When I am telling a story I try my best to include all of the details. I expect no less when I am hearing stories. I demand all of the details. Who wants to hear half of a story anyway? Weren't you frustrated at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring when it just cuts off when things are getting really good. What happened to Frodo and Sam? What about watching the "end" of the first half of The Deathly Hollows. Not cool... I cannot stand it when books like these end up as movies and leave out all of the good details or they may not only do that, but also add ridiculous stuff like Prince Caspian and Susan kissing. Poor C.S. Lewis. I usually leave the movie frustrated and hating the movie makers.
Sometimes we see the trailers and hear about the movies from our friends. After all of that we have formulated our own opinions of these movies and may or may not watch them. I myself have not seen one Twilight movie and have no intention of doing so based on what I have heard. This may or may not be fair though.
When it comes to Jesus, we all have our opinions. Some are good, some are bad, some are true, others inaccurate. When it comes down to it, many of those opinions are based off of what we have heard, or maybe even read in books that others have written. Some people try to see for themselves and attempt to read one of the Gospels. I myself struggle sometimes with sticking with it. Sometimes my eyes glaze over as I am reading the words on the page. Sometimes I feel almost numb to the story. I have heard it countless times at school, church, retreats, etc. I forget how meaningful and important the story really is, how it changed my life.
This morning I finished reading Luke and I remembered that this book was written by Luke to one of his friend to tell him everything Luke knew about Jesus. The book starts out like this:
"Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught." Luke 1:1-4
Luke was a good man who liked details. How neat! He also valued getting our stories straight and forming our own thoughts about Jesus. He like Matthew, Mark, and John wanted people to not only hear about Jesus, but to read about him too. Luke cared so much about this story that he "carefully investigated everything from the beginning".
Dear friend, Please do not be like the poor movie goers that only get half of the story and all of the extras that were not in the story in the first place. Today I encourage you to try reading the story for yourself. It may just surprise you.
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Friday, December 17, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Started in Job, ended up in John
This morning class was canceled so I decided to lounge around and read instead. I read a bit in Job and then I turned over to John. For a while now I have really loved the book of John. I love the stories and the things Jesus did and said as told by John. At Urbana we went through the first four chapters which are powerful.
One story that sticks out to me in particular is the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. Her story starts in John 4:4. I love how Jesus just goes up to her even though she is a Samaritan woman, and not only was she a Samaritan, she had been married several times and was with another man that was not her husband. Jesus knew all of this and still asked her for some water! He did not care what she had done in the past or what she was currently doing. She had sinned and He still met her where she was, He loved her. All of us as humans have differences. We are all unique. We all have different backgrounds. We have different sins, but we all have sinned. They may be different, but they are all sin.
Some of us might look at the woman at the well and be like, "Look at that woman! She has had five husbands and is now with some other man! We are not as bad as her." I know I have felt that way. I have been that person who looks down on others who fall into sin after sin and don't seem to care. My heart breaks for these people, but some times I get tired of it and eventually write them off. I sit back and watch them screw up there lives and do nothing about it. We are not supposed to do any of this. We are called to love all people! We are called to live just as Jesus did. He did not sit back and watch people mess up there already broken lives or criticize there every wrong move. He went to them. He met them where they were. He showed them love and grace and gave them mercy and forgiveness.
He didn't just come to the Samaritan woman, He also came to me in all of my self-righteousness. Just a few chapters earlier, John 1:14 says "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." Jesus came to all of us. He walked this earth to restore our relationships with our maker. I am so broken which makes my relationship with God broken.
Flipping to John 17 I saw that Jesus prayed for us before He was arrested and crucified. John 17:20-26 says
"My prayer is not for them* alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
We are meant to be reconciled to God through Jesus and also to each other. We are meant to be a body of believers that reaches out to this hurting world, meet them where they are, and show them the love of Christ. My prayer is that I stop judging and disregarding the hurting. Jesus came for me and He also came for them. He came for each and every one of us. I pray I can show love to this beautiful neighborhood where God has sent me, spread that love of Jesus.
