Below is an excerpt from Brennan
Manning's
The Importance of Being Foolish: How to
Think Like Jesus.
“Scripture is not
about the transmission of inert ideas. It is a call to love, and love that does
not lead to action is not love. Every day of our lives the Word (scripture) is
an imperative to rediscover the truth that, in the words of Hans Kung, “the
whole secret and center of human existence remains the person of Jesus Christ.”
In my own mind, the
greatest need in the church today is to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
This is the burden of the entire doctrine of Saint John’s Gospel, “that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John
20:31). But this knowledge is more than a casual acknowledgement that Jesus
lived and died and rose again. It is this kind of knowledge that leaves us
changed. It is an encounter with someone who alters the very course of our
lives. “It is not uncommon”, as
Ralph Martin notes, “for many Christians to have a seriously incomplete idea of
what the Scriptures say about Jesus Christ. Many have a vague idea of Jesus as
a ‘good guy’ who helped the poor and told people to love one another. They
operate with a fuzzy, almost symbolic notion of Jesus as the symbol for a
liberal’s idea of goodness.”
Those who say, “Jesus
would never hurt anyone”, often mean to rule out the possibility that he would
ever ask someone to repent or go through the pain of recognizing his
brokenness. To believe that all Jesus calls us to is to be nice to each other
is to substitute the Christ of Christian humanism for the Christ of Saint Paul.
In Hebrews, we read,
“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,
and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1). In
the same letter, we are told, “Worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
for our ‘God is a consuming fire’” (Hebrews 12:28-29). This is no Christ the
humanitarian, Christ the master of interpersonal relationships, or Christ the
buddy.
It is Christ the Lord and Savior who
calls us to repent,
change our lives, and strike out in a
new direction.
Writes F.X. Durrwell:
“This knowledge of Jesus Christ as saving Lord is the only knowledge that has
any worth for us.””
_______________________________________
"Jesus
is Lord" is indeed a Game
Changer, I have witnessed the lives of friends, family members, church
attenders/members and strangers altered who embraced the Lordship of Jesus.
Their lives changed in such way; that they shared, they lived life with new
direction and meaning.
Not only have I
witnessed this altering in the lives of others but my own life is continually
being altered. I am being both challenged and changed by embracing "Jesus
is Lord". It's easy to say I am a Christian but to believe and live "Jesus
is Lord" Alters/Changes Everything!
"Jesus is Lord" is not a life
of ease or comfort
but a life of submission to being
changed.
--
Inspired
By Love,
Marcus J. Singleton
Lead Pastor
Living Faith Community
Marcus J. Singleton
Lead Pastor
Living Faith Community
Hoover,
AL
Our
Vision: "A diverse community of faith; inspired by the love of
Jesus,
committed to becoming and making
disciples".
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