Jesus Course

Here is a response from Billy Graham to someone who has recently lost her husband to cancer. It’s good advice and from someone who still feels the loss of his own wife.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/08/1798495/billy-graham-grief-is-very-real.html

All religions say something about death and its consequences but Jesus is unique in that he has experienced the pain of loss for himself. One of the most moving moments of the Bible is to read the words “Jesus wept” when he hears that his friend Lazarus has died.

That is not the end, though, because Jesus then raises his friend from the dead, a reminder to us that God has control over life and death and that Jesus is going to do something amazing that will release us from the power of death. We still have to face the moment when our body dies but this is not the end of life.

Christian living cancer, death, life, loss, pain, resurrection

Once again a large earthquake has killed many people. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who have lost their lives.

Words always seem inadequate during these times but sometimes words are all we can use to express what we feel.

I know that it can feel odd to talk about a loving God when such terrible things happen. This is not the time to try to rationalise anything and get all philosophical. Such times don’t call for philosophy but for symbols of love.

For me, it is the vision of a suffering and dying Jesus that offers the most comfort when things seem too dark to understand. The willingness of God to suffer in such a terrible way somehow helps me to understand that although there is suffering God still loves me.

Of course, the cross is then followed by resurrection. It is a mistake to think that the suffering of Christ is the failure and the resurrection of Christ the overturning of that terrible mistake, because God achieves his victory both through the suffering and the resurrection. However, the resurrection helps us to see that the suffering has purpose and that in the end there is hope.

My prayers are with the people of Chile.

Jesus suffering, the cross

There is an article on Fox News about an interview in Parade magazine with Elton John. I must commend his efforts of now using his money and talent in a positive way but couldn’t help feel sad when he described his many past relationships.

You can read the article here …

In the interview Elton explains what he believes about Jesus:

“I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems,” John told the Sunday supplement. “On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don’t know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East — you’re as good as dead.”

I think in some respects he is correct. Jesus was very forgiving and it is shameful that people are so cruel. Being gay should not be a reason to execute someone. But I think he is wrong about Jesus being gay. We really have no evidence to support this position other than reading between the lines and assuming that because he was single and had some close male friends he must have been gay. During my time at College I had many close male friends and was single but that didn’t mean I was gay.

The reason I mention this story is because I think it is a great illustration of how people create a “Jesus” that is very much like themselves. In the past the quest for the historical Jesus has simply resulted in many different images of Jesus that turn out to be super versions of the historian who does the exploration. This doesn’t mean it’s not possible to discover the real historical Jesus but just that we have to be very careful to let the evidence speak rather than simply making the evidence fit our own preferred image of Jesus Christ.

Elton’s image of Jesus is distorted to end up looking like a super Elton John. It is very important to discover the true nature of Jesus and just making Jesus fit our own image will not do at all.

Jesus

Lent is a time for giving stuff up and in the UK people like to give up lots of stuff. Some people give up chocolate – to lose weight; some people give up smoking – for their health; other people give up drinking – for their livers sake; etc. What strikes me, though, is that I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyway say that they are going to be trying to get closer to Jesus during Lent.

I’ve heard plenty of Christians who are giving stuff up and plenty that will go to special house groups for Lent but I’m sure I’ve never heard anyone say that they are going to be getting closer to Jesus in Lent. Of course this is just what some of the groups are supposed to be doing but I don’t hear anyone ever say it.

I’m sure this is just because I’m not mixing with the right people but it saddens me every year that so many people seem to think that Lent is a time to give stuff up purely for their own health. This isn’t what Lent is about at all.

Christians have been encouraged to fast in Lent as a way to prepare themselves for Easter. The whole idea being that you get yourself right with Jesus during Lent so that when Easter comes you are in a good place to celebrate it.

So I’m challenging every Christian to not give up Jesus for Lent. Don’t give up anything other than those things that get in the way of your relationship with Christ.

