(Redeemer - getting ready to worship!)
I was asked the question, "Would a Muslim be welcome in your church?"
Thoughts about God, culture, and the Real Jesus.
My new book is now available on Kindle. Just $4.99.
The Great Invasion: 31 Days of Christmas.
Softcovers are coming, hopefully, in a few days.
Here is the Introduction to my book.
Blessings!
INTRODUCTION
This is a book about Christmas. Which means, a book about Christ. I have thirty-one thoughts about Christ that I want to share with you.
As I was completing the book, I had some “Oh no!” moments. “Oh no! I left this out of the book!” “Oh no, I should have also added this!” So many important things about Jesus are not in my book.
I recognize this. Which is a good thing. The life of Jesus the Christ is deep, wide, long, high, and vast, as is His love. Christ transcends our human understanding.
I have spent over fifty years studying Jesus. This includes doctoral research. I wrote one of my doctoral qualifying exams on the Christological controversies of the first four centuries of the Church. These controversies led to development of the great Christological creeds of the Christian faith. (‘Christology’ is the study of Christ.)
I did another doctoral comprehensive exam on hermeneutics. Which is: interpretation theory. How to interpret texts. Beyond that, how to interpret anything at all. Hermeneutical principles are humming in the background of my mind, as I research Jesus.
My doctoral dissertation (Northwestern University, 1986) was a hermeneutical thing on metaphor theory, and how it refers. I looked how words are used, literally and figuratively, to speak of events and concepts in the Bible. Since my seminary and doctoral studies,
I have amassed a significant library of books about Jesus. I have not stopped reading, praying, and following after the life of the Living Christ.
This includes seven years of preaching, in my church, through the four Gospels, chronologically.
All this has led me to the conclusion that Christ is the Immanent One and the Transcendent One who cannot be fully captured by my tiny cognitive capacities. He is the familiar stranger. He is the mighty invader. He is the incarnate Word. He is the irresistible force. He is…
The thesis of this little book is: To study and learn more about Jesus shapes and deepens our understanding of and experience of Christmas.
I offer this to you as an opportunity to join me on a deep dive into the glory and majesty of this universe’s rightful King.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!.
***
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
#1 Jesus Is the Agent of Creation
#2 Jesus Was Born of a Virgin
#3 Jesus Descended into Greatness
#4 Jesus Existed
#5 Jesus Grew Up in Galilee
#6 Jesus Was a Jew Who Wore Torah on His Sleeve
#7 Jesus Is "Immanuel."
#8 Jesus is God and Man
#9 Jesus is God
#10 Jesus is True Humanity
#11 Jesus Was Baptized by John the Baptist
#12 Jesus Taught About the Kingdom of God
#13 Jesus is King
#14 The Method of Jesus
#15 Jesus Mentored 12 Disciples
#16 Miracles Were Performed Through Jesus
#17 Jesus Cast Out Demons
#18 Jesus Is After the Human Heart
#19 Jesus Had a Preferential Option for "the Least of These"
#20 Jesus Restored Purity Outside the Sacrificial System
#21 Jesus Reinterpreted the Jewish Festivals in Terms of Himself
#22 Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
#23 Uncovering Jesus at Christmas
#24 Violent Night (An Alternative Christmas Story)
#25 Christmas Day - Jesus Comes to Save Us from Our Distress
#26 Easter Week - Jesus Takes the Second Cup
#27 Jesus Bore Our Horror on a Cross
#28 Jesus Screams in the Absolute Darkness
#29 Jesus Was Raised from the Dead
#30 Jesus Will Return to Restore Heaven and Earth
#31 Jesus Instructed His Followers to Abide in Him
APPENDIX 1 Jesus Was a Minimalist
(Flowers, in our green room) |
(Monroe County) |
Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation,
by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
Malcolm Muggeridge observed that in our day, with family-planning clinics offering convenient ways to correct “mistakes” that might disgrace a family name, “It is, in point of fact, extremely improbable, under existing conditions, that Jesus would have been permitted to be born at all. Mary’s pregnancy, in poor circumstances, and with the father unknown, would have been an obvious case for an abortion; and her talk of having conceived as a result of the intervention of the Holy Ghost would have pointed to the need for psychiatric treatment, and made the case for terminating her pregnancy even stronger. Thus our generation, needing a Savior more, perhaps, than any that has ever existed, would be too humane to allow one to be born.”
- Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 32
Muggeridge quote from Jesus, the Man Who Lives, p. 19
(Montana Rockies - Bozeman Pass) |
Linda and I, in Cancun (the sun was bright!) |
(Redeemer church, Monroe, MI)
Joy, like contentment, like the fruit of the Spirit, like influence for Christ, like manifestations of the Spirit, finds realization independently of the vicissitudes of life.
Henri Nouwen writes,
"Joy does not come from positive predictions about the state of the world. It does not depend on the ups and downs of the circumstances of our lives. Joy is based on the spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome the world. Jesus says it loudly and clearly: “In the world you will have troubles, but rejoice, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)."
PSALM 139:13-18
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
(Leading the Presence-Driven Church students, Faith Bible Seminary, NYC) |