The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness[.]

Exodus 34:6

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness[.] Exodus 34:6

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 10: The Breadth of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• While the last chapter discussed The Narrowness of Jesus, "there was a purpose in this narrowness, and a reason for it. His narrowness was a product of his breadth. He walked the narrow path because he carried in his heart the dream of an empire which was vast."
• "By persistently treading a single path, he made that path so luminous that every eye can see it; by dis- carding false ideas and by opposing wicked men, he has made it easier for truth seekers and the soldiers of God in each succeeding generation to fight a good fight and to win the crown. By being faithful in a few things, he won the place of Lordship over many cities; and by limiting himself, and by making himself of no reputation, he founded a kingdom broad as humanity and of which there shall be no end. If you study the New Testament, you will see that this man from the beginning carried the world in his eye and the race on his heart. What strange paradoxes one finds in the realm of the soul. If you would be broad, then be narrow. Jesus was narrow because his breadth was immeasurable."
• "The amplitude of Jesus' ideas is evidenced by their perennial freshness and applicability to all kinds of men and conditions. How wonderful it is that Jesus' ideas are broad enough to cover all the nations and all the centuries. Many ideas shrivel and dry up with the lapse of time...the ideas of Jesus have such breadth that they can cover the world and the ages, and although nineteen centuries have swept away almost everything which was believed and taught in Jesus' day, his ideas are still alive and the very words in which they are expressed seem destined to outlive the stars."
• "And his heart was as far-reaching as his brain. The social sympathies of Jesus were to his country- men a surprise and a scandal. He felt with everybody. He seemed to be ignorant of the proprieties and the etiquette of well-bred people. His heart went out to all sorts and conditions of men in a way which was reckless and shocking."
• "The land was crossed in all directions by dividing walls and estranging barriers, constructed by narrow-hearted teachers, and after Jesus had walked through the land, lo, the barriers and walls were a mass of ruins. His great, loving heart burst asunder all the regulations and restrictions. There was room in his soul for everybody. It is in the width of his love that men have found most to wonder at. His love was unbounded."
• "He was not willing that his followers should set boundaries to their love, because all such barriers were contrary to his habit and foreign to his spirit. When Peter asked him how often a man ought to forgive another who has trespassed against him, and suggested seven as a number almost grotesquely large, being more than twice the number suggested by the most liberal of the rabbis, Jesus said: 'Do not set any limits at all. There are no boundaries in the realm of love. You cannot calculate in the empire of the heart. Mathematics is foreign to affection.'"
• "It is this abounding love which accounts for the immeasurable reaches of his hope. He was the most hopeful of all teachers. No matter how dull the pupil, he still believed that he would learn. Men had grown cynical and pessimistic in Palestine nineteen centuries ago. They had lost confidence in humanity, and had settled down in the conviction that for many mortals we can expect nothing but perdition. To the religious teachers of Palestine certain classes were beyond redemption. They were lost and were labeled "Lost." It was known throughout the city that to certain sinners no exhortation could be directed, no promise could be offered. The Jewish church turned its back upon all such, and confined itself to men who could be saved. But Jesus, because he loved, also hoped. His hope was as immeasurable as his love. He did not reject the refuse of society."
• "You cannot tell what is in a man by what he says or even by what he does. There is more in him than comes out in his words and his deeds. And so Jesus proceeded to show that the so-called lost men were not lost, and that even in blasted Samaria the fields were white to the harvest. He did not hesitate to direct his most earnest exhortations to men who were supposed to have no heart, and even when the world's cruelty was cutting into him like steel, he said, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." So boundless was his confidence in man, that he set no limits to his expectations. He could not accomplish the redemption of the world in the few years of his earthly career, but he would form a society, baptize it with his spirit, and through this society God from His throne in heaven would redeem the race. The formation of this Christian society is one of the great events of the New Testament. The character of the men built into it has a wealth of suggestion."
• "Mark the method of Jesus. He chooses men of all grades and from all classes. No man in the group is like any of his comrades, and no one of them is like Jesus."
• "In doing a wide work you must have a broad instrument, and the Christian church as it left the hands of Jesus embraced in its membership the types of men which would be able to open all the doors. Never does the breadth of the mind of Jesus come out with more startling clearness than in the manner of his choices in the formation of the society which was to bear his name and carry on his work. It was a great work, the vastest which has ever entered into the heart of man."
• "In Jesus of Nazareth we get a revelation of the breadth of the heart of the Eternal. How did it happen that Jesus was so spacious in his ideas and so broad in his sympathies and so far-reaching in his plannings? It was because God was in him revealing Himself to men. That is what God always is — broad in His sympathies, wonderful in His expectations, boundless in His love."
• "No matter who you are, you have a sure place in the mind and heart of God. No matter how you have sinned, you are inside the boundaries of His sympathy. No matter what you have said or felt or thought or done, you are still the object of His love. No matter how often you have disappointed Him, He is still expecting of you better things. Whoever you are, and wherever you are, and whatever you are, you are included in His plans. When He laid down the lines of His vast scheme for humanity, you were not overlooked or forgotten. When He framed His church, a place inside of it was assigned to you. That place will remain vacant until you fill it. You cannot escape Him. His arms are all-embracing. The width of His heart is infinite." 
  

