Why Believe?

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: Why Believe?
Keywords: “believe” “faith” “trust”
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

Passage: Mark 16:9-11*

9. Now after [Jesus] had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.

10. She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping.

11. And when they heard that He was alive, and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

12. And after that, He appeared in a different form to two of them, while they were walking along on their way to the country.

13. And they went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either.

Questions

1. Do you consider yourself stuck in a never ending loop of sexual sin with no way of escape?

 

2. If you answered “yes” to question #1 and believe in God, why do you think your relationship with Him is not resulting in the power to overcome?

 

Practical help

Porn affects church people and non-church people. It reflects a weakness of trust in God — by both groups. Funny thing though, both groups would probably deny this to be true.

No one was closer to Jesus during his ministry years than his twelve disciples. They knew him best and what he could do. They knew His claim to be God and even at some level believed Him. Yet we have two back to back accounts of people coming to them declaring that Jesus is alive following the crucifixion and burial. But they refuse to believe. Not a good sign, don’t you think?

It reminds me of the story they no doubt heard Jesus tell about an unnamed rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. In life these two knew each other. Lazarus filled with sores sat and begged, but the rich man ignored his plight (I think it was because he didn’t believe in God). Both of them died with the rich man going to Hades and continual torment, while Lazarus found himself with Father Abraham being comforted by the angels.

A dialogue ensues between the rich man and Abraham, where the he begs Abraham to send him Lazarus with just a drop of water (he still somehow hasn’t figured out that roles have been reversed). Abraham explains that there is a fixed chasm between Hades and Heaven and that neither party can ever travel to the other side.

Then the rich man makes the following request: (picking up Luke 16 at verse 27*)

27. "And he said, 'Then I beg you, Father, that you send [Lazarus] to my father's house —

28. for I have five brothers — that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'

29. "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'

30. "But he said, 'No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!'

31. "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.'"
What will it take for you to believe Christ? Don’t wait for the supernatural to explode into your life before you make your move toward God. Time is ticking and you have plenty of information.
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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."