One of the main things i'm asked is "why do you believe in Jesus?" it can never be given in a nutshell, i have tried but it does not work for me. Fortunately the people who tend to ask me this have no theological background, they don't want super spiritual or normal spiritual answers, they just want something that makes sense to them. So today when i was asked the same question i answered in simple terms " it just works for me" Not deeply spiritual, not theologically great, just a simple statement of what happens in my life, and what happened in my life to make me change my ways. I'm still amazed that the deal i made with God all those years ago has stood the test of time, a throw away comment from me, a goalkeepers save from God and here we are 30 something years down the line, with God still proving himself to me, and hopefully me showing God i'm still in it. It's not all been easy mistakes have been made, people hurt, people injured both physically and emotionally, for 11 years i decided the grass was greener on the other side, then found out it was not, had a raging drug problem that nearly killed me (and i still suffer the effects of that addiction today) put my body through hell and survived to tell the tale.
So why do i believe in Jesus? Simple really, God took a chance on me, he showed me he loved me, he cared for me, and despite my best efforts to screw it up, he never gave up on me, he came through, broke into the darkness and got involved in sorting out what i called life. He got involved in it all, got down in the mire, lifted me up, dusted me down and said " hey son lets go for a walk, i'm not promising you a rose garden, i'm not saying it's gonna be plain sailing. But it will be the ride of your life and i'm gonna be with you every step of the way". You see i don't really like trying to analyse everything down to the last comma, i have no interest in it. Mainly because (and i can't stress this enough) the average person in the street does not want to know about the council of this, the writer of that, the reason the bible was canonised as it was, these things can be sorted out when someone comes to faith in Christ. They want to know that in the hard times God is not going to walk away from them, but will stand with them, will help them. He uses the church to do that in some cases, in others he comes alongside those hurting people and carries them through the burden, lifts it, and helps out.
I think it was Wesley who said something like this and i'm going to have to paraphrase it" discussion about doctrine, no matter how earnest, is not the same thing as getting involved". Many people i know do not believe God gets involved in the everyday, thats fine and dandy, me i believe God wants to be involved in every aspect of my life, not to control it or control me from a distance or from standing beside me. But he wants to be involved just because he can be, he allows me to make my mistakes, he allows my successes, i genuinely believe he revels in our relationship.
Why do i believe in Jesus? simply because it works for me, despite me, it's no simpler than that.
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