Master 250: Are Jesus' Words Relevant?
Rafting Reflections, Part 3
Is Jesus relevant to your life? Does Jesus have anything to offer your life? Does He have anything to say about your life, or is there anything that He says that touches on some point in your life?
These sorts of questions filled my mind as I interacted with the junior high and high school students at this church youth camp. But let me give a little more background before expanding on that:
When it comes to teaching children or young people, the question often comes up: Are these kids (or students) able to engage seriously with spiritual questions and spiritual matters? Obviously, young people at different stages of cognitive and spiritual development will be able to do so only to varying degrees. Sometimes it is the case that, "We can't really talk about that 'til you're older." In other cases, lack of maturity may just rule out the possibility of "serious discussions." But I do find myself wondering (and I think it's a good thing for all teachers and youth workers to wonder often about) whether kids and students are more ready to have these discussions than we sometimes think.
Here's the big question that comes to my mind: Is it the case that so many children and youth are simply not ready or willing to have conversations about spiritual matters? Or is it the case that the real obstacle to their meaningful and serious engagement with issues related to spirituality lies in our failure (as teachers) to articulate spiritual truths in such a way that the relevance of those truths to the their actual lives is communicated clearly?
Let me step back, again, before continuing. What I've presented here are two possible explanations for the (apparent) lack of engagement with spiritual questions by young people. Obviously there are other answers that one might give or consider. Also, one might simply deny that there actually is any such lack of engagement. But I take it that there are plenty of people (including, parents, church workers, and other concerned adults) who worry that young people simply are not connecting with the values, ideals, and concepts that their devout forbears might take for granted.
The explanation (or, at least, possible contributing cause) of this that I want to consider here is that those of us who would be teaching/educating these young people are not successfully communicating the relevant concepts and ideas to them in terms and vocabulary that they can understand. In suggesting this, I am not trying to lay blame on anyone. Rather, I'm raising the question as a rhetorical device and heuristic in order to get us thinking, again, about our communication styles and their effectiveness.
Consider that, when it comes to raising children, especially through adolescence, there's a constant tension between expecting too little of them and expecting too much of them. At the moment, I'm pulling in one direction, while recognizing that that is only half the story. I'm asking whether we can expect more of our children and youth. If the answer is 'yes,' then we need to get clear on how to go about doing that. It's not enough to just say, "We're going to start expecting more of you." The solution may not lie in just "pushing harder," but rather in "pushing smarter." Perhaps a reevaluation of our communication techniques--the ways in which we go about raising spiritual questions--can do a lot to create greater openness and receptivity to engaging with these topics.
--
What are some things to consider as we go about this? (Eventually we'll get around to taking up the particular questions that I opened with: Is Jesus relevant to your life? etc.)
One thing to consider is that the whole topic of "spiritual questions" may, itself, be standing in our way. I used the expressions "spiritual question(s)" and "spiritual matter(s)" five times in the last section. Did you notice? What ideas or images did those conjure in your mind? What is a "spiritual question"? What is the difference between a "spiritual question" and a "non-spiritual question"? Can you give a clear definition?
What sorts of things would you list under the heading "spiritual"? God? The Bible? Church, angels, heaven, non-material things, eternal things, praying, "spiritual" experiences, meditation, holy things, rituals, fasting, hymns, monasteries, cathedrals, pastors, saints, relics? What sorts of things would you list under the heading "non-spiritual." Your job? Your home? Family, cars, vacations, bills, school, television, the Internet, airplanes, grocery stores, shopping malls, summer barbecues, little leagues, politics, foreign policy, the economy?
If you agree with me that many people would generate lists like these under the headings "spiritual" and "non-spiritual", I hope that you can also see the problem. On this construal, to take up spiritual questions and topics just is to take up things that are completely separate from the issues and concerns that dominate our everyday lives. We may even find ourselves saying things like, "Set aside your job, home-life, medical issues, etc., and focus on God." Properly understood, that's a fine thing to say, but what many people may hear in that is a suggestion to stop thinking about the important and immediate concerns in order to think about something that will only really matter once we've died.
