PREPARATION

There is a song from grade-school years that I just can't get out of my head. It was written by a team, but known by a simple title, "I Believe."  Here are the words:

"I believe, for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows
And I believe, that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows.
I believe for everyone who goes astray
Someone will come to show the way.
Yes, I believe, oh I believe.
I believe above the storm the smallest prayer will still be heard.
I believe that someone in the great somewhere hears every word.
Every time I hear a newborn baby cry,
or touch a leaf, or see the sky,
then I know why, I believe."
by Ervin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl and Al Stillman in 1953.

I have been reminded of that song every time I engage in re-thinking my beliefs. It seems to me, we could all use occasional re-thinking times.

I used to believe, if I was saved, I was barely saved. I worshiped the Bible and God was part of it, but knowing the Bible and being right was more important than knowing God. Bible knowledge was king. God was out there somewhere, but the Bible was here and now.
 
I still believe that Jesus is coming back, but for years I was afraid of that day. I didn't believe I was good enough, or that I had done enough, to stay out of those eternal fires of Hell.

I used to believe that God wanted his followers to study themselves into Heaven...study to get God's approval.

My messed-up beliefs kept me from knowing God and accepting grace and love and forgiveness. I knew "about" God, and I knew "about" those "religious words," but the experience was missing in action.

It took crisis times in my life for God get my attention. Some of the struggle was not pretty, but through it all, HE helped me re-think the faulty beliefs and with the help of patient teachers and gifted writers, new beliefs emerged. I was challenged and refined. Some of those pesky false-understandings were gladly tossed, while others were still being reshaped. It's a growing process.

At this point, my beliefs are more than a list of convictions and propositions; they breath with me, and inspire me, and move me to action. They form the skeleton of my faith.

Now, I believe the Bible is meant to be much more than a religious rule book; it's God's Autobiography, the story of God's encounters with his creation as he moves Heaven and earth to prepare mankind for the coming of Jesus.

I believe HE is still encountering people. But, these stories are not finding their way into a "new" Bible version 2.0, they are being written on our hearts, giving us living stories to share--His words living in our testimonies. I believe HE lives in us, and when the plot gets scary and the times get uncertain, it's HIS story that inspires us to action.

Not long before his death, the Apostle John wrote, "Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."
1 John 5:5 NIV.

I believe!

What you believe changes the way you live. In fact, it changes everything.
 

INSPIRATION

Jennifer Thompson-Canning picked Ronald Cotton out of the line-up. "I believed without a shadow of a doubt that he was the monster who raped me." He was convicted and sentenced to prison for 11 years. "I prayed everyday for him to die," Jennifer said.

Ronald had gone to prison an angry man and for a while he was growing more and more comfortable with the anger. Before he knew what was happening, God helped him learn to forgive. As Ronald was dealing with anger and forgiveness on the inside, his attorney was working on the outside. Finally a DNA test proved what he had said all along. Ronald was innocent.

The truth rocked the community. Jennifer was filled with overwhelming guilt and shame for mistakenly putting an innocent man in prison. Meanwhile, the guilty person was left to commit further crimes on women. "I found it almost impossible to forgive myself," Jennifer said.

In the meantime, Ronald had come to grips with his anger. "I was hurting. I missed my family, my girlfriend and my freedom. But I knew who I was, and I was not that monster. I had to let it all go."

When Ronald was released, Jennifer asked him if he could forgive her. It was an unexpected and unbelievable day. "He took my hands," Jennifer recalls, "and with tears in his eyes, told me he had forgiven me a long time ago."

With those words, healing began to happen. "Ronald taught me how to let go of all that pain; his forgiveness set me free that night. Without Ronald, I would still be shackled to that moment in time, and it would own me forever. I soon discovered that I could even forgive the man who had raped me--not because he asked me to, nor because he deserved it--but because I did not want to be a prisoner of my own hatred."

Ronald and Jennifer are now friends. Many of their past acquaintances don't understand it.

But we do, don't we? We believe in forgiveness and the God who invented it and made it so.
 

MOTIVATION

Make this your "I believe week."

What beliefs do you hold that need to be reviewed?

What beliefs have been re-examined and reshaped thus far in your life?

What beliefs give you energy and inspiration?

Oh, and if you were writing a song titled "I Believe," what would it be about? It's time for a new song, don't you think?