Sellers in the Temples (cont'd)

Sellers in the Temples (cont'd)

      

       by Bubba Reimer

Remember, I said that I had seen Jesus in a temple myself? Well, I mean it. I say it again. I did see Him and I touched Him with my own hands. To my shame, like Thomas, I asked Him to show me His wounds. He smiled and shook His head a little sadly at my doubtage but obliged and I saw His nail holes. So, how can this be, you wonder; if this guy is telling the truth I am a horse's ass. If he is not telling the truth the last thing I want is to be sucked in by his story and then be disappointed later. We do not want to be disappointed in something as stupendous as seeing Jesus alive, now do we? Some of you shyer ones are nodding, but most of you are waiting to see what I will do to prove this outrageousness. It's as simple as apple pie and I will explain myself.   

       All of you are doubters much like Thomas was, let me tell you. You are all sinning right now, refusing to allow the possibility in.  But, that is the nature of mankind, isn't it? We are all, Jesus told us, sinners, and that is why He was sent to us, to save us from our own unwillingness to believe. But listen to me! Yes! He is alive! Yes, He lives today! I have seen Him with my own eyes, praise God! Glory, hallelujah, God be praised! I saw Him, and my soul rejoices that once despaired! I saw Him and my heart is free and light! Ladies, gentlemen, only believe and you, too, will be freed of your longings to see the invisible. To experience the Lord in living flesh. You will once more, maybe for the first time since you were a little child, love the earth and all that it produces. You will love it with such innocence that no great sadness will ever again infest your senses, infect your mental arteries and shut down your psychological vital systems. No, you will be free!

       I begin by telling you that the proof is in the pudding. Seeing Jesus is as possible as possible can be. Do you believe that I can make myself disappear and then reappear right before your very eyes? On stage here? No props anywhere in sight? No lights turned off? And you don't have to close your eyes for even one second? You don't believe, do you? I know you don't. You are likely turning to your neighbor right now and saying, "Ah, that old trick. I've seen it before." But you are mistaken, my friends. You have not. See, I will now be still for a moment. I will pray to the divine. He will take me away from you for exactly one minute. I am not allowed to do this trick for more than one minute at a time. The rapture has to occur first before I will be permitted more than a minute there on those golden streets. And let me tell you, the streets in heaven are made of pure gold in case you were wondering. Yes, the most beautiful sight you have ever seen. Can you picture a perfect fall evening in Fredericton with the leaves on the sumacs and birches turning such reds and golds? No breeze to stir them, and the temperature sitting lovely at almost too hot to wear a shirt? That is nothing to the perfect beauty of the avenues of trees and the golden trees on the bungalow-lined residential districts of the great city of the heavenly Jerusalem, let me tell you.

       Well, I'm back and you hardly missed me, didn't you? I just saw Jerusalem again and I have seen it many times before. And, each time I do it gets lovelier. How one's soul rejoices there at the sight you would not believe, my fellow travelers.  Now I will show you another trick of even more amazing impossibility in a few minutes as I prepare the complicated yet simple steps in my proof. But Jerry is motioning to me that it is time for questions. First though let us take a short break. After coffee we will return to speak further of these things.