thomas was not present. The Beloved disciple John records this exchange between the Risen Lord and Thomas which follows: “Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
“Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them.Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
This encounter led to Thomas being called “Doubting Thomas”. Yet the tradition tells us that so called “doubting Thomas” died a martyr for his faith. He also became a messenger of Mercy to India, a missionary who shed his own blood for the Master whom he encountered on that day. His insistence on touching the wounds presented the Disciple John another opportunity to explain for all of us the implications of the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ.But what is outstanding is what Jesus then says to us who have trouble believing, but still choose too without the experience of some tangible proof..29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” So this is where I am and because I have not ‘seen’ Him and yet believe, I can trust that I will be blessed in this.