The Message of Jesus - Where Did It Come From?

 

         The Message of Jesus - Where Did It Come From?

"I want you to know, brothers and sisters, 

that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 

I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, 

I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ."

 -- Galatians 1:11-12

 This is a very good thing for us to remember. And it is our story, too.

We received the  message of Jesus, not because someone talked us into it, or argued with us until our futile objections were exposed, or exhausted our patience.

But because of the work of God, who, through the Holy Spirit, broke down our reservations and revealed the truth to our hungry hearts.

All praise to Him!

Was Jesus a Great Moral Teacher? C S Lewis

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic -- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.

You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.

But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great moral teacher. He has not left that option open to us.

He did not intend to.

   -- From Mere Christianity, by C S Lewis

Sin is just So Boring!

Consider the assumption that unhappiness is more interesting than happiness. Tolstoy's maxim in Anna Karenina is regularly cited: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

But is that really true? I have found just the opposite to be the case. An encounter with a happy family or happy marriage -- where people love and support one another; where they find joy in the very being of the other -- is almost always more fascinating than unhappiness.

Unhappiness is a dreary replaying of deadly sins -- envy, pride, resentment, hatred, and endless variations on the "old dreadfuls" of human depravity. It is all so predictable. 

Happiness, by way of sharpest contrast, surprises and delights.

            --From As I Lay Dying by Richard John Newhaus



[I can sure vouch for this! The Christians I know are spontaneous, free, unpredictable, and fun to be around! More so than my unbelieving friends!]




I have come that they might have life, and that they have it more abundantly.  (John 10:10 NKJV)


My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. (John 10:10 NLT)


I came so that they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.  (John 10:10 The Message)


Though you have not see Him, you love Him; you believe in Him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy. (1 Peter 1:8 NIV)

Glorify

                                   GLORIFY!

I just gleaned this a short time ago, as I was studying various passages in preparation for teaching a class in Psalms. As I looked for ways of describing and defining "glorify" I happened to look at Wycliffe's Bible translation of the late 1300's. 

 In John 17, where the King James uses "glorify," Wycliffe uses "clarify." I have been intrigued by this -- One way we glorify God is by clarifying Him to those around us.

"Father, the time has come. Glorify (clarify) your Son, that your Son may glorify (clarify) you" .... John 17:1.

A dictionary helps, too. Webster defines "clarify" to "make illustrious, clear, bright, famous...to make something clear, and free from impurities...to make or become easier to understand, as in 'clarify my statement.'"

Random thoughts....

Mother used to "clarify" butter - to make it pure for her to use in various special recipes. I remember it made the butter sparkling and clear - shiny, almost. I don't hear about that anymore.

But anyway, to "clarify" is certainly an intentional act to make something clear and pure and illustrious. To make it  bright and usable. 

On that note, I guess we should ask God to "clarify" us so that we can properly "glorify" Him!

This somehow enlarges, as well as simplifies, the meaning for me....how we can "glorify the One we love..." 

Being Good - C S Lewis

  

                                            Being Good

From Mere Christianity, by C S Lewis

"Even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam -- he is only nourishing or protecting a life he could never have acquired by his own efforts.

And that has practical consequences.  As long as the natural life is in your body, it will do a lot towards repairing that body. Cut it, and up to a point, it will heal, as a dead body would not.

A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way, a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble -- because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time,  enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.

That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope by being good, to please God if there is one; or, if they think there is not --  at least they hope to deserve approval from good men.

But the Christian thinks any good that he does comes from the Christ-life inside him.

He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it."