Tag: Jesus

Living While Dead

~ MD Harris Institute ~ 3 Comments

To strive is human, but give up the ambitions and worries of this world, seeking only God, is to have life as He intends.

By Mark D. Harris

Our church regularly performs Infant Dedication, a ceremony in which the parents dedicate themselves publicly to raise their child as a Christian and the congregation dedicates itself to supporting the parents in this holy work. Parents choose a special verse for their child, one intended to guide them in the ways of Christ through their lives. Psalm 23:1, Jeremiah 29:11, John 3:16, and Philippians 4:13 are popular.

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Seeking Signs

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We look for signs to help us decide what to do. God faithfully provides them.

The US Presidential primaries are in full swing, and voters across the country are looking for signs. We want signs that a person is strong, signs that they can do what we want them to do, and signs that they can beat everyone who is running against them. We look for candidates with money, with an independent streak, and yet who agree with us. Our bizarre presidential election is the most vivid example, but races from sheriffs to senators feature the same drama.

Our need for signs is not only in politics; it is everywhere in life. Employers choose employees by looking at their training, experience, and ability to get along. None of these guarantee that the employee will be successful, but without a crystal ball or tea leaves to read the future, such signs are the best way a company has to choose the person with the best chance of accomplishing institutional goals. Patients seek signs that a doctor will make them well, and car buyers seek signs that a vehicle will make them happy. Interpersonal relationships are the same; men and women seek signs in choosing their friends and even their mates.

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The Weight of Sin

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How could Jesus forgive the sin of the woman caught in adultery? It wasn’t just because He wanted to. 

One of the most famous passages in Scripture is the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53 to 8:11). The storyline is that the Jewish religious leaders hoped to trap Jesus. They caught a woman, whom they had probably set up, in the act of adultery. They brought her, but not the man involved, to Jesus to judge. The Law of Moses was clear; people engaged in adultery were to be stoned to death. If Jesus had said to release her, He would have been in violation of the Mosaic Law. If He had said to stone her, He would have lost popular support, and been party to an injustice because the guilty man was not present.

In an amazing display of compassion and wisdom, Jesus told her accusers that whoever in the group was without sin should cast the first stone. None of them, even the most sanctimonious, could claim to be sinless, and so they melted away into the crowd. Jesus and the woman were left alone. He asked the woman “where are they that condemn you?” and she replied that no one remained. Jesus then said “neither do I condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.”

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The Inevitable Incarnation

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Many religions tell of God becoming man, because humans sense that we could not know God otherwise. But Jesus is different…divinely different.  

In 1819 using a razor and glue, the former American President Thomas Jefferson, one of the most brilliant men of his age, cut and pasted passages of the New Testament to create The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, popularly known as the Jefferson Bible. Jefferson’s Bible removed all of the miracles of Jesus, most mentions of the supernatural, the Resurrection, and all mentions of His divinity. In a letter to William Short (1820), Jefferson wrote that “Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God.” Thomas Jefferson clearly regarded the man Jesus as a great moral teacher, but rejected the concept of Jesus as God.

He was not alone. The Koran teaches that Allah has no son, and that those who believe that he does will be destroyed. Many critics throughout history have lauded Jesus for his moral example but lambasted early Christians for making him God. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of Christianity; without Him Christianity could not exist. At the same time, Jesus is the stumbling block of Christianity; the gospel as written in the New Testament is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks (1 Corinthians 1:23).

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