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MORE THOUGHTS ON THE LIFE OF JESUS - OUR MENTOR
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CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER OF GORDON STIRLING's LECTURE - "The Message and Mission of Churches of Christ in the New Century".
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"A CHURCH WITH A GOSPEL - (continuation of a lecture presented by Gordon Stirling.) - after the first experiences of the presence of the risen Christ, the disciples thought of him as having gone away briefly, but that he would soon return in their lifetime. But, gradually, they realised that while he was gone as a physical presence, he was with them, and in them as a living presence, closer than he had been to them when he was in the flesh. They found him as a companion, a guide and a giver of power and life. Their writings began to be peppered with the phrase "in Christ", describing this close relationship with the living Christ.
In a world where so many suffer from a low sense of self-esteem, loss of self-worth, inhibitions, grief and meaninglessness, we can offer a living saviour who can set us free now from these and other soul-destroying experiences. For, when we call him Saviour, we are not only talking about what happens after the grave. Most moderns aren't interested in looking that far ahead. Today's painful experiences are too absorbing. What they want is a saviour for now.
We have asked young people the question, "Do you accept Jesus Christ as your saviour?" For many of them, "Yes", has meant that they agree to a formula to get them to heaven when they die. But what they needed desperately, and often didn't get, was a saviour who could help them to untie their knotted relationships, to help them to work out their uncertain futures, or to see them through the torture of the discipline required to sort out their moral behaviour.
The resurrection also gives authority to Jesus Christ's lifestyle. This lifestyle is different from the world's way. Modern thinking has little room for such things as grace, forgiveness, unconditional acceptance, peace and justice, the "second mile", turning the other cheek and refusal to sit in judgement on others. For modern people, all that seems too unreal, idealistic and impractical. But every other lifestyle fails. In every newspaper and on T.V. news, there is daily evidence that the opposite to the way of Jesus doesn't work. So, as we go into the new century, we go as a people who practice the presence of the living Christ, demonstrating in our lives the workability of his lifestyle, able to show our friends why this lifestyle makes sense. Not by preaching at them or sitting in judgement upon them, but in having caring dialogue with them.
HERE IS A CHRISTIAN SEARCH ENGINE TO HELP YOU IN YOUR STUDIES ABOUT JESUS
CLICK HERE - TO CONTINUE THIS ARTICLE BY GORDON STIRLING- and then please return to this site.
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