Jesus is Unique, Unequal, and Incomparable

Bible graphic novel of Jesus in the Book of Revelation. 

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets’” (Matthew 16:13-14, NIV).

Comparisons are an almost inevitable part of life. People compare my face and features with my parents as they note my genetic connections. Our recent prime minister and his politicians are compared with earlier leaders to demonstrate the influences that they have in the new government. In Jesus’ day, spiritual notoriety usually led to identification with previous heroes of faith. In the same way, contemporary readers might assume the disciples were responding based on some accepted possibility of reincarnation. They were not. The disciples were not suggesting that famous people relived their lives in the present, but there were rumours that resurrection might be possible.

Some people did speculate that the late John the Baptist was back. No sooner had John been murdered by Herod (see Matthew 14:1-12) than the guilt-ridden king suggested that reports he was getting about Jesus were indications that John had come back to life. Actually, John the Baptist had predicted, Jesus was fully engaged in the ministry for which John had been the forerunner. Others also compared Jesus unusual godly presence with Elijah (see 1 Kings 17-21; 2 Kings 1-2), Jeremiah (see 2 Chronicles 35-36; Book of Jeremiah), and other prophets. People were as if saying, “This Jesus does things that remind us so much of Elijah that maybe the old prophet has come back to life!”

Think about this: It is good for people to try to understand Jesus’ identity, but it is an error simply to equate Jesus with someone else. He is unique. Others may remind us of him, but Jesus himself is without equal. We’re destined to be like him, but there will never be any doubt about who is the original and who are the copies. Jesus of the Bible – the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16) – cannot be compare with mere human religious leaders such as Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius, ancient Dalai Lama, etc. These people died and gone forever, but Jesus died and rose again. Jesus is alive! Thus, Jesus is the ultimate standard of comparison. We haven’t figured out who Jesus is if we never get beyond comparing him with others. Period.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

In Always Online Culture, You Christians Must Offline Sometime

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP. 

Letters to Annie: Don't Indulge in Gossips

Dear Annie,

I’m sorry for the things that people said about me that might hurt your feelings. It’s not entirely true. I’ll explain to you when I get the chance to see you face-to-face. I know you trust me, and I hope it will never change. As for now, I would like you to don’t indulge yourself in gossips especially about me… Let’s pray about this. “We are in a continual battle with the spiritual forces of evil,” write Shirley Dobson, “but we will triumph when we yield to God’s leading and call on His powerful presence in prayer.”

Face it Annie, gossip is bad – and the Bible clearly tells us that gossip is wrong. “A useless person causes trouble, and a gossip ruins friendships” (Proverbs 16:28). Don’t listen to them! I learned the hard way that: when we say things that we don’t want other people to know we said, we’re being somewhat dishonest, but if the things we say aren’t true, we’re being very dishonest. Either way, we have done something that we may regret later, especially when the other person finds out. Never let gossips break our relationship, never entertained it!

I also learned that as much I don’t want you to listen to other’s gossips, I myself have to discipline myself to not to gossip about others as well. Let’s do ourselves a big God-size favour: don’t gossip. It’s a waste of words, and it’s the wrong thing to do – both to listen and to spread it. We’ll feel better about ourselves if we don’t gossip (and other people will feel better about us, too). So let both of us not to do it, listen to it and spread it.

I love you. Believe me about this.

Let us build this relationship with trust and truth.

I love you. Annie, let us – Don’t indulge in gossip.

Hope to see you soon and explained everything to you…

I miss you,

Richard

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus might Gives You Lessons Today as Preparatory for Tomorrow

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,

‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’” (Matthew 16:13, NIV).

Back in Jesus’ time, Caesarea Philippi and its surrounding area were known as a centre of pagan worship. Both Philip, the brother of Herod Antipas (ruled Caesarea Philippi on behalf of the Romans), and his father Herod the Great, sponsored the construction of pagan temples and public works. The population of the area was mostly Gentile, so the trip took Jesus and twelve disciples out of their usual circumstances. Shrines and other reminders of pagan practices would have been all around them [There was an altar dedicated to Greek god Pan who claimed to be god (100% god) living among men; and a statue of Roman Emperor (100% man) who claimed himself to be god. But Jesus claimed to be both born of a virgin (100% man) and the Son of God (100% God). Which one is true?]. This was the setting for Jesus’ crucial question for the disciples.

The trip to a new region took place at the height of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus at this time had become the focal point of a religious/political power struggle in Israel. The structure of power presented by the Sadducees and Pharisees had rejected Jesus as Messiah. They all want to remove Jesus from the scene. But throughout these days, Jesus seemed to remain deliberate but never desperate. He was not campaigning for popularity but desires to practice compassion. Previously he fed four thousand (see Matthew 15:32-38), not to increase his following or ‘likes’, but because, Jesus “had compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way” (v. 32). He never asked for approval but to reveal his authority!

Jesus asked his question when he was alone with his disciples. The answer to this question were instances in which Jesus communicated with his intimate followers certain truth they wouldn’t understand until later. Jesus was preparing them for his eventual departure long before they were ready to consider the fact that Jesus had to die and rise again in order to accomplish God’s plan. He was about to give them the treasure – Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God – that included all the facets of his life and ministry. He would ask them to hold this treasure in confidence until the time was right to share it with the world.

