By Jeff Morgan from The Baptist Church of Northville and LifeSavers Ministry


This is one of the first questions you are hit with in the "Truth Project". (from Focus On The Family)
It's a thought provoking question.

I think to answer this you have to first ask yourself how real Jesus is to you.
In Matt. 14:22-23 Jesus walks on water out to His disciples. He had sent the disciples on ahead of him in the boat and He came walking on the sea to them. They were terrified, thinking He was a ghost. Jesus said to them "Take courage. Do not be afraid. It is I". How often do we feel fear when we see Jesus "coming towards us?" He calls us to go on a missions trip - we panic. He asks us to share our faith - we freeze. He comes disguised as a beggar - we pretend we don't notice.

Or maybe we're like Peter. When Peter heard it was Jesus he asked to come out to Him. But as he started out, he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink - until Jesus lifted him up.
Have you been asked to do something that you eagerly embrace - until you see the waves?

When Jesus got in the boat the disciples worshiped Him and said, "You are certainly God's Son."
We do the same. We wait for Jesus to "prove" Himself.
No other god  or man has ever walked on water or calmed a storm. Jesus does what no one else can. When we're in the middle of a storm, Jesus says to us the same thing He said to His disciples - "Do not be afraid. It is I".
Do we really believe that?

Just before this, recorded in Matt. 14:13-21, Jesus fed 5 thousand men - plus women and children, with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. When everyone had eaten their fill there was more food left over than they started with. In America, few people know what real hunger is, yet we worry about our next meal. The God who provided for the 5,000 is more than able to provide for you. Do you believe this?

When God created the world, He put the earth exactly where it needed to be. If we were any closer to the sun, it would be too hot to sustain life. If we were any further from the sun, it would be too cold. Earth has just the right amount of water, just the right amount of land, and just the right amount of oxygen in order to sustain life. No other planet has this. Those who believe in evolution and the Big Bang Theory without Intelligent Design, have to have a lot more faith.
What are the chances that random chance could have produced our universe? 1 in 10 to the 20^th power.

If God created the world, why do we doubt He is still in charge of it? Do we fear for the future or do we trust Him?

In John chapter 11 we read the account of Lazarus, who had been dead and in the tomb for 4 days. Yet, Jesus raised him. When Jesus was crucified, He raised Himself from the grave after 3 days. No other religion has a god like this.

In John chapter 14 Jesus tells us "Do not let your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And since I am going, I will come again, and take you there. So that where I am, you will also be." In verse 6, Jesus said to Thomas "I am THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life. No one will come to the Father, except through Me."
Jesus is preparing a place for all believers to be with Him for all eternity. He will come back to take us with Him. And He is the only way to get there.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the Gift of God, not as a result of your works, so that no one can boast."

We can’t work our way into heaven. Jesus did it all.
No one has any "better" Truths than the Bible. In it we can be assured of the truth of Jesus’ fulfilled prophecies, miracles, raising of the dead, the gift of salvation, and eternal life. I

f we really believe this is really real, then we should be living by faith, obeying His call, and trusting Him, knowing we are a child of the King.

Are we living like we really believe what we believe is really real?

What would you say is the definition of truth?

Is it something that is fact?

Perhaps you see truth as that which has been proven to be real.

Dictionary.com has 12 definitions, each varying in small degrees from the next.

One definition is “the true or actual state of a matter.”

Still another says “an agreement with a standard or original.”

None of them, however, provide the answer we are ultimately searching for - who sets the standard for truth?

This weeks challenge: Find out how many times Jesus said “I tell you the truth.” The amount may surprise you!

Next week - “The Cosmic Battle - Reality vs. Illusion”