If I could explain all the mysteries of the Bible, then would you believe? No, you wouldn?t.<\/p>\n
If I could show you many signs and wonders, then would you believe? No, you wouldn?t.<\/p>\n
If I sacrificed all that I have and all I am in service to the poor and oppressed, then would you believe? No, you wouldn?t.<\/p>\n
If I could live my life in such a way that there wouldn?t be even a hint of hypocrisy, then would you believe? No, you wouldn?t.<\/p>\n
If I could prove my genuine love and concern for you over and over again, then would you believe?<\/p>\n
No, you wouldn?t.<\/p>\n
I cannot create a compelling enough argument to make you believe.<\/p>\n
I cannot point to any sign that you could not explain away.<\/p>\n
I cannot sacrifice enough or be authentic enough to convince you that the gospel is true.<\/p>\n
No matter what I say or do, no matter how hard I try, there will always be another excuse to continue in unbelief.<\/p>\n
While every day of my life will be spent seeking to live more and more in light of what Christ has done, I know I will stumble and fail. I will say and do things that will cause you to say, ?See, this is why I don?t believe!?<\/p>\n
I can?t not disappoint. I?m a sinner just like you.<\/p>\n
So let?s be honest. I want you to believe the truth of the gospel. I want you to believe that Jesus Christ?God the Son in human form?lived a perfect life in obedience to God the Father, was crucified to pay for my sins and yours, and rose again in victory over sin, death and judgment.<\/p>\n
You don?t want to believe this and there is nothing I can do on my own to convince you otherwise.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there is one thing I can do: I can pray for the One who can convince you to do exactly that.<\/p>\n
I can pray for a miracle.<\/p>\n
The only thing that will make you believe is if God, through the Holy Spirit, gives you a new heart?one that can see the truth and is willing to respond to it.<\/p>\n
Then all the arguments will crumble.<\/p>\n
Then all the barriers will break down.<\/p>\n
Then all the excuses will come to an end.<\/p>\n
And then you will believe.<\/p>\n
— Aaron Armstrong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If I could explain all the mysteries of the Bible, then would you believe? No, you wouldn?t. If I could show you many signs and wonders, then would you believe? No, you wouldn?t. If I sacrificed all that I have and all I am in service to the poor and oppressed, then would you believe?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}