*them refers to Jesus' disciples
One story that sticks out to me in particular is the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. Her story starts in John 4:4. I love how Jesus just goes up to her even though she is a Samaritan woman, and not only was she a Samaritan, she had been married several times and was with another man that was not her husband. Jesus knew all of this and still asked her for some water! He did not care what she had done in the past or what she was currently doing. She had sinned and He still met her where she was, He loved her. All of us as humans have differences. We are all unique. We all have different backgrounds. We have different sins, but we all have sinned. They may be different, but they are all sin.
Some of us might look at the woman at the well and be like, "Look at that woman! She has had five husbands and is now with some other man! We are not as bad as her." I know I have felt that way. I have been that person who looks down on others who fall into sin after sin and don't seem to care. My heart breaks for these people, but some times I get tired of it and eventually write them off. I sit back and watch them screw up there lives and do nothing about it. We are not supposed to do any of this. We are called to love all people! We are called to live just as Jesus did. He did not sit back and watch people mess up there already broken lives or criticize there every wrong move. He went to them. He met them where they were. He showed them love and grace and gave them mercy and forgiveness.
He didn't just come to the Samaritan woman, He also came to me in all of my self-righteousness. Just a few chapters earlier, John 1:14 says "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." Jesus came to all of us. He walked this earth to restore our relationships with our maker. I am so broken which makes my relationship with God broken.
Flipping to John 17 I saw that Jesus prayed for us before He was arrested and crucified. John 17:20-26 says
"My prayer is not for them* alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
We are meant to be reconciled to God through Jesus and also to each other. We are meant to be a body of believers that reaches out to this hurting world, meet them where they are, and show them the love of Christ. My prayer is that I stop judging and disregarding the hurting. Jesus came for me and He also came for them. He came for each and every one of us. I pray I can show love to this beautiful neighborhood where God has sent me, spread that love of Jesus.
*them refers to Jesus' disciples
Monday, January 4, 2010
The beginning of a blog and love
Blog. It has become so foreign to me to pull thoughts, ideas, and feelings out of my head and put them into writing. Lately God has been in the business of redeeming things in my life. I guess one of the reasons for setting out on this adventure is to trust Him with that old part of my life, to bring it back and dust it off. In the last few years I have put myself into the rut of not thinking. I think in mini blogs all day long, but nothing like I used to, really taking a step back and looking at my life and all that surrounds it, most importantly how God has been growing me. My dearest roommate has told me several times to start a blog. I doubted I would be able to since I am a talker by nature, not a writer. I have crappy grammar and punctuation at times and my spelling is atrocious. Oh well, I am believing God for the ability to let Him speak into my life through writing and not limiting myself to having conversations with others since I may not always have others to talk to. Now I venture into writing and thinking and talking to God more. This is a bit scary, not gonna lie.
So this is called love to the neighborhood. This is my heart and the way I want to live my life, to bring Jesus and His amazing love into the neighborhood. I am not the best lover of others but I'm growing and, honestly, that is all I want to do. Why have the love of Christ in your heart and not give it away? I do not even think it is a question of why, but how! Christ's love is so life changing and powerful that once it has hit one's heart it cannot be contained in that person, instead it flows out so much so that it becomes apparent to those around and begins to wash over them as we carryout the incarnate love of Jesus by serving and truly caring, among other things.
In this blog I pray that I may be able to explore that amazing love of Jesus, that love that extends to every person that dwells on this beautiful earth. Also, how I interact and react to this love and how it plays out in my life as I venture into my neighborhood to better share it with those who I love already, those who I am learning to love, and those who I really do not love.
So this is called love to the neighborhood. This is my heart and the way I want to live my life, to bring Jesus and His amazing love into the neighborhood. I am not the best lover of others but I'm growing and, honestly, that is all I want to do. Why have the love of Christ in your heart and not give it away? I do not even think it is a question of why, but how! Christ's love is so life changing and powerful that once it has hit one's heart it cannot be contained in that person, instead it flows out so much so that it becomes apparent to those around and begins to wash over them as we carryout the incarnate love of Jesus by serving and truly caring, among other things.
In this blog I pray that I may be able to explore that amazing love of Jesus, that love that extends to every person that dwells on this beautiful earth. Also, how I interact and react to this love and how it plays out in my life as I venture into my neighborhood to better share it with those who I love already, those who I am learning to love, and those who I really do not love.
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