Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by John Ortberg (2012-08-07) from his book, Who Is This Man?: TheUnpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 164). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now we call this day, the day that Jesus died on a cross, Good Friday.  Satan thought it was a good Friday.  He finally had gotten back at God.  He hated God and he thought killing His only Son was a good thing.  But if you read the last book in the Bible you will find that it was not a good thing for Satan.  He hadn’t won. Now the Jewish religious leaders thought it was a good Friday.  I mean they finally got rid of a major problem for them.  But did they?  If you read the rest of the story you will find that it wasn’t really a good day for them. No, it was not a good Friday for them but a Good Friday for us.  As John says, “Out of his remarkable brilliance, breathtaking courage, and inexplicable love, Jesus sized up a situation that defeated every human at

A thought by John Ortberg (2012-08-07) from his book, Who Is This Man?: TheUnpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 143). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) But we use any excuse we can to strive to find that right person.  We thought this person we married was the right one until we lived with them for a while and we found that we were incompatible.  She/he didn’t always agree with me and give me what I want.  That isn’t incompatibility that is selfishness. John quotes G. K. Chesterton who wrote “I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable. For a man and a woman, as such, are incompatible.” Andy Stanley in his new book, The New Rules for Love, Sex,and Dating says, “Looking for the right person is a great idea as long as you don’t assume that finding the right person ensures ever

A thought by John Ortberg (2012-08-07) from his book, Who Is This Man?: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 130). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I understand that some people have a problem with the matter of Christians striving to convert people who don’t believe like them.  That is one of the things they say they don’t like about Christians but that is one thing we can’t help doing.  As John says, “The idea of conversion itself would come to the world through Jesus.”  And to us it is a very good thing.  It is good news and we want to share it. John says, “Where before Jesus was there a movement that actively sought to include every single human being, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, status, income, gender, moral background, or education, to be loved and transformed? Not only had there never been a community like this before, but there simply had never been the idea of a community like this before

A thought by John Ortberg (2012-08-07) from his book, Who Is This Man?: TheUnpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 93). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) John says, “If someone is in my in group, I will tend to magnify their good qualities and overlook their negative qualities. If somebody is in the out group, I look for the bad and overlook the good. I look at each member of ‘ us ’ as a unique individual. I tend to look at everybody who is one of them as all alike.” I really don’t think that is Jesus way of thinking.  John then says, “For Jesus, the categories break down like this: It’s not us and them . It’s perfect and not perfect . It’s holy and sinful . Which puts all of humanity on the same side: the wrong side. But Jesus was determined to make that his side.” He loves us, all of us.  He died for us, all of us with no distinction.  Somehow we need to catch that.  Father forgive us for we have all sin

A thought by John Ortberg (2012-08-07) from his book, Who Is This Man?: TheUnpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 73). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I don’t know what you are going through right now.  I remember when I was going through a very difficult time.  I loved being a pastor, I loved being a church planter.  There was nothing else that I wanted to do but I remember the realization that slowly came upon me that I was done with that part of my life and that I was to retire.  Change can be difficult but what would have happened if Jesus hadn’t changed his occupation?  His earthly father was a carpenter and that was what Jesus was doing but one day he changed.  As John said, “One day a carpenter left his shop and began to teach. What would the history of our world be if Jesus had not changed careers? Imagine that he stays in the shop: there is no teaching ministry, no crucifixion, no rise of the church, n

A thought by John Ortberg (2012-08-07) from his book, Who Is This Man?: TheUnpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 37). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Margaret and I were talking this morning on our drive to her work about how a women friend of ours was unjustly given a lower financial bonus than another person where this woman worked.  And this other person was a man.  And I got to thinking about that injustice later and of how that really would bother Jesus.  And in turn it should bother me. The whole thought that John says here is, “Jesus’ crankiness and compassion came from the same source: his outrageous love for every individual, and his pain when anyone is undervalued.” Is that true of us today who say we are followers of Christ?   

A thought by John Ortberg (2012-08-07) from his book, Who Is This Man?: TheUnpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 26). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) This thought hit me as I was looking for something to share with you today.  One thing it said to me was that when Jesus looks at an immigrant, a person of a different race, a poor or rich person, one who thinks different from me, one whose sexual orientation is different from mine, he sees the image of God.  As John says, “He saw this in everyone.”  And then John goes on to say, “It caused him to treat each person with dignity.”  Do we need to do that today?  Do we need to treat each person we see with dignity?  And then the thought goes on to say to me that when Jesus looks at me , at you , he sees the image of God. John shares that “novelist George MacDonald delighted in writing about princesses and princes. Someone asked him why he always wrote about princ