Who do you say HE is? (2)

Often we are challenged by the question, who really is Jesus Christ? Right, was he simply a maniac who called himself God, was he a prophet of God, or was he really who he said he was? Ultimately we just end up getting confused about these kinds of questions. My desire is not for you just to believe whatever we tell you Jesus Christ is, rather for you to check it out on your own. With that in mind just allow me to help on your search, and for that we're gonna go to the Bible which is God's word for us.

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. John 1:18

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."John 14:6

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever believes in me shall not hunger; and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." John 6:35

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. Col 1:17-18

Well, I really hope that this may be a good start for your search. Till then, my question for you is still the same, who do you say HE is?

Finals Week

As I gulp down my third cup of coffee for the night I pray that the caffeine will sustain me just a few more hours. Tonight marks the halfway point of finals week and my third all-nighter in four days. A caffeine-induced panic is all that keeps me from passing out on the library floor. In the midst of growing anxiety over a calc 3 final I have on friday, I stop to think... what will it be like on that day? Will I be prepared when I have to stand before a holy, righteous God for my final examination? How gut wrenching will the moment be when I have to answer for every secret action, every hidden thought? God doesn't grade on a curve. He says that "whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point becomes accountable for all of it" (James 2:10). Have I broken any of the ten commandments? Better yet, are there any that I haven't? What defense do I have against to judgment of "Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28)? Suddenly the stress of exam week seems trivial when I realize that my next breath could be my last and the wrath of God may only be a heartbeat away. There are no night-before cram sessions with death. No last-minute good deeds can make up for even one of my, of your, endless offences. How will you answer on that day? Have you kept all of the commandments perfectly? If not, what security do you have that your next breath will not be in hell?

Time for another cup of coffee.

Rain...

Can you stop the rain from falling?
It's cold, wet, drops from hitting the earth?
So small, so powerless, there's nothing you can do.
If pouring, hard and long is its desire
If sprinkles, soft as flower petals choose to come
there's nothing you can do.

Oh the insignificance of man!
Oh the arrogence of looking inside such a powerless being to find truth.
Can you stop the rain from falling?
Can you discover God on your own?
Pray to the one who created the rain to fall on the evil and the good.

The search starts with Him.

Who do you say HE is?

Two thousand years ago, Jesus and his friends were having a conversation about who people thought he was. "who do people say the son of man is?" he asked them. They responded with what they had heard. But then Jesus changed the stakes. Turning from the informational to the personal, he looked them in the eye and asked: "But who do you say that I am?"
It's easy to answer the what-are-others-saying question. But there comes a point when we must face Jesus' question ourselves. Who do you say that he is?


Did you know that Jesus claimed to be God? A man, who was merely a man, and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.Who do you say that he is? is the most important question you can ask and answer.