There

“And many believed on Him there.” Jn.10:42

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  n John 10 we find Jesus again in the wilderness, in a place just beyond the reach of the Jewish authorities.  Verse 39 uses the word “escaped.”  There was already a warrant out for His arrest.  Jesus was a marked man.  The crowds of John six were nowhere to be found in John ten.  It is easy to believe on Him when He is passing out bread.  It is easy to believe on Him when His star is rising and everyone wants to make Him king.  It is easy to jump on the band wagon when party bosses are talking about sweeping the ticket and taking the White House.  Jesus is not about the White House, He spoke only of “my Father’s House.”   Yet the Bible says that even in the back side of the desert, in the wilderness , once the parish of John, “Many believed on Him there.”
It’s one thing to believe on Jesus in Madison Square garden when Billy Graham was standing in front of the platform to greet you, pray for you and welcome you into the family of God with the thousand member choir singing “Just as I am.”  It is another thing to believe on Him when you are all alone.  It is another thing to believe on Him when it means being in the minority, or counted a radical, or even a red-neck by the socially sophisticated and elite. 
Do you remember where the  “there” was?  Perhaps it was at the foot of a mourner’s bench, around a camp fire, a camp meeting, or in a Sunday School.  You believed on Him there.  But how is it when fortunes turn?  What happens when the “there” is not what it used to be?   What happens when the “there” becomes a smoldering pile of ashes after a California wild fire, or when standing before the firing squad of your company’s personnel department?  Do you still believe on Him there?  Sometimes the “there” is a place of pain, suffering, loss.  It is where you never wanted to be, but it is an opportunity to “believe on Him there,” and there, he is faithful. -id