And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. Matthew 9:35 (ESV) 

We need to visualize Jesus walking through these cities and villages so we can believe it at a deeper level. If we haven’t seen Jesus in the gospels like this in a while then our faith, our active, real faith wanes a bit. We haven’t changed our minds; we still believe in one sense. We haven’t fallen in and out of a faith relationship with Jesus. But our faith needs refreshing.

I don’t think of Jesus going throughout all the cities and villages the same as my family traveling to Kentucky and back Thanksgiving week. As Kat drives, I can see the road. I can see the cars. I can hear them go by. If I were to roll down the window and stick my head out, I would feel a stiff cold wind hitting me in the face. I know this trip is real. That’s not faith.

I also understand historical facts in a different way. I can read about incidents in World War I and II and I believe they happened. I know I could go to Normandy today and see the graves of thousands who died on D-day. I can visit war memorials and read books telling of that era. I didn’t experience it, but I do believe that it happened because I see the results in monuments and governments and history books.

So, what is the nature of faith which reads that Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom? The reality of my faith in Jesus actually becomes more than “faith” in either the Kentucky vacation or the events in history. I’m reading the text. I see the results of Jesus’ life in churches and ministries and in changed lives, in my changed life, but it’s even more than that. Through preaching and through studying, God has caused these events to come alive to me. He has shown himself to me. This is what we must long for and pray for and aim for as we pick up the word to read and as we show up to worship together. That is, that God would show himself to us again so that our faith would be refreshed by a new experience and a new encounter with God.

Our encounters with God have the possibility of being like the absolute highest moments of human joy. I remember so much of the experience of traveling to China to get Noelle. I remember the instant they handed Noelle to us. I remember the births of Will and Hannah. I remember the first time I saw my grandson. I remember the time when Kat and I were apart for 10 weeks just before our wedding and I saw her coming down the terminal getting off the airplane in the Louisville airport. Those moments and many others are burned into my heart as high points. But I’ve had so many moments like this with the Father in study and preaching and worship that are too numerous to count and they sustain my soul. These experiences with God are what fuel our transformation into the kind of people who become more and more like Jesus from the inside out.

~ Gene