{"id":5143,"date":"2025-05-24T15:55:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T15:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/?p=5143"},"modified":"2025-05-24T15:55:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T15:55:34","slug":"believe-the-impossible-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/may\/believe-the-impossible-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Believe the impossible things"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To believe or not to believe<\/h3>\n

There are things in life that are just too impossible to believe. To believe means to accept something as true. That such a thing happened or will come to pass. We all have struggled with the idea of unbelief, especially when what we have to believe hits home. For instance, when Jesus and the disciples were on the boat and the storm threatened their safety, they began to fear for their lives because of their unbelief (Mt 8:26). Unbelief gets the best out of us, and for that, we suffer consequences. Jesus said that the penalty for not believing in him is condemnation (Jh 3:18). Our unbelief affects even those close to us, like our friends and family, as in the father whose child was possessed by a demon that, from childhood, tried to destroy him (Mk 9:23-24). The assurance that comes from believing is that all things are possible. Jesus told this to the father, who was tormented by seeing his kid helpless. It is easier to believe that God can do the impossible in someone else than he can do it in us. <\/p>\n

Luke 1:34-38<\/p>\n

34 <\/sup>Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?<\/span>35 <\/sup>And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.<\/span>36 <\/sup>And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.<\/span>37 <\/sup>For with God nothing shall be impossible.<\/span>38 <\/sup>And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary and Zacharias were challenged to believe in the impossible. They were both in impossible circumstances for God’s purpose. Mary was a virgin, and Zacharias and Elizabeth were far too old to conceive. God is a God of the impossible. That is where he is most found. They were all faithful servants who came from a lineage of faith. Both of them had an encounter with the same angel, Gabriel, but had different reactions. Zacharias had an angelic experience while Mary had an earthly one. The angel suddenly appeared to Zach next to the altar of incense. He appeared in the most holy place in the temple. He appeared out of thin air with the message revealing God’s plans to reverse his wife’s barrenness. Zach and his wife’s physical condition dismissed the angelic encounter and message (Lk 1:18-20).  <\/p>\n

Mary, on the other hand, was not greeted with an angelic manifestation in a sacred place. If Gabriel had not greeted her the way he did, she probably would not have known he was an angel. Luke tells us that the angel came in where she was (Lk 1:28). Mary associated her faith with his words. The salutation of the angel was words of God. When your faith is in tune with God’s words, there is no need for supernatural manifestations; you just believe. Like the centurion who had one of his closest servants sick in bed in a dying state, he told Jesus to say the word, and his servant would be healed (Mt 8:8). <\/p>\n

Two impossibilities confronted by two varying stages of faith. They could not deter God’s plans.<\/p>\n

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Matthew 8:26<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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26 <\/sup>And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.<\/p>\n

John 3:18<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

18 <\/sup>He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.<\/p>\n

Mark 9:23-24<\/u><\/b><\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

23 <\/sup>Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.<\/span>24 <\/sup>And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Luke 1:18-20<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

18 <\/sup>And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.<\/span>19 <\/sup>And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.<\/span>20 <\/sup>And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Luke 1:28<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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28 <\/sup>And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Matthew 8:8<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

8 <\/sup>The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Spanish<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To believe or not to believe There are things in life that are just too impossible to believe. To believe means to accept something as true. That such a thing happened or will come to pass. We all have struggled with the idea of unbelief, especially when what we have to believe hits home. For<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-may"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5144,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5143\/revisions\/5144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}