Herein lies one of the great paradoxes of Jesus - that He is both narrow and broad.  His narrowness of purpose was so singular and focused - to "seek and save the lost" - while at the same time carried out by a Savior with limitless power, resulted in broad and timeless implications for all of humanity throughout all of redemptive history, including past, present, and future. He cannot be fully comprehended nor contained by any human faculty, nor by creation itself as He is the Creator.  While AI may be all of the current rage, it does not and cannot compare to God as AI is sourced from God - see this message from DesiringGod.com.  See also Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:14-18 where Paul prays for the Holy Spirit to help believers to understand the "fullness" of God. Believe and experience God as His love knows no bounds!

Comment and discuss this post. 

My Prayer: Father God, Your love knows no bounds and You give me power through the Holy Spirit to grasp - as much as I can on this side of Heaven - to experience Your love and fullness.  Thank You for saving me and for these blessings - which of course are not the only blessings You pour out for me!  I am not deserving.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:13-14

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 9: The Narrowness of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• "Let us think about the narrowness of Jesus. I know it is a disparaging word in our modern speech and damaging to a person's reputation. We often hear it used in a sinister and condemning sense, we sometimes use it so ourselves. We say, "Oh, yes, he is narrow," meaning that one side of his nature has been blighted, blasted. His mind is not full formed. His heart is not full grown. He is a dwarfed and stunted man, cramped by a defective education or squeezed out of shape by a narrowing environment. In no such sense as this was the man of Galilee narrow. But what word will better express one of the conspicuous traits of Jesus than just this word "narrowness"? He set definite boundaries for himself, he shut himself up within contracted limits; in this sense he was narrow."
• "How narrow was the circle inside of which he did all his work ! He lived his life in Palestine, a little country no larger than Connecticut. It was not a prominent country either, but only a little province tributary to mighty Rome. It cut no figure in the eye of the world, and the lords and ladies of the world's capitals knew-little of it and cared less. It was an obscure and rural country, small in territory and insignificant in prestige, and yet the Prince of Glory confined himself to this little comer of the earth. He might have traveled across the world as many an illustrious teacher had done before his day. He might have taught in Athens and lifted up his voice in the streets of the Eternal City. He might have given his message to a wide circle of men whose influence covered many lands; but he rather chose to stay at home, to give his time to the cities of Galilee, to pour out his strength on the villages of Judea. For thirty years he remained in the dingy obscurity of a carpenter's shop, and the country upon which he poured out the full wealth of his brain and heart was only a carpenter's shop among the palaces of the earth."
• "If his field was contracted, so also was the character of his work. He only tried to do one thing."
• "A man one day interrupted him while he was speaking, saying, "Make my brother divide the inheritance with me!" But his reply was, 'That lies outside my province — come and listen to me and I will do for you the service which God has appointed me to do.'"
• "No one man can do everything, no one man should attempt everything. There are a thousand things which need to be done and yet which no man however industrious and noble can perform. Jesus set limits to his activity, and beyond those limits no man ever persuaded him to go. One day his brothers wanted him to go to Jerusalem and make an impression on the big men there, but he refused to listen to their exhortation, telling them that they might go any time they chose, but that it was different with him. He could not go until it was time for him to go, until his work compelled him to go. He could not go until his hour had come. When the hour arrived he set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. All along the way men tried to divert him, but he could not be diverted, to Jerusalem he must go. He had a baptism to be baptized with and he was pressed in on both sides and there was no relief until his work had been accomplished."
• "He could not dissipate his energy, he could not waste a single hour. It was always, 'I must', 'I must,' 'I must.'"
  
• "There were broad roads on his right and left, and along these roads thousands of his countrymen were traveling, but he could not go with them. It was for him to walk along-the narrow path, for this alone led to the glorious life which was to cheer and save the world. When he talks to men about the two ways, one of them narrow and the other one broad, he is speaking out of his own experience; and when he urges men to choose the narrow one in preference to the one which is broad, he is only saying, 'Follow me!'"
  
• While today many would view Jesus as being closed-minded, "[t]o [Jesus] certain conceptions of God were true and others were false, certain estimates of man were correct and others erroneous, certain standards of duty were uplifting and others degrading, and with all his mind and soul and strength he clung to the true and combated the false. He never shrank from holding clean-cut opinions and from expressing them with vigor and emphasis. He was not afraid of being called intolerant or a bigot. He made a distinction between falsehood and truth, and was not ashamed to stamp upon the former and proclaim boldly the latter."
• "He came to bear witness to the truth, and for that reason he was not broad enough to give a place in his heart to falsehood." 
  
