The Reason for Our Hope (Part 3)

This post is the final one (of three) that summarizes "the reason for the hope that we have". It's the one post we hope you read and share on this entire blog as it is the reason for everything else - and so I'm also placing all 3 posts and video below under a new page above called "Our Living Hope". Please feel free to pass it along to whomever you wish.
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THE BIGGEST QUESTION OF ALL

As I mentioned earlier, many of us seek answers to life's little questions and until a moment of personal crisis we ignore life's BIG questions. However, I believe before we can find answers to life's BIG questions there is one singular question that transcends them all. And that question is:

"Who do you say Jesus is?"

Jesus asked this all-important question to his disciples (Mt 16:13-17), and I believe this is the BIGGEST question we will ever have to answer. Is he just a man? Is he a good, moral teacher? Is he a prophet? Is he a phony? Is he a lunatic? Is he a liar? (HT: C.S. Lewis) Who or what is he? The funny thing is your answer to this question will profoundly impact all the other questions (BIG and small) you have in your life. 

Paul tells us that....

"He is the image of the invisible God..." Colossians 1:15a

The writer of Hebrews says...

"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.." -Hebrews 1:3a

The apostle John writes...

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" -John 1:1, 14 

Blaise Pascal wrote, "Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair." and S.D. Gordon once said, "Jesus is God spelling Himself out in a language that men can understand."  

If you choose to dismiss Jesus, that is certainly your prerogative, and I would completely respect that choice and still love you as a friend. I am not a right-wing nutjob. I am not here to peddle anything. I have no hidden agendas. I'm just a beggar who has found bread, with a great desire to share with others where I found it. If you felt you found a cure for cancer - would you just keep it to yourself? (no pun intended)

My wife Kim and I are blessed with a living hope in a hopeless world and we just want to share it with others. 

If you have not read through the gospel of John, I would encourage you to read through it, before you decide to categorically dismiss all the above. Even the greatest minds this world has ever seen have done this minimal amount of due diligence.

As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. -Albert Einstein

I hope in your quest for the answers to the BIG questions in life you will find an answer. I don't believe God hides from us.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." -Matthew 7:7

He wants us to know Him and He wants us to understand His great love for us and He orchestrates our lives so that we might hear His voice in our hearts and see His face (2 Cor 4:6). He wants us to experience a transcendent peace and an inexpressible joy that only He can give. 

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives." -John 14:27 

"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." -John 10:10

If you are in any way curious to learn more about how to receive true peace and joy and most importantly eternal life through the person of Jesus Christ.than please visit this link: The Bridge to Life. It explains much better than I can the simple path to all the good things God desires for us - and this quest begins and ends with His Son. 

It is as if God the Father is saying to us: "Since I have told you everything in My Word, Who is My Son, I have no other words that can at present say anything or reveal anything to you beyond this. Fix your eyes on Him alone, for in Him I have told you all, revealed all, and in Him you will find more than you desire or ask. If you fix your eyes on Him, you will find everything, for He is My whole word and My reply, He is My whole vision and My whole revelation. -Anthony M. Coniaris

In closing, I want to share with you a brief poem I wrote and a brief video that I put together and posted on FB about a year ago.I think it will sum up much of what I have written over the past three days. The poem is a series of questions and the video is an attempt to answer them. Please feel free to share it with others! Thanks so much for reading this far - and God bless.

What if God?

What if God became a man?
Would he arrive in secret....or announce his coming?
Would he come in riches....or in rags?
Would he appear majestic...or ordinary?
Would he conceal himself...or let us witness?

Would he speak in clichés….or transcendent truth?

Would he be pious….or perfect?

Would he abolish the old….or fulfill it new?

Would he feel what we feel?

Fatigue?

Thirst?

Sorrow?

Pain?

Would he come to be served…or to serve?

Would he demonstrate supremacy over…

Our laws?

Our traditions?

Our sins?

The natural?

The supernatural?

Disease?

Death?

Even his own?

What if we were not good enough to reach God?

Would he be good enough to come to us? 

FYI - click on the full screen arrows icon next to "Vimeo" and turn up sound for full effect.