Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Dear Nigel

Dear Nigel,

To my knowledge, I don't know you, but you have commented on my blog. Since you've taken the time to comment, I'll take the time to respond.

Concerning my confrontation with a young teenage girl, you told me that "it is not your job as a christian to tell people how to live...it is your job as a christian to tell/show people about Jesus." It's always difficult to respond to peole you don't know because I can't make any assumptions. I don't know if you're a Christian or not, but I hope this simple response will be helpful.

By your comment you make it clear that your Jesus does not teach people how to live. If I am supposed to "show people about Jesus" but I can't tell them "how to live", then whatever your Jesus is about, he wasn't about teaching people how to live. This is a very clear, simple conclusion drawn from your comment. How could I show them Jesus without telling them how to live? The Jesus of the Bible said He was "the way and the truth and the life" and all those things have to do with telling us how to live if we are to follow Him. Telling them about Jesus is telling them how to live and telling them how to live is telling them about Jesus. Jesus commands us to love God and to love our neighbor. If our neighbor is to love God, they must obey God, because Jesus said, "whoever has my commands and keeps them, he it is that loves me." (John 14:21). How will they ever love God if we don't tell them to obey God?

Nigel, I hope you feel free to respond. I have written this for you. But it is very clear to me that in order to tell/show/proclaim/etc Jesus, we have to tell people how to live. That's what Jesus did.

Posted by Lane at 01:24:18 | Permanent Link | Comments (5) |

Monday, October 01, 2007

For & Against - Part 2.4

One of the articles I was asked to read for class recently sheds some light on this idea of reconstructing Jesus to fit our own image. However, this paper is aimed purely at academia and yet, exposes the same attitude that we have when approaching Jesus. To whet your tastes here is a portion of Jesus and Mohammad, Version 2.0 by Raymond Ibrahim:

"Instead, they [academics] rely on two dubious authorities: any scraps of other religious writings and their own conjectures. Obscure Gnostic documents, which were refuted, discredited, and abandoned nearly 2000 years ago, or were of such little importance that the early church was not even aware of their existence, become foundational. Through these fragmented parchments, academics can read into Jesus whatever they desire."

You will definitely want to read the entire article, especially if you are in a university setting. It would be good, then, to examine what "authorities" you rely on that trump the biblical portait of Jesus. An ever-exposing place to begin is your feelings or affections.

 

Posted by Lane at 12:23:08 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |