Out Our Way: Believing is seeing - 1 Peter 1:8-13

Out our way, as I have often shared with you, it is easy for the greenhorn to get turned around and lost in the Big Open. More than once, riding fence or checking the herd up on Tiger Ridge, I lost all sense of direction. More than once I wondered if Charlie really knew where we were, where we were going, or how to get there. Well, of course he did, and by faith I rode along as he guided us ... and, sure enough, at the end of the day, we rode over a ridge, saw the gate and spotted the trailer and truck waiting to take us home.

I confess, often all those ridges and sweeping landscapes looked the same to me mile after mile, and for all I knew, we were wandering in a big circle that led nowhere. I felt so lost and disoriented, that I wondered if I would ever see that promised gate, trailer and truck. Then, at last, Charlie led us up over a ridge that seemed identical to a thousand ridges we had already climbed, and there they were. That red trailer and truck, sitting down by the gate and ready to take us home as promised. "Seeing is believing" as some folks remind us, but remember that "believing also leads to seeing."

The Apostle Paul reminded early believers that though King David never saw Jesus, he wrote of Him in his psalms (Acts 2:25-36) He believed that Christ would come and be raised from the dead, and indeed that is exactly what happened. In the accompanying text, the Apostle Peter picks up on that same theme, reminding later generations that the prophets of old had also never seen Christ, but wrote of Him and their prophecies also came to pass. Though these new disciples had not seen Jesus themselves, they had the testimony of those who had and the promise that Christ was very actively working in the world and through them via the Holy Spirit. Believing, they began to see and discover the truth of what the prophets and the Apostles had declared. Now, some 2,000-plus years later, those whose eyes are open are still seeing the power of the Risen Christ at work in the world.

The anti-religion mentality that has begun to dominate western culture in politics, academics and pop culture is actually nothing new. As the famous quote by George Santayana and often repeated by many others reminds us, "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." And as George Orwell's terrifying books "Animal Farm" and "1984" predicted, those who seek to control the gullible first re-write or blot out history. But remember that when history repeats itself, all of history repeats itself. For a time the secularists and pagans and corrupt folk have often managed to gain massive power and thought to replace God with themselves, the Party, or their pop culture. Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Mao, Stalin - to name a few - all tried and for a time succeeded. But it never lasted. The powers of darkness, often attempting to appear to the world as " an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14) can, to quote Lincoln, "fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but never fool all the people all the time." This aspect of history also repeats itself and the masquerade is always eventually exposed and ended.

 We, who may presently find our path darkened and faith strained, need to remember there is a Power greater than any dictator, mass media, or mob mentality can challenge. For over 2,000 years they have tried and always failed in the end. As Paul and Peter and countless others remind us, even in the darkest days God has spoken to the faithful and reminded them that the powers of darkness lie only in shadows - no matter how dark the shadows may be, they can not extinguish the weakest light. And the Light still shines in the darkness for those who will look for it instead of focusing on the shadows. Over the next ridge the sun is rising and the shadows tremble. Believing will lead to seeing.

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Brother John