Einstein on Jesus...

"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."

J. Sidlow Baxter on Jesus...

"Fundamentally, our Lord's message was Himself. He did not come merely to preach a Gospel; He himself is that Gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, "I am the bread." He did not come merely to shed light; He said, "I am the light." He did not come merely to show the door; He said, "I am the door." He did not come merely to name a shepherd; He said, "I am the shepherd." He did not come merely to point the way; He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

James C. Hefley on Jesus...

"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the Child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a Cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was His coat. When He was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Such was His human life—He rises from the dead. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the Centerpiece of the human race and the Leader of the column of progress. I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life."

H.G. Wells on Jesus...

"I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history."

Philip Schaff on Jesus...

"Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander the Great, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of school, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times."

Gandhi on Jesus...

"A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act."

Napoleon on Jesus...

"I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him."

Who is Jesus Christ?

I've been challenged by this question again recently as I've being thinking about what it means to be true to Christ and to have Christ centred communities. The danger with not having a biblical answer to this question is that these phrases can become cool, throw away, catchy strap lines, with no depth, or with distortion, as we don't know fully who Jesus is and what He has done and is currently doing.

Over the summer, a few friends and I have committed to reading the Gospels again with the question 'Who is Jesus Christ?' in mind. We just want to make sure that the Jesus we claim to know, follow and put at the centre, is the Jesus of the bible and not just a figure we have created to meet our own needs.

The amazing thing about Jesus is that he continues to challenge, confuse, offend and inspire people 2,000 years after he walked the earth. It seems that most people have an opinion of him, which are mostly favourable.

Over the next few days and weeks, I'm going to post quotes from different people with their views on who Jesus is to them (http://www.tentmaker.org/Quotes/jesus-christ.htm). My hope is that they will inspire you to think about this person and to heighten your awareness of the fact that Jesus impacts and influences people, even if they wouldn't class themselves as believers and who you think he is, shapes your life.

I'd like to hear your thoughts too!

This is probably THE big question of life!

How do you treat your bible?

"You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of good literature." Mohandas Gandhi

Questions

I have found that most of my life as a christian has involved asking questions, be that either to God or to others. Some of my questions have been answered and others haven't. For a while I thought that questioning things was bad, as either it showed you didn't understand (when it always seemed that everyone else did) or it implied that you were backsliding in your faith. But I love to question things, especially why we do what we do!

This is why I can really relate to Jesus' disciples and am really glad that the writers of the Gospels included the questions they asked in their accounts. These guys were walking with Jesus on a day-to-day basis. They were witnessing first hand his miracles and were getting inside information on his teachings, yet they still had questions. Admittedly, these often seemed to irritate Jesus, yet deep down, I bet that he was glad they were asking them. Why, because it showed they were thinking. It showed they were engaging with what Jesus was doing. It showed they wanted to learn.

For me, being a disciple of Jesus is to be a 'constant learner' (one of the definitions of the word disciple) and to do that, we need to have questions. Not only questions from ourselves, but also of those around us. These may be head questions like "Is there a God?", "What is the Trinity about?" or "Why is there suffering", or they could be heart questions like "Why did my Dad die?" or "Why do my friends hate me?". I believe that if we want to go deeper in our faith, we need to be prepared to ask the tough questions of life to God.

The question I often find myself asking is the same as the one Judas (not Iscariot, but the other one) asks of Jesus in John 14:22;

"Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not the world at large?"

Why did Jesus only reveal himself to a few people when he raised from the dead? Wouldn't it just be easier if he revealed himself to the whole world and then we could get this over with?

I think I'm beginning to see why Jesus has chosen to do it this way, but I am interested to hear what your thoughts are on the matter...

24-7 Prayer Euro Gathering

This October (1st-4th), 24-7 prayer will be having a gathering of people across Europe in Amsterdam to share stories about what God is doing and to unite together in prayer for what is to come! If you want to know more about the event, you can go to http://www.24-7prayer.com/eurogathering.

If you still don't believe me, here's a video to prove it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMZxQIukE4

Hope to see you there!