Now some may eagerly point out that, properly understood, there is no such opposition between the spiritual and non-spiritual. And that's quite correct, properly understood. But now consider, have we done the hard work of communicating that to children and youth? Or have the older adults, long-time Christians, and teachers in our churches just continued to throw around "spiritual" language, all-the-while assuming that young people understand what it means when they really don't. Have we taken the time to really explain what we mean by words like, "spiritual"? Do we really understand what that word means, or have we simply become accustomed to using it and responding appropriately to it in certain contexts?
--
The general point is that we need to be very careful about how much we take for granted in our talk about God and Jesus. I think more children and youth than we think are ready to have spiritual conversations, but in order to do that they have to have some command of a body of conceptual vocabulary. [1] Are we making sure that they really understand what we're talking about, or are we only assuming that they do?
I'll talk about "spiritual" as an important vocabulary term in another entry. I'll wrap up this entry by resurfacing the question, "Is Jesus relevant to your life?" How would you answer this question? Does Jesus have anything to offer your life? Do the words He spoke touch relevantly on anything that you're dealing with?
Long-time Christians may jump quickly on this one: "Of course Jesus is relevant. In fact, His teachings and commands should have absolute authority in our lives, governing every choice that we make and how we live every moment of every day." Ah! But there's an awful lot that's being assumed in that response. Do you see that? And especially if people already associate the "spiritual" with a range of matters wholly distinct from the stuff that they deal with on a daily basis, that answer will immediately strike their ear as unconvincing. What can we do to correct this problem?
Here's one suggestion: we can remind our students (and ourselves) that in the case of God's own special self-revelation, even He did not begin by simply asserting His own absolute authority. That might strike some as a surprising claim, but think about it: What concept of God did Abram have at the time that God called Him out of his homeland? It was probably very different from the concept that we have inherited from the five-thousand or so years of subsequent history. Very likely Abram thought that God was just another one of the many deities that populated the spiritual world of the Ancient Near-East. But that Deity made him a promise:
"Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3)
Did Abram know that this was the one true God speaking to Him? Did he know that this was the one who created him and the entire universe? [Did he know that this was the one who, at the end of time, would judge all peoples? Did he know that this was the one against whom he, Abram, had sinned? Did he know that this was the one whose only begotten Son would serve as the propitiation for the sins of all who believe in Him?] Did Abram know that this was the one whom he ought to acknowledge as absolute authority in His life? Probably not.
Abram probably understood little to nothing of what was true about God's nature and character. But He did understand that God was relevant to His life. The words of God pretty clearly had something to do with Abram's life and the things he cared about. Abram cared about his family, about his descendants, about his future, about his well-being later in life and God had things to say about all these matters. But at this early stage, God did not come in with just commands. He came, rather, with an invitation and a promise. He did not say, "Go to a land that I will show you or else I'll punish you." He did not say, "Go to a land that I will show you because I'm your creator and Lord." Instead, He said, "Go to a land that I will show you and I will bless you." It was Abram's choice, to follow God and receive that blessing or else to refuse God and miss out.
God did not begin his relationship with Abram by demanding that he acknowledge Him as Lord of all. Even though He was and is Lord of all, He did not come right out and say that. He did not expect Abram to believe that. Instead, He began a long process of showing Abram who He was and what He was like. Abram decided to follow God's instructions and God took care of Him. In the course of doing so, Abram began to learn a number of things about this God. He learned that He would have to wait on this God's timing. He learned that this God did expect to be able to place obligations on Abram. He learned that this God could touch him wherever He went. But because He chose to be obedient, He also learned that this God is faithful, that this God does keep His promises, that this God could be relied upon to take care of Him.
This progressive self-revelation of God's character continued. God came to Isaac and revealed Himself as the God of Abraham--the God who had been with Abraham and had revealed Himself as faithful and as trustworthy in all these areas of life. (Genesis 26:1ff) God invited Isaac to the same kind of trust in God that Abraham had.
God revealed Himself, then, to Jacob, as the God of Abraham and Isaac--the God who had been with them and who would be with Jacob if he would trust in Him. (Genesis 28:13) Do you see what's going on? He worked in the life of Joseph, one of Jacob's sons as well. The God who is almighty, the God who created the cosmos, the God to whom all are accountable, the God who is sovereign over all things, revealed His character over time in the context of these special relationships.
Jump forward from Joseph, 400 years, and we find the burgeoning nation of Israel in captivity in Egypt and God comes to them. He tells them that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--the God who came to them, was faithful to them, and took care of them. (Exodus 3) He demonstrates His power over Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt by bringing the ten plagues against them. He demonstrates His power over nature by parting the red sea, bringing water from rocks in the desert, and feeding the multitude with both natural and non-natural foods.