Jesus lent

This one comes in 2 parts (no I’m not cheating). Part 1 is the parable and part 2 is Jesus’ explanation. You can find the real parable in Mark’s gospel Chapter 4 verses 1- 20

The parable

Farmer sows seeds on different soils: hard = birds eat seed, rocky = plants wither, thorny = plants choked, good = fantastic results

The explanation

Soils = Jesus’ message: Hard = message snatched away, rocky = short lived response, thorny = other concerns choke interest, good = success!

Jesus

There are plenty of people who believe in God but some of them say that although they accept that God exists they don’t think it is possible to know anything about God. They might be willing to accept that there must be a creator but that we can’t know what that God is like.

Of course this belief can give a lot of comfort to people who want to believe that there is a God but still want to live and behave as though there isn’t one. It’s possible to admit that the evidence points to the existence of God but then by excluding any possibility of knowing anything about we can continue to live however we want to (without any supreme being interfering with things of course).

Unfortunately, in my view, this doesn’t really make a lot of sense.

For instance, why would God want to create such a magnificent Universe just to ignore it? If God did create everything and then decide not to take any notice of it we get a pretty bad picture of the way God is. Wouldn’t this also be a self defeating argument with a God who is all knowing but doesn’t want to know? All powerful but doesn’t ever do anything? Omnipresent but not wanting to be everywhere. One would have to wonder why such a God would want to bother creating in the first place?

Doesn’t the fact that God created give us an idea that God must, at least, be interested in his creation?

Christians, of course, believe that God is more than interested in his creation. That God is so interested that he chooses to reveal himself to his creation. That within the design and manufacture of the creation it is possible to discover things about God. But then Christians want to go even further and say that God is so concerned about his creation that he incarnated himself in the person of Jesus Christ. That to know God all we have to do is to know Jesus Christ.

Then we believe that God loves us so much that he would be willing to suffer and die for us and then to rise to life to show us hope for the future.

So far from it being impossible to know God it is in fact possible to know God as one might know a friend.

Thoughts jesus christ

It’s time for the release of the new British Social Attitudes Report which makes interesting reading. Of course it doesn’t really tell me anything that I didn’t already know or at least suspect. I guess this kind of report challenges the church to consider how much influence it actually exerts in modern Britain (in my experience most Clergy have an overinflated view of how much influence they think they have over society).

Whenever I am surprised by something the U.K. public says I remind myself that these are the same people who vote on the “X” factor (Britain’s Got Talent, etc) and then it all makes sense.

However, I’m not one of those who looks at such surveys and then feels sad (or even worse mad) at the way everyone is ignoring the teachings of Jesus. It’s not a vicious plot against the teachings of Jesus and everyone should be berated for ignoring them, instead I believe much of it is down to ignorance and lack of interest.

So the challenge to Christians is how do we get people interested? This is made especially hard when the majority in the U.K. have a pretty comfortable life (notice I didn’t say happy life because other research I’ve read suggests that people in the U.K. are less happy than many other people in underdeveloped countries). A comfortable life now seams to mean that people are less bothered about thinking about what life might be like after death (one of those things that makes people think about God).

Personally, I would love people to explore what they believe more. It is hard to get people to understand the importance of trying to understand who Jesus is but if what Jesus claims is true then Jesus is the single most important person to listen to. If what Jesus claims is true then the best education in the world is insignificant compared to listening to Jesus.

Thoughts

Plans are under way to stage a Passion play of the easter story in London’s Trafalgar square.

You can see the story here

News, Thoughts Jesus, Passion Play

Jesus has now appeared on a naan bread

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6960952/Jesus-spotted-on-naan-bread.html

Jesus in funny places Jesus

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti as they work hard to cope with the devastation caused by the recent earthquake.

I was watching the news on the T.V. this morning and I found it interesting to compare the news from Haiti to the more local U.K. news. In the U.K. we are currently thinking about the increase in accidents due to some icy weather and also how there are more pot holes in the roads than usual. I don’t want to devalue the problems faced by people in the U.K. but it really does seem insignificant compared to this earthquake.

We all have problems and they don’t go away just because someone else has a bigger problem, but then our problems shouldn’t stop us helping those who are in need.

I’ll be praying, as well, for those who are going to help the people of Haiti, both now and in the future.

Thoughts