We have reached the end of this particular study on “Tough Sayings from a Tender Heart”, it has bought many issues to the surface, don’t you agree?
There is a myth floating around on the periphery of Christian communities that Jesus is ‘nice’ and His followers should be ‘nice’ to each other. There are many who live their lives in conflict with what’s written in Scripture but their defence is that Jesus loves and welcomes all sinners. As with most good myths there is 80% truth and 20% lie – Jesus does love us and He proved that on the cross; but He was, and is, not always ‘nice’; He even said to His close friend, Peter – ‘Get behind me, Satan.’
As Selwyn says in today’s study: “If, and when we stumble, then let us make the stumbling an occasion of faith. In this century, as in the first, our Lord is looking not for adherents to His cause, or ‘hangers-on’, but out-and-disciples. And this will happen to the degree that we are willing to be broken on Him and then made whole by Him.”
Today, there are many ‘adherents to His cause’, who like the first century followers (including Peter, at that early stage)Â would have preferred Jesus to have stayed in Galilee, healing the sick and providing free meals to the hungry. The truth is, Jesus had His eyes fixed firmly on the cross – in Jerusalem – not on the ‘good’ life, but on a death – with ‘meaning’. Are you willing to be on a cross next to Jesus? It’s a tough question to answer – don’t you agree?
All the way
We have reached the end of this particular study on “Tough Sayings from a Tender Heart”, it has bought many issues to the surface, don’t you agree?
There is a myth floating around on the periphery of Christian communities that Jesus is ‘nice’ and His followers should be ‘nice’ to each other. There are many who live their lives in conflict with what’s written in Scripture but their defence is that Jesus loves and welcomes all sinners. As with most good myths there is 80% truth and 20% lie – Jesus does love us and He proved that on the cross; but He was, and is, not always ‘nice’; He even said to His close friend, Peter – ‘Get behind me, Satan.’
As Selwyn says in today’s study: “If, and when we stumble, then let us make the stumbling an occasion of faith. In this century, as in the first, our Lord is looking not for adherents to His cause, or ‘hangers-on’, but out-and-disciples. And this will happen to the degree that we are willing to be broken on Him and then made whole by Him.”
Today, there are many ‘adherents to His cause’, who like the first century followers (including Peter, at that early stage)Â would have preferred Jesus to have stayed in Galilee, healing the sick and providing free meals to the hungry. The truth is, Jesus had His eyes fixed firmly on the cross – in Jerusalem – not on the ‘good’ life, but on a death – with ‘meaning’. Are you willing to be on a cross next to Jesus? It’s a tough question to answer – don’t you agree?