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KNOWING JESUS CHRIST AS LORD By Larry Kreider
What Does it Really Mean To Believe In Him? People sometimes say that some Christians are more committed than others. If you are a Christian, you are totally committed to Him. You can''t have one foot in heaven and the other in hell. There are no opportunities to straddle the fence in the Kingdom of God. James 2:19 says, "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe, and tremble!" Many may say that they believe in God or they believe there is a God. Even the demons believe in God. They know Jesus Christ is real. And they tremble in fear of Him. To say that we believe is not enough. We need to know what it means to believe from God's perspective. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Sun, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." To believe means to totally trust. Yes, the demons of hell believe in the existence of God, but their trust is in the devil. There is a big difference between believing in the existence of someone and totally trusting in them. We all believe in the existence of the president of the United States, but do we totally trust in him? Let me give you an example. I would give my wallet to someone I totally trust in, but I wouldn't give it to someone I just believe is alive. My little girl stnds on the top of the steps in our house and says, "Daddy, catch me" and jumps into my arms. She completely trusts in me. There's a story of a tightrope walker who walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls. He asked the audience if they believed he could push a wheelbarrow across the rope and they said, "Yes!" But, when he told them he needed someone to sit in the wheelbarrow, no one volunteered. If they had really believed he could do it, they would have sat in that wheelbarrow. You might say, "Well, as long as I am sincere." It's not good enough to be only sincere. Some people are sincerely wrong. I have a friend who was driving on a highway heading for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but he was going in the wrong direction and ended up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, hundreds of miles from his destination. He was very sincere, but he was sincerely wrong. Others say, "As long as you have your doctrine right, you'll be okay." No, it's not just our doctrine; it's whether or not we really believe in Jesus Christ and have Him as Lord and have a personal relationship with Him. You might be following the owner's manual for your car but you may be using the wrong car. Some people have most of their doctrine right but unless they have received Jesus Christ as Lord, their doctrine won't help them very much. We must have Jesus Christ in our lives and allow Him to change us from the inside. 
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER What Does It Really Mean To Believe In Him? Read James 2:19 and John 3:16. Do the demons believe in God? What does it mean to believe from God''''s perspective? It it good enough to just be sincere? Explain. Is it possible to have our doctrine right and still not really believe? Explain. ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________
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