It is within this context that God reveals to Moses, from Mt. Sinai, and states clearly and definitively that He is not just one of many gods but the one and only true God. He relates to Moses how He created the world and humankind, how Adam and Eve sinned, the judgment that He visited on the world in the time of Noah and the consequences of the arrogance that came with the Tower of Babel. These records were not just human (in origin), but neither did they simply drop out of heaven. What we see here, instead, is the God whom the people already knew from the experiences of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealing more about His nature and character.
Keep thinking about this with me: Why would the people of Israel take seriously that the history they received from God was the truth? Why would they take seriously (eventually) that this God, alone, was the proper object of their worship and devotion? Why would they take seriously (eventually) that this God, alone, was to be obeyed and could properly claim to have all authority in their lives? Answer: Because God gave them abundant evidence to that effect. He demonstrated, again and again, that He had power over all things political, all things natural, and all things supernatural. No ruler or king could stand up against the God of heaven. No prophet, priest, or spiritual force could stand up against the God of heaven. No famine or plague or other natural disaster was outside of His control. This God revealed to prophets what would happen 500 years in the future, and it happened. When we actually think about all this, it's not surprising at all that they would conclude that the God of heaven, alone, is God. When this God, then, placed demands on people, it was appropriate for them to treat them as having absolute authority. When this God revealed things about the dim, dark past or the far-distant future, it was appropriate for the people to take those statements as true.
How did a man who knew almost nothing about God give rise to an entire nation of people who acknowledged His absolute authority over their lives? Let's be clear on this: this did not come about through their being especially concerned with "spiritual" things. What they experienced was actually God's authority and sovereignty over their very practical concerns. It was precisely God's relevance to the everyday concerns of people that they came to their clear understanding of how He works and His relevance and authority over all areas of life (including the non-physical and the afterlife).
Hopefully this helps us to see that these various dichotomies that we often set up--between the spiritual and non-spiritual, the religious and secular--are false dichotomies. Your job, your home, your family, how you spend your money and your various financial obligations, your entertainment, travel, food and daily needs, friendships, recreational activities, political and cultural involvements--God has things to say about all of these. And the things he says aren't limited to "Do it my way or I'll punish you," or "Do it my way because I have absolute authority." Men and women, throughout history, who have taken seriously what God says about all these things, have found that what He has to say is the best that there is to be found anywhere.
Now, very often, what God has to say about these things runs contrary to conventional wisdom. He says that we should love our enemies, forgive those who hurt us, give generously and even sacrificially, spend lots of time in His word and in prayer, esteem only lightly the opinions of those in power, and always always always speak the truth. People may have a hard time taking these instructions seriously (just as it must have been hard for Abram to take seriously God's instruction to abandon everything that he had ever known and every form of stability and security that he had ever known to go into a foreign country). But what people have learned who have followed God's words (what Abram also learned) is that God really is the only true God, with authority over all things, fully trustworthy, reliable, and good.
--
Now we in the church, today, have inherited this body of knowledge about God's nature and character. We should, unequivocally, preach and proclaim that God is only One, that He is sovereign over all things, that He is the one creator and sustainer of the cosmos, the one righteous judge of all, the one to whom all will be held accountable. But we should not assume that everyone accepts that--that even the "Christians" in our churches take that for granted. We need to help people understand, not only these facts about God, but also His absolute relevance to their everyday lives. After all, if the stuff Jesus says has nothing to do with the stuff that people care about, if what He has to say really doesn't touch on the stuff that people actually have to deal with, can they really be expected to trust that He has things like the afterlife well in hand? As people learn about Jesus' relevance to their lives, as they begin to act in accordance with His instructions and experience how He really has the best things to say about how to live, they will come to acknowledge His absolute authority.
--
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Footnotes hopefully allow me to make qualifying remarks without interrupting the flow of thoughts. Again, I don't think that just clarifying some conceptual and vocabulary issues will make just anyone or everyone more receptive to talking about God and their relationship to Him. People also need to be exposed to the reality of God's work. And they must be willing to open their eyes long enough to see and recognize what is going on all around them. There's a lot more to the story, still. I'm just emphasizing one aspect of that.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
Is Jesus relevant to your life? Does Jesus have anything to offer your life? Does He have anything to say about your life, or is there anything that He says that touches on some point in your life?
