JESUS

One of my son’s friends (I’ll call him Greg), recently celebrated his 28th birthday. Greg’s parents weren’t happy with his life choices, especially his decision to live with his girlfriend. Knowing his parents’ displeasure, Greg and his girlfriend decided to get married, and they called his parents to give them the good news. »We want to be married in Minnesota, so the entire family can come.« Greg’s parents were happy, but restrained.

While they were planning the wedding, Greg’s girlfriend discovered she was pregnant. Realizing the coming pregnancy would upset his parents, Greg decided to call off the wedding and use the money they were going to spend on the wedding for their new baby instead.

Greg and Diane opted for a courthouse wedding with a justice of the peace presiding. Only my son and his girlfriend witnessed the union.

A couple of weeks after the »wedding,« my son and his girlfriend were with some friends, and the subject of Greg’s marriage came up. Everyone concluded that it was more like a »non-wedding«—impersonal and isolated. As Greg and Diane’s friends talked, their conviction grew. No wedding should be an impersonal, isolated, bureaucratic, legal transaction. Weddings should be celebrated. The couple should be surrounded with the support and care of family and friends.

The group looked at each other and almost in unison said the same thing: »Why don’t we give Greg and Diane the wedding they never had?« As soon as the words left their mouths, they knew what had to be done. Even though Greg and Diane were legally married, the group decided to gift them with a »real« wedding. The date was set, both families were called, and, surprisingly, all agreed to come to the surprise wedding at their own expense. Sixty friends and family were involved in a conspiracy of grace.

To ensure that the couple was available on their new wedding day, Greg and Diane were invited to my son’s home for a »dress up« dinner on the day of the wedding conspiracy. When the couple arrived for dinner, a group of Diane and Greg’s friends kidnapped each of them separately and each was given the bachelor and bachelorette party they’d never had. The »bride« and »groom« were separately driven to a secluded place where, seated in a circle with their same-gender friends, they were asked a series of questions like, »Now that you have been married for three months, what mistakes have you made? How can we help you in your marriage?« Both the young husband and wife were given a picture of their spouse and asked to write on the back of the photo all the reasons they loved that person.

When the individual parties were finished, Greg and Diane thought that the surprise was over. You can imagine their shock when they were returned to the house, only to discover 60 of their family and friends waiting for them, laughing, yelling »Surprise!!!« The hugging and the crying began. It took Greg and Diane a long time to stop crying and after they regained their composure, the entire group moved into the back yard surrounded with flowers where a minister was waiting. The couple exchanged vows, each parent vowed their support, and each friend walked by and whispered a blessing to the couple. When the service was completed, there wasn’t a dry eye anywhere. Everyone left knowing they had participated in a moment of grace. This wedding had »Jesus« written all over it.

Please tell me why God allowed over 6000 innocent people to be murdered on September 11, 2001?

Answer?

I don’t know.

Where was God?

I don’t know.

When Leslie Weatherhead, a minister in London during the Second World War, was asked by a member in his congregation where God was when his son was killed in a bombing raid, Weatherhead replied, »I guess he was where he was when his son was killed.«

And where was that?

I don’t know.

Isn’t »I don’t know« too ambiguous? Isn’t »I don’t know« an unconvincing way to convince young people Christianity is true?

Actually, »I don’t know« confirms one critical truth about Christianity…it’s a mystery!

Jesus loves us, right?

Of course.

So if he loves us, he protects us, right?

If he loves us…he is with us.

Jesus can heal, can’t he? And perform miracles?

Of course. Just not very often.

Why?

I don’t know.

What about God’s will?

My youth director says we’re supposed to seek God’s will. There are lots of verses in the Bible that tell us to do God’s will, aren’t there? God does have a will, right?

Absolutely.

Trouble is God’s will is not like a to-do list. It’s more like an undecipherable code. The Bible definitely gives us some clues about the code of God’s will, which means we can figure out part of it; but, because it’s God, we will never crack the code.

Clues?

Yeah, like, follow me, serve me, love me, live by my commandments, point people to me.

That’s it? Just follow me, serve me, love me and trust me?

That’s about it.

What do you mean »that’s about it?«

You don’t want to know.

Yes I do.

We get a cross.

Cross????? What does that mean?

I don’t know.

But God does heal people, doesn’t he?

Certainly.

And miracles do happen, don’t they.

Right.

So we can count on God helping us, can’t we?

We can count on God being God.

Which means…??

I don’t know.

And what does that mean?

It means we can trust God if we lost someone in the WTC or if they survived.

It means we can trust God when we have cancer and when we’re healed.

We can trust God if we survive a natural disaster or if we don’t.

We can trust God when we get a glimpse of Divine will and when we don’t.

We can trust God in the answers and the questions, in the good and the bad, in the light and the dark, when we’re winning and when we’re losing.

