Bible Readings
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? (John 14:8-10)
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9)
I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. (2 Timothy 1:12)
Thought
Rob and I were having a few days of ‘staycation’ a couple of weeks ago and as often seems to happen when Rob is off work it rained. In more usual times we might have decided to go to the cinema so instead we decided to have our own cinema experience at home. We found a film we had recorded which neither of us had watched, closed the curtains in the lounge, got ourselves drinks and nibbles to eat and settled down to watch. The film was one of the more recent Star Wars films. Rogue One was made in 2016 but it contained characters who appeared in the original Star Wars film made some 39 years earlier. This caused a few problems for the film makers, how to have people in a film, looking the age they did 39 years before in order to have continuity. Even worse what to do when the actors had died during this time?
What they did was use actors with the same build and similar faces to play the parts and then they digitally changed the faces so that they looked exactly like the people who they were meant to represent. As part of a Sci-Fi film of course most of what you are watching is digitally enhanced in some way but I found it particularly disturbing to watch what appeared to be Peter Cushing acting in a film some 22 years after he had died.
We live in an age where it is no longer possible to say that seeing is believing. We have so much information available to us, some of which is fact and some of which is not. However when God the Father sent his son Jesus into this world it was no illusion, it wasn’t fake news, it was the real thing, the Father was in the world and all who saw Jesus, saw the Father. We are not able to see Jesus as the disciples did, but he left for us the teachings of the Bible, the witnesses of the disciples and most importantly for us the Holy Spirit, so that like Paul we are able to say that we know whom we have believed.
Prayer
Father God, we thank you for sending your son Jesus into our world so that we can know you. We thank you for leaving with us the Holy Spirit so that you are always with us. We are amazed that you love us this much.
Amen
Song: The Servant King (Graham Kendrick)
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