These sorts of questions filled my mind as I interacted with the junior high and high school students at this church youth camp. But let me give a little more background before expanding on that:
When it comes to teaching children or young people, the question often comes up: Are these kids (or students) able to engage seriously with spiritual questions and spiritual matters? Obviously, young people at different stages of cognitive and spiritual development will be able to do so only to varying degrees. Sometimes it is the case that, "We can't really talk about that 'til you're older." In other cases, lack of maturity may just rule out the possibility of "serious discussions." But I do find myself wondering (and I think it's a good thing for all teachers and youth workers to wonder often about) whether kids and students are more ready to have these discussions than we sometimes think.
Here's the big question that comes to my mind: Is it the case that so many children and youth are simply not ready or willing to have conversations about spiritual matters? Or is it the case that the real obstacle to their meaningful and serious engagement with issues related to spirituality lies in our failure (as teachers) to articulate spiritual truths in such a way that the relevance of those truths to the their actual lives is communicated clearly?
Let me step back, again, before continuing. What I've presented here are two possible explanations for the (apparent) lack of engagement with spiritual questions by young people. Obviously there are other answers that one might give or consider. Also, one might simply deny that there actually is any such lack of engagement. But I take it that there are plenty of people (including, parents, church workers, and other concerned adults) who worry that young people simply are not connecting with the values, ideals, and concepts that their devout forbears might take for granted.
The explanation (or, at least, possible contributing cause) of this that I want to consider here is that those of us who would be teaching/educating these young people are not successfully communicating the relevant concepts and ideas to them in terms and vocabulary that they can understand. In suggesting this, I am not trying to lay blame on anyone. Rather, I'm raising the question as a rhetorical device and heuristic in order to get us thinking, again, about our communication styles and their effectiveness.
Consider that, when it comes to raising children, especially through adolescence, there's a constant tension between expecting too little of them and expecting too much of them. At the moment, I'm pulling in one direction, while recognizing that that is only half the story. I'm asking whether we can expect more of our children and youth. If the answer is 'yes,' then we need to get clear on how to go about doing that. It's not enough to just say, "We're going to start expecting more of you." The solution may not lie in just "pushing harder," but rather in "pushing smarter." Perhaps a reevaluation of our communication techniques--the ways in which we go about raising spiritual questions--can do a lot to create greater openness and receptivity to engaging with these topics.
--
What are some things to consider as we go about this? (Eventually we'll get around to taking up the particular questions that I opened with: Is Jesus relevant to your life? etc.)
One thing to consider is that the whole topic of "spiritual questions" may, itself, be standing in our way. I used the expressions "spiritual question(s)" and "spiritual matter(s)" five times in the last section. Did you notice? What ideas or images did those conjure in your mind? What is a "spiritual question"? What is the difference between a "spiritual question" and a "non-spiritual question"? Can you give a clear definition?
What sorts of things would you list under the heading "spiritual"? God? The Bible? Church, angels, heaven, non-material things, eternal things, praying, "spiritual" experiences, meditation, holy things, rituals, fasting, hymns, monasteries, cathedrals, pastors, saints, relics? What sorts of things would you list under the heading "non-spiritual." Your job? Your home? Family, cars, vacations, bills, school, television, the Internet, airplanes, grocery stores, shopping malls, summer barbecues, little leagues, politics, foreign policy, the economy?
If you agree with me that many people would generate lists like these under the headings "spiritual" and "non-spiritual", I hope that you can also see the problem. On this construal, to take up spiritual questions and topics just is to take up things that are completely separate from the issues and concerns that dominate our everyday lives. We may even find ourselves saying things like, "Set aside your job, home-life, medical issues, etc., and focus on God." Properly understood, that's a fine thing to say, but what many people may hear in that is a suggestion to stop thinking about the important and immediate concerns in order to think about something that will only really matter once we've died.
Now some may eagerly point out that, properly understood, there is no such opposition between the spiritual and non-spiritual. And that's quite correct, properly understood. But now consider, have we done the hard work of communicating that to children and youth? Or have the older adults, long-time Christians, and teachers in our churches just continued to throw around "spiritual" language, all-the-while assuming that young people understand what it means when they really don't. Have we taken the time to really explain what we mean by words like, "spiritual"? Do we really understand what that word means, or have we simply become accustomed to using it and responding appropriately to it in certain contexts?
