In the Gospel of John chapter 5, Jesus has a confrontation with some Jews who were upset that he had healed a man on the Sabbath Day. According to Jewish tradition, the Sabbath was the day, once a week, that God had set aside for the people of Israel to rest. This was part of the Law of Moses.

In so many words, Jesus accused his accusers of not believing in the venerated Moses. They would have scoffed at those words. They were obeying the Law of the Sabbath and Jesus was not. The did ‘believe’ in Moses. However, Jesus pointed out that Moses had prophesied concerning Jesus. Since those particular Jews did not believe in Jesus, then they were also not believing in Moses.

I hope you are still with me! I have belabored this point that they believed and did not believe in Moses in order to affirm that this pattern seems true of many American Christians today. They believe in Jesus, but they don’t believe in him at the same time.

In the sense of affirming that Jesus is Lord and Savior, America is one of the more Christian nations in the world. But how many of this great multitude believe in Jesus to the point of taking seriously his calls to non-violence in Matthew 5:38-48 and  to a simplified life-style in Matthew 6:19-34? He closes this great sermon affirming that only those who act on what he has said will stand on a firm foundation.

Roads that will last must be built on solid foundations. One of the more effective pathways to God is to read the Gospels concerning Jesus over and over again on a regular basis. To do so will make it much harder to believe in Jesus and simultaneously to not believe in Jesus.