We can trust God even when the Truth doesn’t answer all our questions or leaves us with even more questions.

And, most importantly, just beyond our »I don’t know’s,« Jesus is waiting with open arms to snuggle us in the mystery of his love.

Jesus Himself claimed to be God and others recognized Him as Deity. He said, »I and the Father are one.« (John 10:30) The Greek language, in which the New Testament was originally written, is explicit. Literally, Jesus said, »I and the Father, we are one.« Jesus also claimed that He was the only way to God: »I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.« (John 14:6) Again, the Greek language is very clear. Jesus used the words ‘the way’ and not ‘a way’.

The question is, can we accept as true what Jesus [God the Son], claimed? The most conclusive evidence establishing the deity of Christ is the historically verifiable resurrection. The apostle Paul wrote that Jesus »was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead.« (Romans 1:4) If the resurrection of Christ is true, then it is possible and, indeed, logical to believe all His claims and miracles including His assertion of the complete validity of the Old Testament. They would be what one would expect from God.

The primary reason that Jesus is the only way to God is that He forgives sin and offers eternal life, (John 10:28) something that the founder of no other major religion has claimed to do. Think about that!

Every person is separated from a perfect, holy God by sin. According to God’s requirement, either the individual must pay the penalty for sin – death – or he must find someone who is willing and able – who has no sin – to pay the penalty for him. (Hebrews 9:14, 22) Jesus Christ was both able and willing to do this, as demonstrated by His death on the cross. That is why Jesus is the only way to God.

You said God promised to send someone to save us from sin, and that Jesus fulfilled that promise. What were some of those promises? Did Jesus really fulfill them?

Writing over 1000 years before Jesus' birth, King David of Israel wrote prophetically that the Savior would be crucified.. In Psalm 22 of the Old Testament, David described in amazing detail what a crucifixion is like‑but the Romans didn't introduce crucifixion as a form of execution until some 800 years later. Over 500 years before Jesus' birth, Zechariah, an Old Testament prophet, quoted God as predicting that He Himself would become a man and that His own people would kill Him (Zechariah 12:10). The prophet Isaiah predicted that the Savior would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14)‑a miracle impossible for any man to manufacture for himself‑and Jesus was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18‑25).

Over 700 years before Jesus' birth the prophet Micah predicted the Savior would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and that is precisely where Jesus was born (Matthew 2: 1). About 600 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Jeremiah predicted that the birth of the Savior would lead to the killing of infants throughout the area in which the Savior was born (Jeremiah 31:15), and the Jewish king Herod had all male children two years old and under in Bethlehem and its area killed when Jesus was born (Matthew 2:16), though Jesus' parents, Joseph and Mary, took Him away to Egypt to escape the slaughter; even that trip was prophesied by Hosea over 700 years before the event (Hosea 11: 1).


King David predicted that the Savior would be betrayed by one of His friends (Psalm 41:9; 55:12‑14), and He was (Matthew 10:4; 26:49‑50; John 13:21). Zechariah predicted that the price of betrayal would be thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11: 12), and that was what Judas was paid for betraying Jesus (Matthew 26:15); he predicted the betrayer would throw the pieces of silver back into the temple in remorse (Zechariah 11: 13), and Judas did that (Matthew 27:5); he predicted the silver would be used to buy a potter's field, and it was (Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:7). David predicted false witnesses would testify against the Savior (Psalm 35:11), and they did (Matthew 26:59‑6 1). Isaiah predicted the Savior would be silent before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7). and He was (Matthew 27:12‑19). Isaiah predicted that the Savior would be wounded and bruised for the sins of men (Isaiah 53), and He was Matthew 27:26,67; 20:28), that He would be hit and spit upon (Isaiah 50:6), and He was (Matthew 26:67). David predicted He would be mocked (Psalm 22:7,8), and He was (Matthew 27:31) and that His hands and feet would be pierced (Psalm 22:16), and they were when He was crucified. Isaiah predicted He would be crucified along with criminals (Isaiah 53:12), and He was (Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27,28). Isaiah even predicted that the Savior would, while being killed by His own people, plead for God to forgive them (Isaiah 53:12), and Jesus did that when, from the cross, He prayed, »Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing« (Luke 23:34).


These and many other prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled by Jesus. The odds against this happening were enormous. Imagine for moment that there were only ten such prophecies about Jesus, and that the chances were 50/50 that He would fulfill any one of them (really the chances were much lower). The odds against His fulfilling all ten would then have been one in 210, or one in 2,048. But there weren't only ten, there were some 300 predictions of the coming of the Savior, and Jesus fulfilled all of them. The odds? About one in 2,300!


The only national conclusion is to believe that those predictions of the Savior were given to Old Testament writers by God Himself, and Jesus fulfilled them because He is the promised Savior God sent for us.


So you see, Jesus really was who He said He was‑God in human form, And He really did die to pay for our sins. What we need to do, then, is to believe in Him and commit our lives to Him.