--
The general point is that we need to be very careful about how much we take for granted in our talk about God and Jesus. I think more children and youth than we think are ready to have spiritual conversations, but in order to do that they have to have some command of a body of conceptual vocabulary. [1] Are we making sure that they really understand what we're talking about, or are we only assuming that they do?
I'll talk about "spiritual" as an important vocabulary term in another entry. I'll wrap up this entry by resurfacing the question, "Is Jesus relevant to your life?" How would you answer this question? Does Jesus have anything to offer your life? Do the words He spoke touch relevantly on anything that you're dealing with?
Long-time Christians may jump quickly on this one: "Of course Jesus is relevant. In fact, His teachings and commands should have absolute authority in our lives, governing every choice that we make and how we live every moment of every day." Ah! But there's an awful lot that's being assumed in that response. Do you see that? And especially if people already associate the "spiritual" with a range of matters wholly distinct from the stuff that they deal with on a daily basis, that answer will immediately strike their ear as unconvincing. What can we do to correct this problem?
Here's one suggestion: we can remind our students (and ourselves) that in the case of God's own special self-revelation, even He did not begin by simply asserting His own absolute authority. That might strike some as a surprising claim, but think about it: What concept of God did Abram have at the time that God called Him out of his homeland? It was probably very different from the concept that we have inherited from the five-thousand or so years of subsequent history. Very likely Abram thought that God was just another one of the many deities that populated the spiritual world of the Ancient Near-East. But that Deity made him a promise:
"Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3)
Did Abram know that this was the one true God speaking to Him? Did he know that this was the one who created him and the entire universe? [Did he know that this was the one who, at the end of time, would judge all peoples? Did he know that this was the one against whom he, Abram, had sinned? Did he know that this was the one whose only begotten Son would serve as the propitiation for the sins of all who believe in Him?] Did Abram know that this was the one whom he ought to acknowledge as absolute authority in His life? Probably not.
Abram probably understood little to nothing of what was true about God's nature and character. But He did understand that God was relevant to His life. The words of God pretty clearly had something to do with Abram's life and the things he cared about. Abram cared about his family, about his descendants, about his future, about his well-being later in life and God had things to say about all these matters. But at this early stage, God did not come in with just commands. He came, rather, with an invitation and a promise. He did not say, "Go to a land that I will show you or else I'll punish you." He did not say, "Go to a land that I will show you because I'm your creator and Lord." Instead, He said, "Go to a land that I will show you and I will bless you." It was Abram's choice, to follow God and receive that blessing or else to refuse God and miss out.
God did not begin his relationship with Abram by demanding that he acknowledge Him as Lord of all. Even though He was and is Lord of all, He did not come right out and say that. He did not expect Abram to believe that. Instead, He began a long process of showing Abram who He was and what He was like. Abram decided to follow God's instructions and God took care of Him. In the course of doing so, Abram began to learn a number of things about this God. He learned that He would have to wait on this God's timing. He learned that this God did expect to be able to place obligations on Abram. He learned that this God could touch him wherever He went. But because He chose to be obedient, He also learned that this God is faithful, that this God does keep His promises, that this God could be relied upon to take care of Him.
This progressive self-revelation of God's character continued. God came to Isaac and revealed Himself as the God of Abraham--the God who had been with Abraham and had revealed Himself as faithful and as trustworthy in all these areas of life. (Genesis 26:1ff) God invited Isaac to the same kind of trust in God that Abraham had.
God revealed Himself, then, to Jacob, as the God of Abraham and Isaac--the God who had been with them and who would be with Jacob if he would trust in Him. (Genesis 28:13) Do you see what's going on? He worked in the life of Joseph, one of Jacob's sons as well. The God who is almighty, the God who created the cosmos, the God to whom all are accountable, the God who is sovereign over all things, revealed His character over time in the context of these special relationships.
Jump forward from Joseph, 400 years, and we find the burgeoning nation of Israel in captivity in Egypt and God comes to them. He tells them that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--the God who came to them, was faithful to them, and took care of them. (Exodus 3) He demonstrates His power over Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt by bringing the ten plagues against them. He demonstrates His power over nature by parting the red sea, bringing water from rocks in the desert, and feeding the multitude with both natural and non-natural foods.
