Wednesday, September 18, 2013
To Live...
Mark Daniels:
I have heard people warp the whole "Jesus Über Alles" thing into whatever their personal agenda happens to be. They become worship fetishists based on the word "glorify," or they make feeding the poor the ENTIRE purpose of the church because Jesus talked about it in the Sermon on the Mount.
The point of making it ALL about Jesus is that He is a person with all the complications and interests and breadth that involves. He can't be pigeon-holed or limited. In point of fact Christ is so large and complex, that to attempt to focus on him is to be consumed.
But in our communication sensitive world we only want to tell people positive things. But we need to hear the negative. I simply cannot describe all that Jesus is, I lack the language, the intellectual capacity and the time to even attempt it. But I can say what He is not based on what is getting in between me and Him today. Maybe, just maybe we need to rethink our communication strategies.
Christ communication
"To live is Christ...
...to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).
So, we keep following Christ, loving God, loving neighbor, and telling others about the new life that on Jesus Christ, the God-Man, can give to those who believe in Him. Whether we Christians live or die, we belong to Christ and it will always be our privilege to glorify Him only!Mark then goes on to offer a laundry list of the things that we are not privileged to glorify - you know, the things that get in the way of our relationship with Christ. Sometimes, I think that's the real point.
I have heard people warp the whole "Jesus Über Alles" thing into whatever their personal agenda happens to be. They become worship fetishists based on the word "glorify," or they make feeding the poor the ENTIRE purpose of the church because Jesus talked about it in the Sermon on the Mount.
The point of making it ALL about Jesus is that He is a person with all the complications and interests and breadth that involves. He can't be pigeon-holed or limited. In point of fact Christ is so large and complex, that to attempt to focus on him is to be consumed.
But in our communication sensitive world we only want to tell people positive things. But we need to hear the negative. I simply cannot describe all that Jesus is, I lack the language, the intellectual capacity and the time to even attempt it. But I can say what He is not based on what is getting in between me and Him today. Maybe, just maybe we need to rethink our communication strategies.
Christ communication