• "This same narrowness comes out again in the limited range of his approbations. There were some things he could praise and there were other things he was obliged to condemn."
  
• "He had eyes which saw through the exterior of men's hearts, and he judged them with a fearlessness which made them crouch in terror."
  
• "He did not minimize the heinousness of sin by treating all men alike. It makes no difference to some of us whether men are honest or not, or whether they live filthy lives or not; but it made a difference to Jesus. No mean and contemptible scoundrel ever felt in Jesus' presence like holding up his head. He was so narrow in his judgments he refused to let bad men feel that they were good. In all his judgments on the lives and homes of men he pursued the narrow way."
  
• "It is in his habit of drawing distinctions and setting boundaries that we are to find the cause of many things which might otherwise remain inexplicable. One of the notes of Jesus' life was joy. He was a man acquainted with grief, and yet his joy was without measure."
  
• "No man can be happy with an entire world to roam over. It is only when a man picks out some particular little sphere and says, "Inside of this I purpose to work," that real life begins and his heart learns the art of singing."
  
• "So long as the world's work lies in a mountain mass, there is only depression and hopelessness; it is when a man picks up in his hand a definite, tiny task and says, " This is the thing to which I shall devote my life," that the shadows vanish and life becomes worth living. It is the narrow path that leads to life. Jesus' work was definite."
  
• "If you want to see a man who sings at his work, look for him inside of a narrow circle."
  
• "Not only was Jesus joyful, but he was mighty. He made an impression because he stayed in one place, and hit the same nail on the head until it was driven completely in."
  
• "He made himself thus mighty by limiting himself."
  
• "By limiting himself our Lord came off conqueror. He succeeded. What is it to succeed? It is to do the thing for which we were created." 
  
•  "Jesus' life on earth covered only thirty-three brief years, and yet he did the greatest piece of work ever accomplished on the earth."
  
•  "But he says to us with that strange, dogmatic, compelling accent which stirred the hearts of the people long ago in Galilee, "Verily I say unto you, unless you abide in me, you have no life at all in you!" This, then, is the narrowness of Jesus. He is narrow for a purpose. He limited himself, emptied himself of his divine glory...walked the narrow path which led from the carpenter's shop to Golgotha, all because of his great love for us, and in order that we might each one of us have life and have it more abundantly."
  

Believers who study the Bible can easily read scripture and become overwhelmed at all that Jesus commands from us, and think that how can I ever do all of these things.  The first point that is key is that you as a human cannot.  It is Christ within you, the Holy Spirit - see Galatians 2:20 - that through the sanctification process is molding You into more of His image, bringing about obedience to His Word (see Romans 1:5 and other text examples). Additionally, I think it helps to focus most importantly on the most important commands per Jesus from Matthew 22:34-40 to love God and to love others (the latter of which flows from the former).  Jesus shares how all commands flow from these.  Follow Jesus and see how the narrow way of Jesus has power…including power to grow in a desire for and love of Jesus!

Comment and discuss this post.

My Prayer: Father God, Jesus, You are the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. Jesus may be narrow but His way is power and blessings - thank You Jesus for the blessings You pour out for me. I am not deserving of the love, grace and blessings You pour out for me.  My sim is great and it continues…daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from such towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart soul and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Please give Lisa and myself wisdom energy and strength.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior. Help me serve You, my family my church and others.  Help me understand be obedient to and apply Your message for me today and every day.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 8: The Originality of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• Jesus is accused by many to speak with a "patchwork of quotations" and as a "repeater of wisdom taught by men before his day."
• "The fact is that God has never left himself without a witness. The Son of God has always been in the world. He is the light that lights every man who is born. From the beginning he has been giving men right ideas and right feelings and helping them to reach right conclusions and decisions. We ought, therefore, to expect nothing in Jesus' teaching absolutely unthought of before his incarnation. We ought to expect to find just what we do find, that everything he taught had been anticipated, and that all his cardinal ideas had existed in germ in the writings of holy men who at diverse times had been moved by the Holy Spirit. Jesus instead of suggesting ideas never before heard of, and expounding truths of which no man had ever conceived, picked up the ancient writings, declaring that they contain the word of the Almighty and that he had come to interpret their meaning and to fulfill what the poets and prophets had dreamed. He did not come to destroy the old ideas or the old truths. He came to fulfill." 
  
• "It is at this point, then, that we are to look for the originality of Jesus. We shall not find it in his phrases or even in his conceptions, but rather in his emphasis and his manner of reading life and the world." 
  
• "Men were reading the Scriptures, but they did not know which words to emphasize. Jesus understood. The result was that the Scripture became new....[T]he leaders of the Jewish church had forgotten the point of emphasis. Jesus knew. By emphasizing mercy instead of sacrifice he made religion new. Men had forgotten how to read the world. There were institutions and there were human beings, and the wisest men of Israel had forgotten which is most important, — an institution or a man. Jesus threw the emphasis on the individual soul and by so doing opened a new epoch in the history of the world." 
  