It is within this context that God reveals to Moses, from Mt. Sinai, and states clearly and definitively that He is not just one of many gods but the one and only true God. He relates to Moses how He created the world and humankind, how Adam and Eve sinned, the judgment that He visited on the world in the time of Noah and the consequences of the arrogance that came with the Tower of Babel. These records were not just human (in origin), but neither did they simply drop out of heaven. What we see here, instead, is the God whom the people already knew from the experiences of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealing more about His nature and character.
Keep thinking about this with me: Why would the people of Israel take seriously that the history they received from God was the truth? Why would they take seriously (eventually) that this God, alone, was the proper object of their worship and devotion? Why would they take seriously (eventually) that this God, alone, was to be obeyed and could properly claim to have all authority in their lives? Answer: Because God gave them abundant evidence to that effect. He demonstrated, again and again, that He had power over all things political, all things natural, and all things supernatural. No ruler or king could stand up against the God of heaven. No prophet, priest, or spiritual force could stand up against the God of heaven. No famine or plague or other natural disaster was outside of His control. This God revealed to prophets what would happen 500 years in the future, and it happened. When we actually think about all this, it's not surprising at all that they would conclude that the God of heaven, alone, is God. When this God, then, placed demands on people, it was appropriate for them to treat them as having absolute authority. When this God revealed things about the dim, dark past or the far-distant future, it was appropriate for the people to take those statements as true.
How did a man who knew almost nothing about God give rise to an entire nation of people who acknowledged His absolute authority over their lives? Let's be clear on this: this did not come about through their being especially concerned with "spiritual" things. What they experienced was actually God's authority and sovereignty over their very practical concerns. It was precisely God's relevance to the everyday concerns of people that they came to their clear understanding of how He works and His relevance and authority over all areas of life (including the non-physical and the afterlife).
Hopefully this helps us to see that these various dichotomies that we often set up--between the spiritual and non-spiritual, the religious and secular--are false dichotomies. Your job, your home, your family, how you spend your money and your various financial obligations, your entertainment, travel, food and daily needs, friendships, recreational activities, political and cultural involvements--God has things to say about all of these. And the things he says aren't limited to "Do it my way or I'll punish you," or "Do it my way because I have absolute authority." Men and women, throughout history, who have taken seriously what God says about all these things, have found that what He has to say is the best that there is to be found anywhere.
Now, very often, what God has to say about these things runs contrary to conventional wisdom. He says that we should love our enemies, forgive those who hurt us, give generously and even sacrificially, spend lots of time in His word and in prayer, esteem only lightly the opinions of those in power, and always always always speak the truth. People may have a hard time taking these instructions seriously (just as it must have been hard for Abram to take seriously God's instruction to abandon everything that he had ever known and every form of stability and security that he had ever known to go into a foreign country). But what people have learned who have followed God's words (what Abram also learned) is that God really is the only true God, with authority over all things, fully trustworthy, reliable, and good.
--
Now we in the church, today, have inherited this body of knowledge about God's nature and character. We should, unequivocally, preach and proclaim that God is only One, that He is sovereign over all things, that He is the one creator and sustainer of the cosmos, the one righteous judge of all, the one to whom all will be held accountable. But we should not assume that everyone accepts that--that even the "Christians" in our churches take that for granted. We need to help people understand, not only these facts about God, but also His absolute relevance to their everyday lives. After all, if the stuff Jesus says has nothing to do with the stuff that people care about, if what He has to say really doesn't touch on the stuff that people actually have to deal with, can they really be expected to trust that He has things like the afterlife well in hand? As people learn about Jesus' relevance to their lives, as they begin to act in accordance with His instructions and experience how He really has the best things to say about how to live, they will come to acknowledge His absolute authority.
--
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Footnotes hopefully allow me to make qualifying remarks without interrupting the flow of thoughts. Again, I don't think that just clarifying some conceptual and vocabulary issues will make just anyone or everyone more receptive to talking about God and their relationship to Him. People also need to be exposed to the reality of God's work. And they must be willing to open their eyes long enough to see and recognize what is going on all around them. There's a lot more to the story, still. I'm just emphasizing one aspect of that.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 12:37 PM
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