Tag Archives: Jesus

A Portrait of Jesus

by ray on 23. Mar, 2009 in Life

I am currently reading ReJesus by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. It’s a very good book, and while I’m not finished I would highly recommend it.

Yesterday I was reading about how easy it has become, how innate it is, for us to co-opt God to our own egos and agendas (88). An example was given by Michael about a man he had several conversations with at a conference. This man was a believer. As part of the activities at the conference Michael had asked the participants to go through the process of re-Jesusing Jesus (yes I made that word up). This man that Michael was working with presented Jesus as this cuddly, fatherly type that is all-gentle, all-kind, and all-forgiving. After Michael talked with the man a little more he realized that because of the home this man grew up in (a cold, distant, unpleasable father) that he needed a Jesus like he described to deliver him from his past.

And while there is nothing wrong with this type of Jesus it doesn’t paint the whole picture. It’s not a complete portrait of the man we (I) follow. Hirsch and Frost then posed a question I can’t get out of my head:

Can you see how our understanding of Jesus can be so easily shaped by our own psychospiritual needs? Show me your Jesus, and I’ll tell you who you are.

One of the things that I’m seeking to find out this week is what portrait I’ve painted of Jesus. Who have I made him into, that while it may be partly accurate, isn’t the whole picture? It’s time I re-Jesus Jesus.

Read full story • Comments { 0 }

Lessons from the ER

by ray on 02. Feb, 2009 in Gospel, Life

I’ve watched NBC’s ER from the beginning. It’s lost some of its luster, but it’s still a decent show. The season just started for us and so we’re still getting to know Angela Basset’s character. In the last episode, Parental Guidance, a mother brings in her daughter who’s apparently fallen off a concrete ledge and broken her leg. Along with the daughter comes the younger sister.

Long story short…the younger sister is responsible for pushing the older. She seems to be mentally unstable and in the end is taken away to the Psych Unit. The mom is left in the ER facing Dr. Banfield (Bassett). The mom asks if her family is going to be okay, is her girl going to become “normal” again.

Dr. Banfield responds by saying she doesn’t know. This answer is not good enough for the mom. The mom says, “but you’re the doctor. You’re supposed to know these things. We bring our sick to you and you’re supposed to know the answer. It’s not good enough for you to say you don’t know.” I paraphrased, but that’s the gist of it.

As I watched it struck me that reality is such that the overwhelming majority of people are looking for answers. Things like, is their marriage going to last, are they going to make it through the tough financial times, why are they here, what are they supposed to do with their life? But for most of us, we’re too afraid to ask, don’t know who to ask, or too afraid of what the answer might be. So, we sit in silence, carry on with our life, and pretend that things are okay.

People are seeking. The want to know answers. The over-used, seldom helpful answer that comes from evangelical Christianity is Jesus. Jesus is the answer to all these questions. I know that’s the answer, because there was a time I used that answer when these kinds of questions were asked of me. But I don’t know that that’s the best answer. Now don’t get me wrong, I fully believe that a personal relationship with Jesus provides help through much of what ills the individual. But to get a person to see the need for Jesus in their life you have to be willing to walk the journey with them. They need to see the bigger picture. They need to understand the purpose of creation, the separation that ensued, the need for a savior. Yes, Jesus brings hope, peace, stability, calmness, joy. But those things mean nothing unless Jesus has made himself real to the person that is seeking, and in return that person is seeking after Jesus.

So, you might wander what my point is. Very simply this…be willing to walk the journey with those in your life that are asking the questions and seeking the answers. Don’t be a know it all. Be a listener. Point them to the whole truth of the Bible. Don’t beat them over the head with Jesus.

Read full story • Comments { 2 }

Sovereignty, Glory, and the Kingdom

by ray on 22. Jan, 2009 in Gospel

I received a new ESV Study Bible for Christmas. It has a nice 1 year reading plan. While I’ve read through the NT several times, and a good portion of the OT, I can’t say that I’ve read the entire Bible. So, one of the things I’m trying to do this year is read the whole thing.

Here are just a few notes from today’s reading that I enjoyed:

  • In Genesis 20:6 God kept Abimalech from sinning. “I did not let you touch her (Sarah). Wow.
  • In Genesis 20:13 God caused Abraham to wander (a reference to Genesis 12). Wow.
  • In Luke 13:13 a lady, sick for 18 years, in response to being healed by Jesus immediately glorified God
  • In Luke 13:19 the Kingdom of God is compared to a mustard seed. The implications of this are pretty important. It means, among other things, that the Kingdom of God arrives (arrived) in a seemingly insignificant way (a little mustard seed), that is grows steadily, but yet it grows out of proportion.

Good stuff today.

Read full story • Comments { 1 }

Featured Quote

by ray on 24. Dec, 2008 in Feature, Gospel

A shout out to Jonathan Dodson at theresurgence.com for posting this quote by Bono:

The idea that God, if there is a force of Logic and Love in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty, in shit and straw . . . a child . . . I just thought: “Wow!” Just the poetry . . . Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and it’s not that it hadn’t struck me before, but tears came streaming down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this.

Read full story • Comments { 1 }

Choices

by ray on 09. Dec, 2008 in Life

I’ve been thinking about the life of Jesus recently. More specifically, the part that’s not found in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). I wonder what things were like for him prior to his coming on the scene in his early 30’s. All we know of him is that he trained (under his father), that he had brothers and sisters, that he made his parents mad when he was 12 by staying around the temple when the rest of the family was leaving Jerusalem.

And all this thinking led to a question (or a couple of questions really). When Jesus had a free afternoon who did he hang out with? Did he hang out with family, friends, the guys on the street corner, the poor…who was he with?

We know from the Gospels that once his “ministry” started (still don’t like that word) he got a group of guys together and started training them. He had a group of 12 that he was close with, but a smaller group of 3 (Peter, James and John) that was his inner-circle, his closest friends. Then beyond the 12 he had the group that followed him around listening to him teach. Outside that group he spent time with the Pharisees, the sinners and prostitutes, the sick, lame, deaf, and blind. I think you get my point…there were a lot of “different” groups he hung out with.

But when he had a free Thursday afternoon, who would he have chosen to spend time with…his closest 3, the 12, the Religious elite, or the “others” of society? And was his choice based on the fact that he knew his time was limited? He knew he was only going to be around a few years and then his time was done. He had a limited amount of time to speak into the lives of those he had in his life. So does that mean on a free afternoon he would choose to hang out with the 12, teaching them as much as he could? Or would he spend that afternoon with his closest 3, so he could sit back, relax, be himself, maybe complain a little about the stresses in his life? Or did he spend that afternoon out, in the public eye, healing, teaching, “saving”?

The reason this question is important is because ultimately the answer should drive what you and I choose to do with our time. If I know my time is limited (and all of us should view life that way) then I need to consciously think through how I spend that time. How does my time break down with those that I have influence with? On a free Thursday afternoon do I hang with the family, get together with my “inner circle”, train my group of 12, or hang out with the “others”?

Choices.

Read full story • Comments { 1 }
Older Entries »