• "[Jesus] lifted himself into a unique position and claimed for himself privileges and rights which he denied to all others. He claimed to be the light of the world, the bread of life, the water of life, the only good shepherd, the way, the truth, the life, the only mediator between God and man, the only one who knows deity completely and who can save the world from its sins. Here we strike something which is unique and in every sense original."
  
• "John, who knew him best, heard him saying, "Behold I make all things new." He could say this because he was new himself."
  
•  "It may be that for some of you life has grown irksome and the world drab and commonplace....The days are threadbare and everything has lost its bloom. What will you do? This is the wise thing to do: Go to Jesus and give yourself afresh to him. Sink your life deeper into his life and catch his ways of seeing things and serving God.  Take his standpoint, assume his attitude, catch his emphasis, drink in the accent of his voice, and undoubtedly he will do for you what he did for Saul of Tarsus, and what he has done and is doing still for many, — he will make all things new.
  
• "[Jesus] unifies human life and simplifies it and elevates it and transforms it and transfigures it, all because he is the Master and the Savior of the heart. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold all things are become new."

Like Paul, each believer has his or her own testimony about how God and the Holy Spirit worked in his/her life to transform and change the heart - to make it more like Him.  Chuck Colson is one such believer who was radically changed by the Gospel.  IAmSecond.com chronicles many more such stories of heart and life change. Ezekiel 36:26 prophesied this when he delivered words from God: "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."  This is new birth or the doctrine of regeneration.  John Piper speaks of this in a message posted here on DesiringGod.com.  Believe in Jesus and watch Jesus make all things new again!

Comment and discuss this post.

My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who has given me a heart of flesh and made all things new again in my life - thank You!  I am not deserving of how You gave me faith, saved me, and transformed my heart and life.  My sin is great and it continues...arrogance, harshness, etc.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from such sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Mark 12:34

And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. Mark 12:34

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 7: The Poise of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• Poise is defined as "the fine balance of [one's] faculties, the equilibrium of [one's] nature."
• "The average man is one-sided, unsymmetrical, unevenly developed....We are all overdeveloped on one side of our nature and underdeveloped on the other....If we are strong in certain characteristics, we are well-nigh certain to be weak in the opposite characteristics."
  
•  "Every virtue when pushed beyond its appointed limit becomes a vice, and every grace when overdeveloped becomes a defect and disfiguration. Look around upon the men and women that you know, and in how many of them can you say that their disposition is finely balanced?"
  
• "[W]hen we come to Jesus we find ourselves in the presence of a man without a flaw. He was enthusiastic, blazing with enthusiasm, but he never became fanatical. He was emotional, men could feel the throbbing of his heart, but he never became hysterical. He was imaginative, full of poetry and music, seeing pictures everywhere, throwing upon everything he touched a light that never was on land or sea, the inspiration and the poet's dream — but he was never flighty. He was practical, hard-headed, matter of fact, but he was never prosaic, never dull. His life always had in it the glamour of romance. He was courageous but never reckless, prudent but never a coward, unique but not eccentric, sympathetic but never sentimental. Great streams of sympathy flowed from his tender heart toward those who needed sympathy, but at the same time streams of lava flowed from the same heart to scorch and overwhelm the workers of iniquity. He was pious, but there is not a trace about him of sanctimoniousness....He stands in history as the one man beautiful, symmetrical, absolutely perfect."
• "He lived always in a whirlwind, — men bent like reeds around him, — he never so much as wavered....The intellectual athletes of his time tried to trip Him — they never did....After they had done their best they retired vanquished from the field. He remained undisputed conqueror." 
  
•  "Time and again the evil one came to him with a new allurement, but every time he hurled the tempter back by quoting just the passage of Scripture which that temptation needed."
  
• "On the last Tuesday of his life they determined to undo him. All the different parties united their forces and put their heads together and concocted schemes by means of which this young prophet should be brought to prison."  Jesus' response in Mark 12:17 tied the hands of His captors. 
• "It is an interesting fact that notwithstanding Jesus was speaking constantly in public for three years, not one of his enemies was able to catch him in his speech, and when at last they convicted him they had to do it on a trumped-up lie....This also is noteworthy that not one of the enemies of Jesus was able by unfairness or falsehood or hatred to push Jesus into a hasty word or an unrighteous mood. Most men are so poorly balanced you can push them with very little pressure into an unmanly speech, into an unchristian disposition. Jesus was so firmly poised that under the pressure of the most venomous vituperation that has ever been hurled against a man, he stood erect, unmoved, and unmovable. His poise was divine." 
  
• "Because he is so well balanced and so finely poised, each succeeding generation comes back to him for inspiration." 
  
• "There is a grace about him which does not fade, there is a sanity about him which compels respect, there is a charm about him which woos and wins the heart, and we like preceding generations fall down before-him acknowledging that his character is without a flaw and that his life is without a blemish."
  