In his famous book Mere Christianity, Lewis makes this statement, »A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.«
Who is Jesus of Nazareth to you? Your life on this earth and for all of eternity is affected by your answer to this question.

All other religions [such as Hinduism, Buddhism. Confucianism, Shintoism, and Islam] were founded by human beings and are based on man-made philosophies, rules and norms for behavior. Take the founders of these religions out of both their disciplines and practices of worship and little would change.

But take Jesus Christ out of Christianity, and there would be nothing left. Biblical Christianity is not just a philosophy of life, nor an ethical standard, nor obedience to religious ritual. True Christianity is based on a vital, personal relationship with a Risen Founder who is our living Savior and Lord

Coming Home
by Barbara Davidson
Born in post-World War II Germany of Polish holocaust survivors, my longing to find an earthly place I could call home began early in life. My parents, victims of Hitler's atrocities, had been thrust from their homes and forced to find new ones. Germany was for us a place we were but temporarily transplanted. From there we would eventually sail to the United States to establish more permanent roots. And so the Bronx, New York, became our new home. But we soon learned that anti-Semitism hadn't ended and, of course, never could end merely with the collapse of Hitler's regime. The Nazis had ceased abusing my father, but the same satanic spirit resided in my pseudo-Christian Gentile neighbors, who on several occasions beat me up simply because I was Jewish.

While we had made a home, we were not home. In time, though my parents remained in the Bronx, I left--first, to the faraway island of Manhattan. Later, as a blossoming flower child of the late '60s, having embraced Yoga and Eastern religions, I responded to the beckoning of India and Ceylon. But my anticipation of spiritual ecstasies was dampened by the pervasiveness of abject poverty. How, I wondered, could such so-called enlightened philosophies engender such darkness? Cutting short my stay at a yoga retreat in Ceylon, I headed for Israel--eager, yet at the same time, very reluctant. I had had my fill of Judaism. Its empty rituals were tiresome, and Jewishness was a source of shame to one as assimilated as I had aspired to become. (I had forbidden my mother to speak Yiddish to me in public. I wanted so much to be a Gentile that the highest compliment anyone could bestow upon me was to tell me that I didn't look Jewish.) Consequently, all that really interested me about Israel was the prospect of experiencing communal farm life on the kibbutz.

But God had other plans. (Was it mere coincidence that the night before leaving mostly Buddhist Ceylon, the only movie in town was »The Ten Commandments?«) Flying into a breathtaking, golden, Jaffa orange Israeli sunrise, I was overcome with emotion. But why was I, who rarely cried, crying? Why did I feel like kissing the ground? This was not my country. I was an American.

My intended brief stay turned into ten months. I loved the kibbutz life, and I thought I might return to live in Israel after completing my college education in the States.

But I felt so uncomfortable among the Orthodox Jews at my college that the very idea of living in an all-Jewish State was abhorrent to me.

Still determined to find a home, I then fancied that the West Coast would provide me with what I was looking for. It wasn't. Meanwhile, a subsequent return trip to Israel in 1977 convinced me that it still was no more than a nice place to visit.

In early 1982, however, everything changed. I received a pamphlet on a street corner in New York. It was put out by Jews for Jesus, and I felt compelled to write a letter to them. I soon received a phone call from a Jewish woman who invited me to attend a service. It was a fascinating experience seeing very Jewish people singing praises to Jesus. I stopped running away from my Jewish roots. That was when I found my Messiah. With his abiding love, he set into motion the process of my discovering my true home.

In August, 1982, I was able to return once again to Israel--this time to help with the Lebanese war effort. As a volunteer with the Israeli Army, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend an entire month with the courageous defenders of that tiny country that is God's earthly promise to the seed of Abraham; to clean tanks and machine guns; to pack duffle bags; to help my people; to learn about the agony and the heartache of continual war; to help protect my country.

How strange, yet how comfortable was this new feeling of love and loyalty which overcame me. God had certainly changed the heart of this would-be Jewish anti-Semite. For the first time in my life, I felt that I was truly home. Indeed, from God's point of view, I was home:

»But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home.« (Ezekiel 36:8, NIV)

My return to New York was difficult because I now knew what had motivated my search for an earthly home: I was in the Diaspora, outside of God's promised land, and in exile. At the same time, however, I realized that before coming to know Y'shua, I had also been in a spiritual Diaspora--cast out from God's promises by my unbelief. But God, by His abundant grace, was true to His promise:

»I will put my spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.« (Ezekiel 37:14)

He put His spirit in me, and I came alive, and subsequently settled into my spiritual inheritance through my faith in the Messiah of Israel. Although still living in New York, I pray that one day soon I will also physically settle in the land of my forefathers. But in the meantime, I know for certain that wherever I am on this earth, I am at home in the Lord.