Oak Hill Church of Christ 1-1-2023 Message: "Believing is Seeing"

Oak Hill Church of Christ preaching minister, Randy Sterling, delivers a message on the importance of seeking Christ using not only the head -- but the heart.

It is the nature of man to desire to have everything explained and proven. We sometimes find ourselves living our faith by the adage: "Trust but verify." Perhaps we allow for the possibility that God might be right, that his words might have value, and that Heaven might be a place worth going, but we withhold our full endorsement of God and His Word until He and His works meet our conditions.

Jesus suggests a different path for a much stronger relationship with the Father. That we might believe in spite of God's refusal to meet our conditions. Though Jesus healed the blind man in the Gospel of John, many who would consider themselves extremely religious and faithful refused to believe Jesus' good work until they had all their questions answered, and even then, some of these 'holy' men still rejected.

Jesus does not ask for believers who understand all the laws of physics or nature or Moses or jurisprudence. He asks for believers who open their heart to the message of rebirth. Renewal of the person through faith does not come through the perusing of many texts, but through our trust in Almighty God.

We ought to follow the healed man who, when asked by Jesus about his belief in the Son of God said, "who is he, Lord, that I may believe in Him." (John 9:36)