Jesus' poise and His steadiness of mood calls to mind how Jesus was a rock.  That regardless of what verbal or physical abuse was thrown at Him, He was unmoved from who He is to become something He was not - sinful in His response.  He did not become full of fear when scripture says be courageous or do not be anxious.  He did not lash out with vengeance when He was insulted or beaten - He could have at any moment as He held all of his enemies' lives in His hands.  Scripture tells us to turn the other cheek when our enemies strike us - Jesus never did.  This is clearly an attribute I have never seen from anyone else I have ever met.  Our faith requires us to be unmoved by the vagaries of the world.  Jesus tells us that we can rest knowing that He has already overcome the world - see John 16:33.  We must build our house on the rock - see Matthew 7:24-27.  Rock on!

Comment and discuss this post.

My Prayer: Father God, You are an incredible God who loves me and who is full of incredible grace and compassion for me - You provide Your Word and Your promises which always come true.  You guide and keep me from falling into eternal damnation.  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of Your unchanging nature and Your faithfulness to me.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.   Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Acts 17:10-11

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Acts 17:10-11

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 6: The Reasonableness of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• "There is a widespread impression, especially among young people of a certain age, that Jesus is unreasonable, and that Christianity is a religion which constantly makes war on reason. Young men sometimes say, "I do not want to join the church because I want to use my reason." How strange such language when Jesus from first to last pleads for the use of the reason. Christianity is the one religion of the world which demands the continuous and daring exercise of the intellect. Men often think they are using their reason when in fact they are exercising their prejudices or are suffering from paralysis of the brain."
• "If men want to know whether Christianity is reasonable or not, why do they not read the Gospels? They are short and can be read through at least once a week, and yet men go right on refusing to read the Gospels — the one source of all authentic information as to what the Christian religion really is. Many think nothing of reading a novel of four hundred pages who stagger under the task of reading the four Gospels. It is just such persons who like to talk about the unreasonableness of Christianity. Why not be reasonable? Christianity has but one authoritative volume. Why not read it ?"
  
•  "In order to expose the folly of men, Jesus had the habit of asking questions."
• "His attitude from first to last is the attitude of God as pictured by Isaiah. He was always saying, 'Come, now, let us reason together.'" See Isaiah 1:18.
  
•  Jesus saw Old Testament ceremonial law as having "no reason....It was utterly formal and deadening and stupid."
•  Jesus says if you want to understand the Christian life, then work at it. If you desire to know the truth, then live it. This is common sense. How else could one find the truth of a religion if he did not work at it ? If you want to learn to speak Italian, you do not simply think about it, or read about it, but you go to work on it. It requires a deal of work, but no matter. You cannot learn a language without making mistakes, and the only thing to do is to keep on working. Just so is it with the Christian life. Men imagine they can become Christians by thinking about it, or by reading about it, or by hearing a preacher talk about it. How absurd! You can never become a Christian until you are willing to work at it. Are you willing to begin now?"
  

There are many a man who at first scorned (or at least dismissed) Christ and the Gospel, but upon further investigation repented and believed in Him.  Lee Strobel is one such figure, and he is one of countless others. Acts 17 describes the Bereans (not necessarily ardent skeptics) - a group of Jews who heard Paul and Silas share the Gospel on Paul's second missionary journey.  They eagerly studied what Paul and Silas shared to "test" the veracity of the Gospel.  God wants us to do the same and to use our power of reason - to test that our own experience of the Good News is what it says it is. For me, my experience is that the more I read and study God's Word, the more I am convicted all of it is not just reasonable, true, but  truly the Word of God and in the Word contains the power of God.  Read the Gospels and see for yourself!

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who is not just reasonable, but perfect - and in not just Your words, but in all of Your ways.  Thank You for Your Word and how it's Truth provides Power.  I am not deserving of how You speak to me and reveal Yourself and my sin to me.  I am also not deserving of the inexhaustible grace that You pour out for me.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from such sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.

Matthew 6:5

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Matthew 6:5a-b

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 5: The Sincerity of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• Sincerity is referred to as "the keystone" and as "fundamental" to one's character.  "This is what we demand of all the higher relationships of life. In the lower relationships sincerity is desirable, but in the higher ones it is absolutely indispensable."
• "There is nothing which so takes the life out of us as the discovery that some one whom we have trusted has been other than what he seemed to be.  The very suspicion that some one whose life is close to us is insincere renders us restless and makes the universe seem insecure."
• "And yet how common insincerity is. What a miserable old humbug of a world we are living in, full of trickery and dishonesty and deceit of every kind."
•  "[Jesus] is a man incapable of a lie. Nothing was so abhorrent to him as falsehood. No other people so stirred his wrath as men who pretended to be what they were not. The most odious word upon his lips was the word 'hypocrite'."
  
•  "It was the sincerity of Jesus which drove him into deadly conflict with the hypocrites. A hypocrite and Jesus cannot live together."
  