Think about this: Not every principle we read or story we study in Scripture has an immediate personal application. Some lessons are preparatory like the reality of Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God to his disciples in this text. We may understand, for example, a concept like God’s ownership of the church but not recognize the personal important of God’s sovereign work through his church until we have been Christ followers for years. I urge you now to thank God for his constant presence with you that make it possible for you to have times apart from distractions to be alone with him. Praise God for the teaching of his Word, which can bear fruit in your life immediately and also in years to come. Amen.

Today’s lessons maybe a preparation for tomorrow’s journey

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Letters to Annie: Put Faith Above Feelings

Dear Annie,

Knowing you as proved to me that there’s still friendship and honesty in the world. You are the best friend and a lover any one can have! Knowing someone as sincere and honest as you has made my faith in the future grow. Now that disbelieve seems to be taking over our lives, to know there are people like you makes all the problems look smaller. It’s great to be your boyfriend and friend and to be able to look in your eyes and see a mix of serenity and hope. For me, this fairly recent relationship is something I consider to be sacred already. It makes me have faith again. Thank you Annie for loving me.

As much as I love you, this feeling can come and go. Faith is, however, much better. Let us have faith in each other and most importantly, faith in God. “Now the just shall live by faith” (Hebrews 10:38). This teaches that we should live by faith in God. “We are to live by faith, not feelings,” said Kay Arthur. Yet sometimes Annie, despite our best intentions, negative feelings can rob us of the peace and abundance that would otherwise be ours through Christ. When anger or jealousy or doubt or anxiety separates us from the spiritual blessings that God has in store, we must rethink our priorities and renew our faith.

Annie, and I want to tell myself: We must place faith above feelings. Human emotions are highly variable, decidedly unpredictable, and very sad to say – often unreliable. Our emotions are like weather, only far more fickle. So we must learn to live by faith, not by the ups and downs of our own emotional roller coasters.

Annie, remember our last night conversation? Have faith. Sometime during this day, you will probably be gripped by a strong negative emotion (I love you for who you are). Distrust it. Reign it in. And turn it over to God. Your emotions will inevitably change; God will not. So trust Him completely as you watch your feelings slowly evaporate into thin air – which, of course, they will. Helen Keller, blind early of her life, writes, “It gives me a deep, comforting sense that ‘things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal.’”

I love you: that is both faith (that we going to be together) and affection (at this moment) for you.

But more than that, God loves you. Have faith in Him and live by faith.

                        You don’t have to understand everything,

Richard

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life, Why?

Can you see why Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life?

I can think of one other similarity. Consider how bread is made. Think about the process. Wheat grows in the field, then it is cut down, winnowed, and ground into flour. It passes through the fire of the oven and is then distributed around the world. Only by this process does bread become bread. Each step is essential. Eliminate the plant, and you have no wheat. Eliminate the winnowing, and you have no flour. Eliminate the fire, and you have no product. Eliminate the distribution, and you have no satisfaction. Each step is essential.

Now, consider Jesus. He grew up before the Lord “as a tender plant” (Isaiah 53:2). One of millions of boys on the planet. One of thousands in Israel. One of dozens in Nazareth. Indistinguishable from the person down the street or the child in the next chair. Had you seen Him as a youngster, you wouldn’t have thought He was the Son of God. You might have thought Him polite or courteous or diligent, but God on earth? Not a chance. He was just a boy. One of hundreds. Like a staff of wheat in the wheat field.

But like wheat, He was cut down. Like chaff He was pounded and beaten. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). And like bread He passed through the fire. On the Cross He passed through the fire of God’s anger, not because of His sin, but because of ours. “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Jesus experienced each part of the process of making bread: the growing, the pounding, the firing. And just as each is necessary for bread, each was also necessary for Christ to become the Bread of Life. “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26).

[Taken from A Gentle Thunder by Max Lucado]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus will Give Us a New Heart and Put a New Spirit in Us

“And then Jesus added, ‘It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you’” (Mark 7:20-23, NLT).

In this confrontation with the Pharisees and his discussion with the disciples (Mark 7:1-19), Jesus clearly stated the problem – sin in a person’s heart. That’s where sin begins, and what is inside a person comes out in words and actions. Jesus’ list of these sins (sexual immorality, theft, murder, etc.) is representative of common human conflicts and struggles. Daily we hear reports of these sinful acts on Facebook pages and TV3 news bulletin. The Good News of the Gospel offers the only cure, solution for humanity’s natural defilement. Cleansing can only come by the blood of Jesus Christ offered on our behalf. Only then can we become pure before God.

Believers aren’t immune to sinful actions, however. We also struggle with heart issues – but we have the power to resist, to change, and to choose to do right, through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Paul explained how this happens (please, please read Romans chapter 6, 7 and 8). Unless the Holy Spirit controls our sinful nature, we will experience continual outbursts of the “flesh.” We need to guard our hearts.

Think about this: God promised his people, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take our your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (Ezekiel 36:26, NLT). The “heart” is the basic core of a person, home to his or her true motives, thoughts, desires, and values. When we trust in Christ, the Holy Spirit begins living in us, changing us to be more like Christ as we yield to him. As Jesus told his disciples, the heart is what matters. Guard your heart. Maybe we should ask ourselves this question: What steps can I take to guard my heart?

Psalm 51:10-13, NKJV

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

And sinners shall be converted to You.”

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.