2008 Woodie Awards
Christians would be Taught to Apply Jesus's Teachings to Their Life…
Issue date: 2/2/07 Section: Opinion
It's always entertaining to be rolling down the interstate and see the car with the fish on the back bumper that reads "Jesus," the plastic bobble-head of the Redeemer on the dashboard, and the license plate that reads "IMSVDRU" zip by at 90 mph.
Now, some people of this nature (disregard for the law but flashy, outward proclamation of faith) focus so much on "God is my Lord" and how to worship that they forget the very part of the Bible that speaks to superiority of worshippers of God compared to the laws of man. As the story goes, Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's." It is in this respect that the emphasis of worship can sometimes overshadow the need for the Bible as a guide for our life. Because of their good-hearted desire to worship the Word of God, Christians at times do not see that the reason the Word of God can be worshipped, and is worthy to be worshipped, is, in large part, because it reminds us how to live.
People worry about the effects or the means by which God sends us "The Word." It does not matter if God was guiding every letter of the hand of the person that wrote down the messages in the Bible. What matters is that it was written. Why is it any less magnificent to suppose that God created that person of great intelligence, wisdom, and understanding in order that that person could figure out what God's intentions for us were? Sometimes it seems that people want to believe more in magic than in miracles. I once heard creativity defined as the ability to come up with something new given certain guidelines. Could we not surmise that God is more creative than any of us? If we assume this, why does God have to bend the natural order that God created in order to do something spectacular?
There's a line in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis where Aslan (standing as the Jesus figure of the story) asks Lucy, when she reads a spell that makes him become visible when he had been invisible, why she would not expect that he would follow is own natural laws.
It is for this reason that I think that we should put more focus on the parables and the Beatitudes. Many of us do not want to pay close attention to them, for they challenge the way that we like to see ourselves. But these changes are nothing to fear. In fact, adherence to Jesus's teachings and the calmness that comes with the surety of following his advice lead to a more peaceful quality of life.
Now, some people of this nature (disregard for the law but flashy, outward proclamation of faith) focus so much on "God is my Lord" and how to worship that they forget the very part of the Bible that speaks to superiority of worshippers of God compared to the laws of man. As the story goes, Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's." It is in this respect that the emphasis of worship can sometimes overshadow the need for the Bible as a guide for our life. Because of their good-hearted desire to worship the Word of God, Christians at times do not see that the reason the Word of God can be worshipped, and is worthy to be worshipped, is, in large part, because it reminds us how to live.
People worry about the effects or the means by which God sends us "The Word." It does not matter if God was guiding every letter of the hand of the person that wrote down the messages in the Bible. What matters is that it was written. Why is it any less magnificent to suppose that God created that person of great intelligence, wisdom, and understanding in order that that person could figure out what God's intentions for us were? Sometimes it seems that people want to believe more in magic than in miracles. I once heard creativity defined as the ability to come up with something new given certain guidelines. Could we not surmise that God is more creative than any of us? If we assume this, why does God have to bend the natural order that God created in order to do something spectacular?
There's a line in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis where Aslan (standing as the Jesus figure of the story) asks Lucy, when she reads a spell that makes him become visible when he had been invisible, why she would not expect that he would follow is own natural laws.
It is for this reason that I think that we should put more focus on the parables and the Beatitudes. Many of us do not want to pay close attention to them, for they challenge the way that we like to see ourselves. But these changes are nothing to fear. In fact, adherence to Jesus's teachings and the calmness that comes with the surety of following his advice lead to a more peaceful quality of life.
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