• "It was because of Jesus' incorruptible sincerity that we have from his lips such a remarkable outpouring of plain words. You and I do not like plain words. We dare not use them — at least often. We water our words down. We pull the string out of them. We substitute long Latin words for plain, short, Anglo-Saxon words, for by multiplying the syllables we attenuate the meaning. For instance, we say "prevarication' instead of "lie," because falsehood when expressed pompously loses its blackness and grossness. But Jesus would not use words of velvet when words of velvet flattered and deceived. It was his work to help men see themselves as they were. He characterized them by words which accurately described their character."
• "Jesus was incorrigibly sincere, and it was sincerity which drove him to tell men the plain truth."
  
• "There was a strong inducement for him to conceal his extraordinary knowledge. A man makes himself odious by claiming to know more than other men, and by asserting that he can do more than anybody else. It would have been easier for Jesus to adopt the language of the professionally humble people who are always saying that they do not know anything and cannot do anything and do not amount to anything. But Jesus was a man of truth. He could not disguise the fact that his knowledge was unique and that his power was unparalleled. Because he was true he could not hold back the fact that he was the Good Shepherd and the Door, the Bread of Life, and the Light of the World. Nothing but sincerity would ever have driven him to outrage the feelings of his countrymen by assertions so extraordinary. Had he kept silence or pretended to be ignorant on matters on which he possessed full knowledge, he would indeed have been a liar like the very men with whom he was struggling."
  
• "The awful parables of the New Testament are the product of a heart that was uncompromisingly sincere. To speak soft words to men whose feet are hastening down the road to ruin, how was it possible to do it? His very sincerity drove him into language which to our cold hearts seems exaggerated and needlessly abusive. He called the leaders in Jerusalem liars, blind men, fools, serpents, vipers....was it not the duty of Jesus to inform them of their pitiable condition? What else could a sincere friend do?" 
  
•  "It is the calm statement of a horrible fact. The Lord of truth must of necessity use words which accurately characterize the persons who are to be instructed and warned."
  
• Jesus was never accused of falsehoods - instead heresy.  
  
•  "He holds back nothing. What he thinks he says, what he feels he declares. He tones down nothing, he exaggerates nothing. He declares all things as they are. He is not swerved by sin within nor cowed by hostile forces from without. His character is revealed in his speech."
  
• "This, then, is the man we want. A man like this can be a refuge in the time of storm. To him we can flee; when sick at heart, because of the deceptions of the world, we cry out in wretchedness, "Who shall show us any good?" When men disappoint us and friends are few, we can come to one who says, "I am the truth." When we are weary and heavy laden, we can rest our souls upon one who is as certain as the morning and as faithful as the stars."
• "The world is filled with jangling voices and it is hard to know which voice to trust; but his voice has in it something which inspires assurance and quenches uncertainty and doubt." 
  
• "When he says that him that cometh unto him he will in no way cast off, we are certain that if we come we shall be received. When he says, " Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man will hear my voice and open the door I will come in and sup with him and he with me," we are certain of a heavenly guest if we want him. This, then, is why we feel so calm and satisfied with Jesus: he soothes and heals us by being genuine. The heart is always at peace when it rests upon a heart which is sincere."  
  

Indeed very wise words from Mr. Jefferson!  I am left with at least two key takeaways upon reading this chapter of The Character of Jesus.  First, in light of Jesus' sincerity, we can trust in His words and promises - see 2 Corinthians 1:20.  This should give us incredible hope and encouragement to persist, endure and hold steadfast to our faith.  Second, we can trust that God will both reveal our sin to us - by talking plainly to us through the Word and the Holy Spirit - and that He will work in us to make us more like Him as we repent from such sin and turn towards Him.  This latter promise of sanctification, is also one of great hope and encouragement because we should seek to please Him and grow in our obedience to Him - we exist to glorify Him.

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My Prayer: Father God, You are Truth and I can count on You.  You also give me the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to me and to work in me to sanctify me.  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such blessings.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

[T]hey were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

Mark 1:27

[T]hey were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” Mark 1:27

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 4: The Strength of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• "When you think of [Jesus] do you think of some one thin and gaunt, weak and pallid? Not so did he seem to the people of his day....When Jesus presents himself to be baptized, a remarkable thing happens. John had called men to repentance, he had faced the greatest men of his day without flinching, he had baptized the great and small, the high and low, the rich and poor, the learned and ignorant; but when this man from Nazareth appears, John falters and draws back and says: "I cannot baptize you. I have need to be baptized by you." Such was the impression which Jesus made upon the intrepid reformer from the desert." 
  
• "He teaches...as one having authority and not as the scribes. There is something in his voice that pierces and cuts and thrills, a tone that they have never heard before. It is the note of authority, the note of strength."
  
