Now AND Later

Posted: July 23rd, 2011 Category: Christianity, Common Sense

Without a doubt, He’s the most intriguing man who ever lived. He is also the most mysterious and philanthropical. His professional biography was written by ten different people and hundreds of other authors have attempted to decipher His teachings. As a teacher, no others can even remotely compare as we count His devoted legions of followers. He’s never been proven wrong. He’s the central character in books, films and short stories. He’s cured the sick, raised the dead and sacrificed himself for His loved ones. Yet aside from the sanctity of churches, bible study and small groups, His name is rarely mentioned in public. He wasn’t religious, He lived His faith as we live our lives, only much more perfectly focused. He departed from our view as a young man, but He’s never left our sides. Why in this age of contemporary thinking, of nothing left unsaid, is there such a powerful social stigma attached to this Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary and Joseph, the only son of God? “Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:32,33 ESV). Here’s why!

Jesus is our source of life, our sustenance of survival and He alone holds keys to the gates of heaven. This can be be very intimidating, especially if we’re not doing what He’s said. When my parents said, don’t do something and I was bold or dumb enough not to listen, I still didn’t do it in front of them. This is akin to the hypothetical ostrich sticking his head in a hole and presuming, since he can’t see us, we can’t see him either. Simply not true, that silly bird is even more obvious to us and not mentioning Jesus makes us even more obvious to Him, but in a not so flattering way. He’s still among us, but maybe annoyed for being ignored. We should be overjoyed to talk about Him, to introduce Him to friends or family who’ve never met Him. In a world as challenging as this, it would otherwise be normal to seek a REAL source of hope and inspiration. Instead we’re infatuated with celebrities, titans of industry, sports heroes and people accused of horrendous crimes. Why? Because it’s safer, they’re judicable but they’ll never be able judge us in return. If we lovingly embraced Jesus, we’d be incredibly at ease with Him, rather than socially intimidated by the man or the topic.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE