April 16 - We Heard for Ourselves

April 16 – We Heard for Ourselves

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” (John 4:39-42)

Who is it that you trust implicitly to tell you the truth?

When I was young and heard stories of aliens in Roswell, the Yeti, the Loch Ness monster, UFOs hovering in our skies, etc., etc., I wanted someone to tell me the truth.  I knew that in my heart I couldn’t believe these stories – they were obviously fake.  I had seen enough illusionists and magicians to have a healthy respect for those who purport one thing, yet disguise the truth.

I desperately wanted any of those fantastic, mythical things to be true, but I knew that unless someone I trusted … without a doubt … told me, I wasn’t going to believe them.  I suppose what I wanted was for my mother to encounter an alien.  If she told me that it had happened, I would know that it was true.

The woman at the well went back to her city and told them that the Messiah was there … in their community … in the flesh.  After all she had done, after all she had been through, they believed her – at least enough to invite Jesus to stay with them.

After He had spent two days with them, they no longer questioned the veracity of her statements because they had heard for themselves from the Messiah Himself and they believed Him.

The world needs to see Jesus for itself.  And today there is only one way for the world to meet Him … through us.  We can’t be simply good people and when we say that we believe in Jesus Christ, it has to be full-on truth.  We live in a world filled with cynics who find it easier to question the truth than to believe the truth.

The truth has to be in us – the Savior of the world must live within us and radiate from every pore of our being so that when we encounter those who don’t know Him, they will want nothing more than to meet Him for themselves and know that He is their Messiah.