• "There is a sick man in the synagogue, and Jesus heals him, and again the people are surprised because God has given such power to a man."
• The impression of Jesus in his day is one of "authority, mastery, power, leadership; he is a man of strength."
• "He drew men to him....Wherever he went he was surrounded by a crowd...Every city through which he passes is turned upside down by his presence. Only a man of strength draws to him great masses of men."
• Repeatedly in the Gospels we see how people were amazed at or spoke of Jesus' authority and power. Luke 7:1-10 is one such example where the Roman centurion knew of Jesus’ authority and asked Jesus to heal his servant - and Jesus did. 
• Other men of power in Jesus' day respected Jesus' power - men such as Nicodemus and Pilate. "Pilate is afraid of him, he draws back from him, he wrings his hands in uncertainty, he washes his hands, he tries to get rid of this man. He feels that there is a power in him unlike any power he has ever come in contact with before."
• "But if you would have the finest proof of his power, you can find it in the intensity of the hatred and in the intensity of the love which he excited."
• "He kindled a devotion that is superior to anything that has ever been known in this world....He called forth a kind of reverence that has never been granted to any other man who has ever lived. He was so mighty that when men thought of him, they thought of God."
  

Another great example comes from Matthew 8:28-34 where Jesus' power was on full display and we see how the townspeople were confronted with a difficult choice to love Jesus or their wealth and they chose their wealth.  RE: this text, see this short John Piper podcast on DesiringGod.com.

Jesus reigns! See also Colossians 1:15-17.

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an incredible God who loves me and who is so full of grace for me.  You don’t need me and despite how I was an enemy of You, You still saved me! Thank You Jesus for how You save and how You give me the Holy Spirit to equip me and to counsel and guide me. I am not deserving of how You save, counsel and guide.  My sin is great and it is daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me turn from and overcome such sin and turn towards You.  Help me grow in my faith and love You with all of my heart soul and mind-and love others as You love me.  Give Lisa and myself energy and wisdom.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Help me serve You, my family, the church and others.  Help me understand, apply, and be obedient to Your message for me today and every day.

 

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Mark 1:1-5

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Mark 1:1-5

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on the chapter 3: Sources where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• "This is the surprising thing that all the story of [Jesus'] life is contained in this one book. There were many Greek writers living in the days of Jesus, but not one of them wrote his life, so far as any scholar knows. Not a scrap of Jesus' biography at the hands of a Greek...[or] Roman [or] Jewish poet or historian has come down to us."
  
• "To be sure, there are apocryphal gospels and apocryphal acts and apocryphal epistles and apocalypses, but no one of these, nor do all of them together, throw any light on the character of Jesus which is not furnished by our New Testament. Everything that is positively known of Jesus of Nazareth is confined between the covers of the New Testament."
  
• "That the life of the greatest and most important man who ever lived upon the earth should be written on pages so small and few is one of the surprises."
  
• A study of the gospels reveals little about the completeness of Jesus' life. "They mention what he did or said only on from thirty to thirty-five days. That is, they confine their attention to one thirtieth of his public life, twenty-nine thirtieths being a total blank."
  
• "[The authors of the gospels] recorded many things which he said, but his recorded sayings can be spoken easily within five hours. They tell many things which he did, but nearly all of them might have been crowded into a day, so meager is their report of what Jesus said and did. It is evident then, that we do not have as much information as we want. The question is. Do we have as much as we need?"
• Jesus spoke in Aramaic, but "there are not a dozen Aramaic words left in the gospels." We are left with Greek and subsequently English translations. "We have no copies of the New Testament that run back beyond the fourth century — and this also is a surprise."
  
• From the gospels we know nothing of Jesus' personal appearance or his mannerisms - we are only left to study His character.
  
• Charles Jefferson - the author - encourages us to read Mark as it is "probably the oldest...shortest...most graphic" of the gospels and "seems to come nearest to Jesus as men saw him in the says of his humiliation."  Jefferson ends the chapter by sharing that "[i]t is a sad mistake for any man or any woman to leave religious matters entirely to the minister. The Roman Catholic who leaves everything to the priest does not grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. The Protestant who simply comes to church and listens to the preacher speak, and who makes no earnest effort to study for himself the great literature in which are enshrined the oracles of God — that Protestant fritters away his opportunities and does not build up within himself those deep convictions and that enduring knowledge which will make him a power and blessing in his day and generation. In other words, I cannot study the character of Jesus for you, you must study it for yourselves. All that I can hope to do is to drop suggestions which may possibly assist you in your study."
  

It is this recommendation from Charles Jefferson, where I anchor myself this morning - to the study of Mark as an accompaniment to Mr. Jefferson's book.

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an incredible God worthy not just of study but also of worship.  You are the One True God who saves! Thank You for saving me and giving me both new life but also eternal life.  I am not deserving...not by a long shot.  My sin - harshness and being critical being just one of my sins - continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.  

