{"id":25331,"date":"2015-04-08T00:20:36","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T04:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=25331"},"modified":"2015-04-07T22:11:06","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T02:11:06","slug":"do-you-believe-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/04\/08\/do-you-believe-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Believe This?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13840\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg\" alt=\"SeekingHimLogo\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg 560w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Recorded in the Gospel of John, our Lord made seven statements referring to Himself as <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong><em>I AM<\/em><\/strong>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 150px;\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><em><strong>I AM<\/strong> The Light of the World<br \/>\n<strong>I AM<\/strong> The Bread of Life<br \/>\n<strong>I AM<\/strong> The Door <\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\"><em><strong>I AM<\/strong> The Good Shepherd<br \/>\n<strong>I AM<\/strong> The True Vine <\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\"><em><strong>I AM<\/strong> The Way, The Truth, and The Life<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\"><em><strong>I AM<\/strong> The Resurrection and The Life<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Each week during this season of Lent, here on the <em>Seeking Him<\/em> blog, we will be focusing our devotionals on a different aspect of Jesus\u2019 revelation of Himself as<span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong><em> I AM<\/em><\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0 The aim of Lent should be to prepare our hearts for the remembrance of Jesus\u2019 sacrifice\u2014His trial and torture, the Crucifixion and His death\u2026and above all, the celebration of His Resurrection from the dead. \u00a0We pray that this will be a great encouragement to each of you who read them. \u00a0And that all of us will consider the significance of Jesus\u2019 words and, through them, be helped as we remember and are thankful for all Jesus went through during the last few weeks of His life on this earth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">Jesus said to her, \u201cI am the Resurrection and the Life. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\">The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\">Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die\u2014ever.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\">Do you believe this?\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\">John 11:25 and 26<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Such a powerful question hidden in the story of Lazarus. \u00a0I\u2019ve missed it many times before. \u00a0But Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter\u2014<strong>DO <em>you<\/em> believe this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jesus wants to know if we believe HIM. \u00a0Do we believe the power and the promises He made in verse 25?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.<\/li>\n<li>Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die\u2014ever.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I believe, just as Martha did (verse 27), that Jesus is the Christ, the Beloved Son of God. \u00a0But do I truly believe (as He told her) He is the ultimate Conqueror of death? \u00a0John 1:4 (AMP) tells us \u201cIn Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men.\u201d \u00a0John 3:36 (HCSB) makes it very clear what our choices are: \u201cThe one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who refuses to believe in the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.\u201d \u00a0And 1 John 5:12 (HCSB) reminds us, \u201cThe one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn\u2019t have the Son of God does not have life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I do not want to bear the consequences of not believing! \u00a0For me, Philippians 3:10 (AMP) highlights what it looks like to believe Jesus:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]&#8230;.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I want to know the power that flows from Jesus\u2019 Resurrection. \u00a0Power that transforms us into His likeness and gives us eternal life.<\/p>\n<p>1 Thessalonians 4:14 (NLT) states that since we believe \u201cthat Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.\u201d<br \/>\nPhilippians 3:21 (HCSB) states \u201cHe will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself.\u201d Romans 8:10 (NLT) tells us it is that power that makes us right with God: \u201cAnd Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Yes, yes, yes!<br \/>\nI want the power and promises of Jesus\u2019 Resurrection.<br \/>\nI want the eternal Life only He can offer.<br \/>\nDon\u2019t you? So the question remains\u2014<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">Do you believe this?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\"> *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Lord, I believe. \u00a0I believe You are the Resurrection and the Life. \u00a0Thank You for the power that flows from Your death on the cross. \u00a0Thank You for the promises Your Resurrection holds. \u00a0I truly believe You conquered death so that we might be right with God and have eternal life. \u00a0Hallelujah! \u00a0Christ is risen indeed! \u00a0In Your Mighty Name I pray, Amen \u2013 It Is So!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recorded in the Gospel of John, our Lord made seven statements referring to Himself as I AM\u2026 I AM The Light of the World I AM The Bread of Life I AM The Door I AM The Good Shepherd I AM The True Vine I AM The Way, The Truth, and The Life I AM [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[8745,8747,5889,3367,8748,8746,2551,8744,3174],"class_list":["post-25331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-1-john-512","tag-1-thessalonians-414","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-john-1125-27","tag-philippians-310","tag-philippians-321","tag-romans-810","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-6Az","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25332,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25331\/revisions\/25332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}