{"id":1838,"date":"2013-03-30T14:59:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-30T18:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=1838"},"modified":"2013-03-30T15:15:53","modified_gmt":"2013-03-30T19:15:53","slug":"i-want-to-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=1838","title":{"rendered":"I Want To Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you believe in miracles? When you read the Bible, what goes through your mind? When you read about Heaven or Hell, do you believe it?<\/p>\n

Well, I have a confession to make… I really don’t believe what I read, which is probably why I don’t feel compelled to read the Bible. But I want to believe.<\/p>\n

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I hear Jesus’ voice echoing in the recesses of my mind, asking me the same question, “Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I’m still trying to figure this out.<\/p>\n

I have traveled far and wide seeking truth.\u00a0 I shudder at the realization of how much money I’ve spent searching for God. I could have paid for a college education and owned two condos by now. No joke.<\/p>\n

Sadly, I’m still at square one. If I’m honest, I lack faith and belief. True story.<\/p>\n

I believe it is by God’s design I review Christian books. Because recently, I’m being challenged to the core by a book I’m reading and reviewing.<\/p>\n

I’m sure you are curious… it’s called Signs, Wonders and a Baptist Preacher<\/em><\/a> by Chad Norris. Have you heard of the book or the author? No? Well, me either… until now.<\/p>\n

It was simple… Chosen Books sent me an email asking me which book I wanted to review and I chose this one. However, I didn’t know as a result of reading this book, it would turn my world and heart upside down.<\/p>\n

Secretly, I had an underlying agenda in selecting this book and it was to discredit it. I wanted to write off the author as crazy, nuts, off the wall, etc…<\/p>\n

However, by the time I hit page 40, I needed to speak to this man! There was such a drive in me to speak with him.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, when I did reach him, he was very gracious. He didn’t think I was a lunatic from New York City. He agreed to speak to me through Skype a few nights ago.<\/p>\n

Chad Norris isn’t nuts, off the wall or crazy… he is one of the most down to earth, nice, laid back dudes I ever met. He is NORMAL!<\/p>\n

I can’t discredit him or his book at all.<\/p>\n

Now what?<\/p>\n

Well… I was left with looking at myself… where I’m really at with all of this stuff.<\/p>\n

Folks, I love Jesus, but I lack faith and do not believe in miracles. I’m cynical, I doubt and question everything in the Bible and otherwise. When I read the Bible I disbelieve the miracles in there too.\u00a0 I gloss over the stories like they are fairy tales or fables.<\/p>\n

I realized somewhere, somehow I determined it was all a bunch of make believe. The realization of this is brutally shocking to me, I don’t even know what to do with myself.<\/p>\n

I admit, it’s a scary place to be.<\/p>\n

So here I am, on the day before Resurrection Day, crying out to God… Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. (Mark 9:24<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Do you struggle with reading the Bible and believing in miracles, signs and wonders? Do you believe miracles are for today? Have you experienced a miracle in your life? Have you seen someone get healed miraculously? Have you seen blind eyes and deaf ears open? The dead raised?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you believe in miracles? When you read the Bible, what goes through your mind? When you read about Heaven or Hell, do you believe it? Well, I have a confession to make… I really don’t believe what I read, which is probably why I don’t feel compelled to read the Bible. But I want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[10,8,7,85],"tags":[400,392,401,370,396,398,399],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions\/1842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}