 

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:15-18

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.  Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18

Now that I have wrapped my my study of the last four books of the Old Testament (Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi), I start anew using a book that I never completed but I am now going back to - an homage to my brother in Christ and mentor Warren Snyder, who introduced me to this book - The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 2: Reasons for our Study where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• "The world is filled with the inventions of human skill and genius, but there is a vast emptiness which neither science nor art is able to fill."
• Life is full of discontent in ourselves or in the world, and Jesus shares promises of rest, the bread and drink of Life, the Light of the World, peace, power, and joy (for example see Matthew 11:28, John 6:35, and 14:27).  "Bread and water, light and rest and peace and power and joy, are these not the seven elemental blessings which make human life complete? If this man promises to give us the things which the soul most desires, it is worth while to study his method and find out, if we can, how his proffered gifts can be most speedily obtained."
•  Jesus' "supreme concern is for the rightness of heart of the individual man. This moulder of empires gives himself to the task of moulding individual men. This arch revolutionist starts his conflagrations in the individual soul. He draws one man to him, infuses into him a new spirit, sends him after one brother man, who in time goes after a third man, and this third man after a fourth, and thus does he weld a chain by means of which Caesar shall be dragged from his throne."
• In transforming lives, Jesus does not care about the "nature or nurture" theory, where a man is in his station or how he got there. He uses other men to change the character of a man. "It is by the changing of the character of a man that we change the character of other men, and by changing the character of many men we change the character of institutions and ultimately of empires and civilizations. When Jesus says, " Behold I make all things new," he lays his hand on the heart of a man....He will introduce golden ages by giving individuals a character like his own." 
• "[T]here is no more effective worker for the world's redemption than the man or woman who in high or obscure places, strives, in season and out of season, to persuade men to conform their lives to the pattern presented to us in the character of Jesus; and no one is advancing so swiftly toward the golden age as the man or woman who by prayer and daily effort endeavors to build up in mind and spirit the virtues and graces of the Man of Galilee. Here then we find the supreme mission of the Christian clergyman: it is to help men to fall in love with the character of Jesus."
• Jesus is noted as "preeminently a man of prayer" and we are encouraged not just in our study of the Character of Jesus but at all times to be in prayer.  
  

It is on this last excerpt where I seek an anchor in scripture, looking specifically at text that emphasizes our need for prayer.  John Piper and DesiringGod.com provide a great pointer here.  In this short podcast, Piper unpacks 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18 and answers the question how to pray without ceasing.  Piper shares first from the text that we focus on doing good in the face of evil (not focusing on revenge), and on doing good at all times, rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks. He shares that the context here is that we should be doing these things at all times and in all circumstances.  He then stresses that the key themes we see in the text include a "spirit of dependence that should permeate all that we do," we should pray repeatedly and often, and that we should never give up on prayer.  Amen!

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who is SO good, and good to me. Thank You for the incredible grace You already poured out for me on the cross and for the grace You continue to pour out daily for me.  I am not deserving of this grace.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.   Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

John 14:5-7

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:5-7

Now that I have wrapped my my study of the last four books of the Old Testament (Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi), I start anew using a book that I never completed but I am now going back to - an homage to my brother in Christ and mentor Warren Snyder, who introduced me to this book - The Character of Jesus.  The Kindle version of the book I have includes the below inscription which for me serves as an inspiration to dig in to the contents. 

For this morning, I focus on the book's introduction where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• While there is much to study about Jesus, including his ideas, sermons, etc. the book's focus as the title implies is his character or as the book shares "sum of the qualities by which Jesus is distinguished from other men. His character is the sum total of his characteristics, his moral traits, the features of his mind and heart and soul. We are to think about his quality, his temper, his disposition, the stamp of his genius, the notes of his spirit, and the form of his conduct."
• "A man is better able to appreciate the ideas of Jesus if he first of all becomes acquainted with Jesus' character."
• The book emphasizes its study of Jesus' character using the scientific method of study - looking at "a few definite and clean cut facts.  This man Jesus was an historic character. He lived his life upon this earth....in dealing with his character we are handling something concrete and comprehensible....Not only is this the scientific method, it is also the New Testament method. It was just in this manner that the disciples came to know Jesus. They did not begin with the mystery of his person, nor did they begin with sayings which were hard for them to understand. They began simply by coming near him, looking at him with their eyes, listening to him with their ears."
• The book shares how there are three ways by which we can enter faith (1) the ecclesiastical door, (2) the dogma door, and (3) through knowing and loving (the character of) Jesus.  This latter door is the focus as "to be a Christian is to admire Jesus so sincerely and so fervently that the whole life goes out to him in an aspiration to be like him."
• "There are six channels through which light will come. We may come to know him through the words he spoke, through the deeds he did, and also through his silences.  We may know him also by the impression which he made first upon his friends and secondly upon his foes, and thirdly upon the general body of his contemporaries."
  

A review John 14:5-7 is key to serve as a reminder that Jesus IS the Way, Truth, and the Life."  There are no other ways to Truth as God is the source of all (see Colossians 1:15-16).  

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who loves me and who is full of amazing grace and compassion for me - giving me truth and providing for all things. Thank You!  I am not deserving.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus.  Help me turn from and overcome my sin and turn towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.